By Annika Breidthardt
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Finance Ministry was more involved in the Nazi persecution of Jews than previously known, a commission of historians has found, just weeks after a book revealed German diplomats also played a more active role.
Nazi funds from plundering Jews and other enemies of the state were channelled through the finance ministry and raised at least 30 percent of Wehrmacht -- German army -- funding during the war, according to Hans-Peter Ullmann, a member of the historians' commission investigating the ministry.
Research into the Finance Ministry's past leads right to the core of Adolf Hitler's National Socialist dictatorship, he said in a preliminary report on the commission's work, seen by Reuters Tuesday.
Germany has subjected the Nazi era to intense scrutiny at different stages since 1945, but Ullmann said the role of the finance ministry had long been played down. After the war, the successors to the Nazis had cast it in the light of a "politically neutral administration."
"What was obscured behind that image was the indispensable contribution made by the Reich Finance Ministry towards the functioning, the stability and the criminal policies of the Nazi regime," he said.
Last month, a new book showed Germany's Foreign Office played a far more active role in the Holocaust than previously known, debunking a myth that most diplomats had managed to keep their hands clean.
The latest report also suggested bondholders of German debt were aware their money was being used to further Nazi goals.
"There's a lot to support the argument that depositors knew what their savings were used for," Ullmann said.
The finance ministry raised money for Germany's war effort through taxes, borrowing and theft, he added.
Research on the matter began last year at the behest of previous finance minister Peer Steinbrueck. The commission is expected to need three to four years to complete the task.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
source: http://af.reuters.com
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