Nazi Millionaires

by Kenneth A. Alford

  An inspector with the SD and head of RSHA in Salzburg, Oberstrumbannführer Dr. Franz Josef Hüber, greeted Spacil and his associates and “arranged to care for [their] needs.” The first thing Spacil did was leave his mistress in Salzburg and journey to Bad Ischl to visit his wife. There, Spacil was able to reach Kaltenbrunner by telephone and a brief but vigorous conversation ensued. What was discussed is unknown but it was serious enough to prompt Spacil to jump into his car and drive on to Altaussee to see the RSHA chief personally. Unfortunately, Spacil later reported, “he could see me only briefly.” During that short time Kaltenbrunner heaped additional responsibilities upon Spacil and his adjutant Schiebel, including “distributing food, supplies, money and valuables, clothing, and if possible weapons to the remaining RSHA agents in the Salzburg area.” Boiled down to its coarsest purpose, Kaltenbrunner was attempting to bribe with food, gold, and currency as many officers and soldiers as possible to remain in the so-called Alpine Redoubt area to protect what little was left of the collapsing southern front of the Nazi Reich. Kaltenbrunner hoped Spacil’s effort would buy him time to complete preparations for his own escape which, as it later turned out, was wretchedly planned. According to Spacil, Kalten-brunner’s final vague instructions were that “we should all conduct ourselves in accord with the tactical situation.”6

  On April 23, the bureau chief drove north to Munich, where he met up with Schiebel and his mistress Biesecker. Unable to remain there, the trio braved the roads again and drove back to Salzburg, where on April 24 Spacil attended a series of meetings with a variety of high ranking RSHA officials including two of Kaltenbrunner’s primary subordinates, Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller and Oberführer Friedrich Panzinger, the head of Bureau III (the criminal police). Although no one noted it for posterity’s sake, the morale at the meetings could only have been low. The prime topic of discussion was how to safely and thoroughly evacuate the region in the face of the advancing Allies. The most secure area seemed to be the few square miles surrounding Zell am See. Spacil ordered Pfeiler, his securities expert, to establish a pair of stations there, three miles apart. Spacil’s financial Alpine Redoubt strategy involved housing the bulk of the Heiliger loot in one station, while the other served as a paying post to purchase equipment and other necessaries, pay soldiers and others, and thus sustain the war effort. Communications between the posts would be carried out by motorcycle. It was a clever arrangement. Even if the pay station fell into the hands of the rapidly advancing enemy, Spacil and his agents would have advance warning and thus time to salvage the bulk of the valuables stored at the main cache. Pfeiler arranged for the loot to be hauled from Salzburg to Breitweis with trucks. Spacil, meanwhile, turned his attention to other pressing concerns. Long hours were spent driving to one point after another in order to meet with a variety of officers and key civilian leaders.7

  Exhausted and overwhelmed by his myriad of duties, Spacil arrived back in Salzburg on April 25. By this time many RSHA personnel knew that the head of Bureau II was in the area and flush with RSHA wealth. “[I] was besieged by requests for supplies, money, and quarters, most of them impossible to fulfill,” Spacil later recalled. The following day, he ordered SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Schuler, a high-level administrator associated with Bureau VI, to turn over 5,000 carats of cut and uncut diamonds and foreign securities to SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny’s headquarters were at Radstadt, Austria, on the Enns River some twenty miles south of Salzburg and fifteen miles east of Zell am See. Skorzeny had recently been appointed head of Bureau VI, Mil D, and placed in charge of Military Intelligence for the last ditch effort to continue Nazi resistance in the Alps. As Spacil was well aware, Skorzeny was valiantly trying to keep his men in the ranks and in some semblance of military order to slow down the advancing Russians. If anyone could accomplish the impossible it was Skorzeny. The indefatigable and brave SS man was one of Hitler’s personal favorites, a hero whose name and exploits were well-known in both German and Allied circles. His forte was special operations. Skorzeny was the mastermind behind the daring rescue of Italy’s dictator, Benito Mussolini. On September 13, 1943, he had heroically kidnapped the leader from his holding place at Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi Mountains in central Italy. Other special operations in Hungary and the Ardennes later in the war, coupled with his unwavering loyalty to Hitler, redounded to the benefit of his military career. By 1945 he had become one of the most popular men in Germany. None of this made a bit of difference to Captain Schuler. The bureaucrat departed Spacil’s temporary headquarters bound for Radstadt. He never arrived. The heavyset distinctive looking blonde officer (he had not a single eyebrow hair) was last reported in Innsbruck a few days later. Neither he nor the fortune in diamonds were ever seen again.8

  Schuler’s treacherous actions struck a blow against Skorzeny’s efforts to keep his SS men in the field. He needed supplies to feed his men and money to keep them fighting; he had few of the former and had exhausted the latter. Skorzeny could not afford to wait long for the missing Captain Schuler. Twenty-four hours after he expected the captain’s arrival, Skorzeny dispatched his staffer, Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Radl, to Salzburg with orders to tap into Spacil’s Heiliger account. Spacil steadfastly refused to believe that Schuler had absconded with the jewels. Armed with his orders, Radl adamantly demanded 2,000,000 Reichsmarks in foreign exchange. “Impossible!” shouted Spacil, dismissing the request out of hand. Spacil was schooled deeply in Nazi bureau politics, however, and the last thing he wanted was to be tagged by history as the man responsible for Skorzeny’s collapse. He appreciated the commando’s tenuous situation. Yielding, Spacil offered Radl 50,000 gold francs stuffed into a pair of jute sacks. Radl promptly accepted. The officer was climbing into his car when the still optimistic Spacil told him “to expect Schuler with additional funds.”9

  Reconstructing exactly what transpired next within Spacil’s sphere of influence, and the sequence of these events, is an extremely difficult task. Contradictory testimony, the general confusion of the final few days of the war, and the passage of more than half a century has muddled things considerably. Indeed, we will never know exactly how much money was distributed during the closing days of the war, who received it, and its ultimate fate. Much of the confusion surrounding when a particular cache of loot was buried, who concealed it, and where it was hidden is the result of a disinformation campaign undertaken by many of the key players in this drama. Postwar interviews and interrogations are replete with wrong names, dates, and places. Few were willing to openly admit their full involvement in transporting and hiding gold and other valuables stolen from their rightful owners—many of whom had been murdered in cold blood. Most of the primary participants were members of the SS who worked for the RSHA—constituents of a notorious order employed by a criminal organization operating within a criminal state. Few men proudly admitted as much after the surrender. Most appreciated that they would be arrested when the war ended, which was why so many cloaked themselves in new identities in an effort to escape detention. Thankfully, enough credible evidence courses through the documentation to allow us to construct a general framework of understanding of what took place.10

  There are few places in the world more lovely in late April than Salzburg, Austria. But in 1945, Spacil could have come up with many other adjectives to describe the medieval city. His final three days of the month there were a nightmare punctuated with extreme chaos, a lack of rest, and a multitude of requests for everything—currency, gold, diamonds, food, ammunition, weapons. He knew he had to parcel out his wealth carefully, and he did the best he could given the deteriorating circumstances. Much of what was asked for—or, as in Captain Radl’s case, demanded—was simply beyond his power to provide. Spacil’s life was about to get even more complicated.

  On the last day of the month Spacil drove to Bad Ischl, where he paid his wife a brief visit. Another telephone conference with Kaltenbrunner awaited his return. The discussion, he later re
membered, was “very unsatisfactory.” Once again we do not know exactly what the two men discussed, but it is not difficult to speculate as to the general gist of the conversation. The war was lost, both men knew it, both were under increasing stress, and both were linked, directly or indirectly, to a whole host of war crimes—Kaltenbrunner especially. The call convinced Spacil to again jump into his car and drive to Altaussee to meet with the head of the RSHA in person. Kaltenbrunner, however, was mired in a conference and unable to see him until 12:30 a.m. on May 1. The drive was for nothing. “I have no further information or instructions!” replied the testy giant when Spacil inquired as to his duties. When he tried to fill in his superior with data as to what he had thus far accomplished, Kaltenbrunner snapped back, “Spacil! I have no time for details!” Spacil never saw the RSHA chief again.11

  Good bureaucrat that he was, Spacil continued carrying out duties that his boss now cared little about. The pace was frenetic. By 9:00 a.m. on May 1 he was back in Salzburg. There, to his dismay, he learned what had happened with Pfeiler, the securities expert he had entrusted many days earlier with a truck full of valuables and orders to establish a pair of stations in the Zell am See area. For reasons that remain unclear, Pfeiler reached the area but did nothing thereafter. Perhaps the proximity of Americans forces unnerved him; perhaps he simply did not work well when discretion and initiative were demanded. Spacil ordered Pfeiler to turn over the truck filled with gold and currency to another officer and member of Bureau II, Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant) Menzel, who was told to safeguard the loot until further orders.12

  After dismissing Pfeiler and safeguarding what was left of the Heiliger Account, Spacil drove to Wald in Pinzgau, where he conferred with Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Fichtner, the head of a Bureau II depot, regarding the transfer of goods from various places in Austria and the hiding of valuables. Their talk was interrupted by a crackling radio message at 10:00 p.m. announcing the news that their beloved Führer, Adolf Hitler, was dead. Any doubts Spacil may have been harboring about the war’s outcome were forever shattered that evening. As midnight approached the fatigued officer climbed back into his car for the drive back to Salzburg. There, on May 2, he reported to one of Kaltenbrunner’s primary subordinates, Oberführer Panzinger, the head of the criminal police. If he was hoping for some guidance in his duties he was once again disappointed. Panzinger waved Spacil away. Report to Kaltenbrunner “for further instructions” was his only and utterly unhelpful response.13

  Bouncing back and forth like a yo-yo, without much direction or accomplishment, Spacil conscientiously drove back to Altaussee. One can only imagine his mounting frustration when he scribbled in his diary the five words, “unable to see the Chief.” Kaltenbrunner’s adjutant, remembered Spacil, told him that “the Chief would [not] be available at Bad Alt-Aussee until further notice,” and that “he had no further instructions.” Another nighttime drive back to Salzburg via Bad Ischl awaited Spacil. He stopped in the latter village to see his wife and throw down a cup of tea before resuming his drive to Salzburg, which he reached about 9:00 a.m. After a brief rest he reported again to Panzinger. Spacil summed up his meeting with the Gestapo officer in a single word: “Indecision.” There was a good reason the Oberführer was deep in the grips of vacillation. His world was crumbling around him and he was trapped in Austria, the Americans on one side and the dreaded Russians on the other. Like Kaltenbrunner, Panzinger knew he was a wanted man. The Russians were not about to forget his merciless actions in the Baltic region earlier in the war. More likely than not they were already measuring his thick neck for a noose. If he fell into American hands they surely would turn him over to their Russian allies. Unwilling to waste more time with Panzinger, Spacil hastened back to Taxenbach “to expedite the burying of the treasure.” He was relieved somewhat when he learned that the work there “was already in progress.” Meanwhile, he noted, “It had been decided to remove the RSHA headquarters for the Southern area to Zell am See, since the enemy was approaching Salzburg.”14

  The “work in progress” to which Spacil referred was the effort to arrange for the burial of the gold, currency, and other valuables he had originally intended to use to establish the pair of stations around Zell am See. The situation was collapsing too quickly now to bother with the stations. Spacil was enough of a bureaucrat to know that his job responsibilities had changed. He now had to make sure what was left of the Heiliger account was hidden from the Allies, and yet readily available should something transpire to radically alter the course of the closing hours of the war. He stopped his car outside Taxenbach at Pulzel’s sawmill and climbed out, surveying the wooded and hilly landscape. The remote site had recently been selected for a new depot by Sturmbannführer (Major) Schuster, a Bureau II administrative officer and one of Spacil’s key subordinates. According to Schuster, Spacil asked him “where two or three reliable men could be found for the purpose of hiding a treasure.” Schuster provided him with two names. “Wimmer,” a Volkssturm official from Zell am See, and SA member “Reisinger,” a forester and Ortsgruppenleiter of Taxenbach. Later, probably that same day, Schuster introduced Spacil to his deputy, SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Albert Apfelbeck, a Bureau II depot leader. Earlier in the war Apfelbeck had suffered a serious skull injury in a motor accident and been assigned a non-combat role in the RSHA bureaucracy. Spacil needed him “to report the location of [each] cache.” He was also to establish a chain of agents for each group of valuables to make it more difficult for the Allies to locate all of them should any one person be arrested and spill the beans during an interrogation. Spacil returned to Taxenbach satisfied each man understood his assignment.15

  Time was running out for Spacil and others of his ilk. Despite Kaltenbrunner’s earlier order and Spacil’s best efforts, men of every rank were dispersing to the winds; command and control had all but ceased to exist. While Schuster was making arrangements to receive the bulk of the Heiliger Account at Pulzel’s sawmill, Spacil drove on to Zell am See late on May 3. The entire area was awash in chaos. “The Staff had been dissolved and was strewn to the wind,” he lamented. When he asked officers about the new plan to relocate RSHA headquarters in Zell am See, no one seemed to know about it. Indeed, “no one said anything about the plans of the day before.” Spacil tried to get in touch with other commanders operating in the area, including Brigadeführer Karl Schultz, the former head of Bureau I in 1943. Even that proved impossible because no one seemed to know where his headquarters was located. Even more alarming was the sight of hundreds of soldiers, some armed, some not, marching along the snowy roads in melancholy silence. No one seemed to be in charge anywhere. Refugees, burdened with what few belongings were left to them, added to the disorder clogging the roadways. The situation was spiraling out of control. Unable to accomplish anything in Zell am See, Spacil returned through Taxenbach and arrived late that night in St Johann, where he found Dr. Hüber and Salzburg Gauleiter Gustav Scheel deep in a conference that did not end until just before 1:00 a.m. on the morning of May 4. Hüber, remembered Spacil, “explained the general situation,” which was little short of catastrophic. American forces, moving in from the west and north, had or were about to capture Salzburg and much of the surrounding area. Innsbruck to the southeast was lost. Berchtesgaden, the Führer’s mountain retreat in the deep southern tip of Germany, was being looted by ecstatic GIs. Vienna and much of Austria’s northeastern quadrant was in Russian hands. The news was even worse than Spacil and his comrades knew. Within a few hours Hitler’s designated successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz, would surrender the Netherlands, Denmark, and northwestern Germany to the British.16

  With Salzburg in the hands of the Americans, Spacil drove back to Taxenbach at 3:00 a.m. He made the place his “CP [Command Post] from then on.” A quick side trip to Zell am See produced “no information.” The next day, May 5, Captain Fichtner, the head of a Bureau II depot, arrived in Taxenbach for a conference with Spacil. We made a “decision,” explained Spacil, probabl
y relieved that something approaching a plan was finally in the works. “In case of the approach of the enemy, either over the Gerlos Pass [at the eastern end of the Tirol leading into the Salzburg province] or over the Pass Thum [leading down in the valley of Brucht] we would turn over the contents of the depot to the Bürgermeister. In that case officers and men were to be regarded as discharged, since I could give no further instructions and the Chief [Kaltenbrunner] was no [longer] available.” The universe available within which the Germans could operate freely was shrinking by the hour.17

  May 5 was both an interesting and vexing day for Spacil. He drove to meet SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Franz Konrad at a small inn in the Alpine village of Mittersill near Taxenbach. The SS captain, it will be recalled, was a member of General Fegelein’s staff and had been posted in Warsaw, where he earned his keep stealing homes and valuables from Jews slated for deportation to the death camps. Konrad’s most recent posting was at Fischhorn castle. Parked about 100 yards from the inn on the left side of the road was a five-ton diesel truck. Spacil opened the back of the vehicle and pulled out 5,000 Swiss francs, about $1,000 in U.S. currency, and 500,000 Reichsmarks. But Konrad also wanted gold—and he had good reason to believe Spacil had access to a healthy supply of the precious metal. A few days earlier an officer dressed in “civilian clothing” had arrived at Fischhorn castle in search of Spacil. Konrad told him that Spacil was not there, but that he occasionally made an appearance. Frustrated, the officer handed Konrad an unsealed letter marked “Top Secret” and walked away. According to Konrad, the letter confirmed that Spacil had in his possession 28,000,000 Reichsmarks and 100,000 gold franc coins. Konrad’s attempt to extract gold ended in failure. The coins, Spacil told him, had already been dispersed.18