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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lizjewel, post: 4087099, member: 13874&quot;][/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>[USER=29]@Ownedbybear[/USER]&nbsp; Not to mix up the wars and reparations here, but I did <i>not</i> mean WW II in this example even if similar programs were in effect then too, see later in this post.</p><p><br /></p><p>After World War ONE, massive aids to shore up the infrastructure in the new country Czechoslovakia and also Germany came from the Allies.</p><p><br /></p><p>One part was to ship goods in the raw to manufacture finished products for sale in the Allied countries.</p><p><br /></p><p>The U.S. c.j. industry was called upon to assist. Tons of findings, components, including brass stampings, went to these countries c.j. assembly industries to help widows and children have jobs to survive.</p><p><br /></p><p>A similar program was also in place for WEST GERMANY and FRANCE after World War TWO.</p><p><br /></p><p>Part of the socalled &quot;war reparations&quot;, i e, to repay loans owed Allies was sending finished manufactured products back to the U.S. and other Allies.</p><p><br /></p><p>F ex Denmark sent cheese, hams, Poland and Germany sent pork, mustard, jams, jellies, noodles, other food products, all as repayment to the Allies for ending the war.</p><p><br /></p><p>And, yes, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, and Sudetenland supplied finished jewelry product embellished with the <i>strass</i>, rhinestones they were known for, and of which they had huge supplies even after WW II.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Allies never bombed the <b>Svarowski </b>factories, btw, even when they made product for the Nazis they were obviously forced to do while Austria was occupied.</p><p><br /></p><p>That industry was deemed t<i>oo valuable to blow to bits</i> and the Allied command had a <i>hands-off</i> policy on them. This was told to me personally by one American veteran costume jewelry manufacturer who flew in missions over those areas in WW II. His name is Don Hobé, of Hobé Jewelry, now retired. He was a lecturer at one of the jewelry conventions in RI, seen here with one of the Convention participants:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]329459[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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