Two weeks before the conference, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had made an impassioned plea to the Swiss parliament concerning their dealings in looted Nazi gold. ‘If we are not to reflect on the mistakes of the past,’ she said, ‘we cannot shrink from any aspect of the truth of the past. The more nations and people are willing to face the truth openly and without fear, the sooner we will be able to move forward. We strive, then, not for perfect justice, which is beyond our power, but the best possible justice which is within our power to achieve.’
In our paper we exhorted Secretary Albright to ensure that America did the same.
On the first day of the conference Robin Cook announced that a new compensation fund was to be opened for Holocaust survivors. The suggestion was that countries who had a claim against the 5.5 tonnes of looted gold still held by the TGC could contribute the gold value of their claim to the new fund, if they so wished. Britain would give £1 million, Cook announced. The US then announced a payment of $4 million, with another $21 million to follow subject to Congressional approval. Other pledges were made by a small number of participating government although, six months later, no further amounts had been received.
Following the announcement of the Nazi Persecution Account we put forward a proposal to the TGC which we felt could hugely benefit the fund. It had already been acknowledged that the two bars which had been ‘lost’ for 50 years were most probably the only two in existence still bearing forged Nazi markings. We therefore suggested to the TGC that, since these bars were not only representative of the two decades we had spent searching for them to prove our point but also a practical symbol of the final exorcism of a quantity of metal which had sustained the war effort of Nazi Germany, there was an opportunity to transform this legacy of evil into a positive and tangible benefit for the victims of that legacy. In short, we proposed that we, with independent funding, would acquire the two bars at the prevailing market rate and auction it at the highest price. We believed that, having regard to the ultimate objective of assigning the profit to the new fund, substantial bids would be easily attainable, as other similar charity auctions had proved. Unfortunately, that was not to be and in March 1998 we learned that the British, US and French governments had rejected our proposal.
The forum on Nazi gold was not only historically interesting but – as Under-Secretary Eizenstat put it in his closing statement – ‘a landmark event along the road of coming to terms with this painful period of history and doing justice for its victims’. The 41 participating countries shared an enormous amount of information on the subject, and we were pleased to note that our endeavours had begun to filter through – as can be seen from further comments in Eizenstat’s closing address.
‘We urge nations represented at this conference to immediately declassify and open the records of their respective intelligence agencies bearing on Nazi gold issues. As we have called on other nations to examine honestly and fully their pasts, I want to assure you that the United States will continue to do the same. We will continue to fully review the policies and activities of US government entities which played a part in the tracking, collection and disposition of Nazi gold after the war.’
It seemed that, at long last, the US government were about to embark on a long overdue programme. However, when we began our own investigation more than two decades ago we were still able to produce the wealth of first-hand eye-witness testimony that crams the pages of Nazi Gold and now no longer exists. Even as we progressed, valuable and irreplaceable investigative dossiers were being shredded, as our readers know. Will the US initiative overcome these problems or will it fade into obscurity after the flashlight of publicity has long since disappeared? Is there the same determination to reveal US incompetence and wrongdoing as there was for the Swiss? These are some of the questions which must be answered.
There was, however, one ray of sunshine in this otherwise murky affair. On 11 December 1997 Ian Sayer was invited to the Bank of England at the behest of the Secretary General of the Tripartite Gold Commission. He was to receive the rare honour of being one of a select band of individuals permitted to visit the gold bullion vaults. After 24 years he was able to hold ‘our two bars’ in his hands. One of them appears on the front cover of this edition of Nazi Gold. Could we be coming to the end of our quest?
In the meantime, as the Foreign Office put it, ‘the story of the search for Nazi gold is fraught with dead-ends and misleading trails’. However, we shall take our leave of you now with the concluding sentence in Gold is Where You Hide It: ‘What awaits us may be yet another chapter, but never an ending, to this infinite tale. No, never an ending.’
Sources
Chapter 1
Page
23 ‘950 Flying Fortress bombers’ Roger A. Freeman: Mighty Eighth War Diary, pp. 432–3 (London, 1981)
24 ‘The city was ravaged’ For eye-witness accounts of the aftermath of the raid, see Ursula von Kardorff: Diary of a Nightmare (London, 1962) Ruth Andreas-Friedrich: Berlin Underground (London, 1948)
24 ‘Photographs taken during the day’ Reproduced in Rolf Italiaander: Berlins Stunde Null 1945 (Düsseldorf, 1979) Gerhard Kiersch: Berliner Alltag im Dritten Reich (Düsseldorf, 1979)
24 ‘“Indescribable scenes occurred in Berlin”’ Quoted in Hans Dollinger: The Decline and Fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan (London, 1968)
25 ‘The People’s Court’ Fabian von Schlabrendorff: The Secret War Against Hitler, p.325 (London, 1966)
25 ‘“I have just this minute taken refuge . . .”’ Martin Bormann: The Bormann Letters (London, 1954)
25 ‘“drop bombs into a pickle barrel Freeman”: op. cit.
26 ‘“It was only by a miracle . . .”’ Trial of the Major War Criminals at Nuremberg (HMSO, 23 vols, London, 1946-51)
27 ‘Puhl was a banker of the old school’ Major C. S. G. Bach: In Search of the Reichsbank (Ministerial Collecting Centre, Control Commission for Germany, 30 June 1945) James Stewart Martin: All Honourable Men, p. 118 (Boston, 1950)
28 ‘Aktion Reinhardt’ Trial of the Major War Criminals at Nuremberg vol. 21, p. 232
28 ‘Bank for International Settlements’ Martin: op. cit., 1). 131
28 ‘a very extensive potassium mine at Merkers’ For accounts of Merkers, see Lt-Col. Carl L. Morris: 65-page Report on Merkers Find (SHAEF, April 1945) R. A. Nixon: Report on Recovery of Reichsbank Precious Metals (HQ US Group Control Council, Finance Division, 6 September 1945) Earl F. Ziemke: The US Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–6 (Army Historical Series, Washington, 1975) Sunday Express, London, 8 April 1945 Daily Telegraph, London, 9 April 1945 Stars and Stripes, Paris, 11 April 1945, 4, 20 and 22 June 1945 Robert Reed: War Report No. N143 (BBC German Service, 8 April 1945)
29 ‘“One could tear one’s hair”’ Joseph Goebbels: The Goebbels Diaries: The Last Days (London, 1979)
29 ‘the accidental discovery of the mine’ There are several differing versions of the Merkers discovery. Not even the Supreme Commander’s is entirely accurate. The definitive description is contained in Morris: op. cit.
30 ‘a Dr Werner Veick’ Stars and Stripes: op. cit.
31 ‘the value of the gold’ R. A. Nixon: Report on recovery of Reichsbank Precious Metals; op. cit.
32 ‘“The party was ushered into a primitive freight hoist”’ Charles R. Codman: Drive p. 281 (Boston, 1957)
32 ‘“Jesus Christ!”’ Ziemke: op. cit.
32 ‘“The ones I saw”’ George S. Patton: War As I Knew It (Boston, 1947)
32 ‘“I doubt,” interjected General Bradley’ Gen. Omar N. Bradley: A Soldier’s Story p. 540 (London, 1951)
Chapter 2
34 ‘“Sad news from Mühlhausen”’ Goebbels: op. cit., p. 321
34 ‘Friedrich Josef Rauch’ Biographical details and quoted letters and documents from Berlin Document Centre. For Rauch’s role as Hitler’s security officer, see Peter Hoffmann: Hitler’s Personal Security, p. 1173 (London, 1979)
34 ‘“
Even as a boy . . .”’ Berlin Document Centre: op. cit. (Berlin, 26 November 1940)
35 ‘“The morale in the unit is fabulous”’ Berlin Document Centre: op. cit. (Romania, 15 March 1941)
35 ‘“Rauch has proved himself first rate.”’ Berlin Document Centre: op. cit. (Berlin, 27 July 1941)
36 ‘“I nominate you, Friedrich Rauch”’ Berlin Document Centre: op. cit. (Berlin, 20 April 1944)
36 ‘Rauch put his idea . . . Dr Lammers’ Major Lionel C. Perera, Chief Mil. Govt. Finance Officer, HQ, 3rd US Army, G-5 Section: Interrogation Report on Fritz Rauch (Bad Tölz, 4 July 1945)
36 ‘an Alpine Fortress’ See Rodney G. Minott: The Fortress That Never Was (New York, 1965)
37 ‘Hotel Maison Rouge in Strasbourg’ Simon Wiesenthal: The Murderers Among Us (London, 1969) Antony Terry: Operation Odessa (Internal memorandum to Sunday Times Insight Team, London, 20 February 1968)
37 ‘By the spring of 1945’ Wiesenthal: op. cit.
37 ‘one document purporting to list RSHA treasure’ Wiesenthal: op. cit.
38 ‘Rauch always insisted’ Perera: op. cit.
38 ‘The Führer figure that presented itself’ James O’Donnell: The Berlin Bunker (London, 1979) Hugh Trevor-Roper: The Last Days of Hitler (London, 1981)
38 ‘Rauch might hand over all the reserves to Bavarian separatists’ Perera: op. cit.
28 ‘The closing balance of the Berlin Reichsbank’s Precious Metal Department’ Nixon: op. cit.
40 ‘At two different stations in the southern suburbs’ Kriminalabteilung beim Präsidium der Bayerischen Landpolizei: Final Report – Gold and Foreign Currency Assets of the Former German Reichsbank (Munich, January 1953) (hereafter referred to as Munich CID Report)
40 ‘“Two special trains”’ Office of Strategic Services: Secret Report No. GB 4690.Source Z Liberation (Austria, 20 April 1915)
41 ‘OSS team code named GREENUP’ A. Cave-Brown: The Secret War Diary of the OSS (New York, 1977)
42 ‘the gold convoy’ Munich CID Report Gottfried Arendt: Report Concerning the Transfer of Valuables from Berlin to Munlch (April 1945)
43 ‘the treasure was believed to consist of’ Munich CID Report
43 ‘The convoy trundled on’ Henriette von Schirach: The Price of Glory (London, 1960)
See also her article ‘Wo blieb das Gold der Reichsbank?’ (Wochenend, Nuremberg, 5 October 1950)
44 ‘the trains Adler and Dohle’ Munich CID Report
44 ‘25 boxes containing 100 bars of gold bullion’ Munich CID Report
45 ‘the erratic behaviour of the Führer’ See, among others James O’Donnell: The Berlin Bunker Hugh Trevor-Roper: The Last Days of Hitler
45 ‘Bormann intimated that the departure was scheduled for 22 April’ Paul Manning: Martin Bormann – Nazi in Exile (Secaucus, 1981) Jochen von Lang: Bormann (London, 1970)
46 ‘he finally broke down’ Trevor-Roper: op. cit. O’Donnell: op. cit.
46 ‘the Chancellery staff took off in ten aircraft’ O’Donnell: op. cit.
46 ‘One of these aircraft was shot down’ O’Donnell: op. cit.
47 ‘According to a SHAEF report’ Rona L. Geib: Currency sent from the Reichsbank, Berlin to Southern Germany in April 1945 (FED, Frankfurt, 1947) Record Group 9404060 168 2/11
47 ‘Dr Österreich’ Munich CID Report: op. cit. It is possible that this is the same Dr Österreich who was the author of an official Nazi biography of Funk (according to Funk’s testimony at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial). He may have taken the Swiss francs at Funk’s request – it is worth noting that Funk was later to ask for a further quantity of Swiss francs from the Reichsbank foreign currency reserves to be placed at his disposal (see here)
47 ‘SS Brigadier General Josef Spacil’ Robert A. Gutirrez (CIC Detachment 970–45) and William J. Connor (M 11 Team 466-G): Memo to 307th CIC Detachment, HQ 7th Army: Interrogation of Wilhelm [sic] Spacil, Head of Amt II RSHA and Hitler – his Diaries, Relics and Buried RSHA Assets (27 July 1945) Also: Statement taken from Josef Spacil at Military Government HQ Salzburg on 25 August 1945 in the presence of Capt. McNally, Det. Sgt Chadburn and Chief Inspector W. Rudkin Special Investigation Squad, CIC Detachment 970: Memo on ownership and disposal of effects recovered as result of interrogation of William Spacil (4 February 1946)
48 ‘At Fischhorn Castle’ Glen B. Infield: Secrets of the SS (Chapter 17, Missing Nazi Treasure) (New York, 1982)
48 ‘Disguised as an SS corporal named Gruber’ Spacil file: op. cit. US Army Intelligence Centre: History of the Counter Intelligence Corps, vol. XXVI – CIC in the Occupation of Germany (Fort Holabird, Baltimore, 1959)
49 “a fanatical Nazi named Josef Spacil”’ History of the CIC: op. cit.
49 ‘On 9 June 1945 Lieutenant Nacke’ Spacil file: op. cit.
49 ‘“Then you must be the guy” Glenn B. Infield: Otto Skorzeny – Hitler’s Commando (New York, 1981)
50 ‘He talked freely about professional business’ US Army Intelligence Centre: History of the Counter Intelligence Corps, vol. XXV – The Occupation of Austria and Italy (Fort Holabird, Baltimore, 1959)
50 ‘at Nuremberg and at Dachau’ Infield: op. cit. See also: Charles Foley: Commando Extraordinary (London, 1954)
50 ‘Reichsbank officials holding keys’ Board for Valuation of German Bonds in the United States: Decision and Opinion in the Matter of the Registration by Mr João Mendes Lyra [of Bonds] (Decision No. 58, Opinion No. 58, 26 February 1960) Lorana Sullivan: The Weimar Bonds That Won’t Go Away (Observer, London, 21 November 1982) Antony Terry, Phillip Knightley and Stephen Fay: Soviet Agents Try to Cache 27 Million German War Loot Bonds (Sunday Times, London, 31 January 1971) Nixon: op. cit.
51 ‘Herman William Brann’ Board for Valuation: op. cit. Sullivan: op. cit.
52 ‘In March 1979 three men were tried’ Reuters: 6 April 1977 The Brantford Expositor: 6 April 1977-1 June 1977
52 ‘Signal Life’ Board of Valuation: op, cit. Sullivan: op. cit.
52 ‘Great Train Robbery’ Piers Paul Read: The Train Robbers (London, 1978)
53 ‘Captain John Taylor and Captain Olivier La Buze’ C. R. Boxer: ‘The Count of Ericeira and the Pirates, 1721–2’ (History Today, London, December 1974) H. Deschamps: Les Pirates à Madagascar aux XVII et XVIII Siècles (Paris, 1949)
Chapter 3
54 ‘At Walchensee the Post Hotel’ Jürgen Bungert and Armin Walter: Das Gold, die Nacht under der Nebel (in Bild am Sonntag, Hamburg, 2 June 1974)
54 ‘German mountain or Alpine troops’ James Lucas: Alpine Elite (London, 1980) Bruce Quarrie: German Mountain Troops (Cambridge, 1982)
55 ‘Colonel Franz Wilhelm Pfeiffer’ Interviews with Pfeiffer in Munich on 22 May 1974, 29 May 1978, 19 September 1982
55 ‘“Day after day, in countless battles”’ Helmuth Spacter: Die Brandenburger (Munich, 1982)
56 ‘“Gentlemen,” Pfieiffer announced gravely’ Jürgen Bungert and Armin Walter: Das Gold, die Nacht und der Nebel (Bild am Sonntag, Hamburg, 26 May 1974) Albrecht Wieland: Der Schatz am Walchensee (Wochenend, 1952)
56 ‘Once a new Bavarian State had been formed’ Bungert and Walter: op. cit. 26 May 1974 Wieland: op. cit.
57 ‘A space for the treasure had been cleared,’ For accounts of the handling of the Reichsbank treasure in Mittenwald see Bungert, Moss, Munich CID Report, Wie land, Schirach, Neuhauser interview, Pfeiffer interviews, Turicum Report
58 ‘“Push on and push hard”’ John Frayn Turner and Robert Jackson: Destination Berchtesgaden (London, 1975)
58 ‘“fantasy of violence and speed”’ 7th Army: After Action Report, vol. iii, p. 831 (Heidelberg, 1946)
58 ‘On 24 April Colonel Hörl’ For local military situation at end of war, see manuscript report by Colonel Hörl on events of April 1945 in files of Münchner Merkur; diary of Lt Hubert Gais (typescript, Garmisch, 15 May 1945) Col. Michael Pössinger – articles in the Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt, 29 April 1970 (‘Das Schicksal des Wardenfelser Landes hing an einem Haar’
) 24 April 1975 (‘Mit gezogener Pistole standen Sie sich gegenüber’), 29 April 1975 (‘200 Bomber stehen schon bereit’)
59 ‘“The party is finished”’ Gais: op. cit.
60 ‘I can lead you up to the Vereinsalm’ Wieland: op. cit.
61 ‘Captain Hans Neuhauser’ W. Stanley Moss: Gold is Where You Hide It (London, 1956)
62 ‘11 mysterious oblong boxes’ Turicum: Report to Lt DuBois concerning Reichsbank treasure (Mittenwald, 22 May 1945) Also Lt Herbert G. DuBois: In Quest of Gold, Silver and Foreign Exchange (Finance Branch, SHAEF, May 1945) Interrogation Report of Walther Funk, 26 June 1945
62 ‘25 boxes of gold bars’ Munich CID Report
62 ‘$50,000 worth of foreign currency’ Munich CID Report
63 ‘One of the riflemen, Vitus Mayr’ Bungert and Walter: op. cit. 26 May 1974
63 ‘“I wouldn’t mind swapping some of the gold”’ Ottmar Katz: Unpublished notes quoting Josef Pinzl (Munich, 1952)
63 ‘“We were proud to have our house selected”’ Moss: op. cit.
63 ‘20 airtight boxes’ Turicum Report
64 ‘what the treasure actually comprised’ Munich CID Report Turicum Report
64 ‘“I had not seen the gold”’ Bungert and Walter: op. cit. 9 June 1974
65 ‘The first hole’ First and second holes as seen on the Steinriegel by Douglas Borring in October 1982
66 ‘four Zentner’ Bungert and Walter: Unpublished notes on Reichsbank treasure affair (1974)
66 ‘Though it was a dark night’ According to Moss: op. cit. Bungert and Walter claim that Forstreicher watched the mule trains by daylight on the last morning of the burial. It would be difficult to see the mules once they had entered the forest, whether by night or day. But it would be easy enough to see the beginning of the trail and to follow the hoof tracks to the caches afterwards
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