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Nazi Gold

Page 54

by Douglas Botting


  66 ‘Walter Funk’s house at Bergerhof Munich CID Report

  67 ‘“It was really difficult,” Schwedler recalled’ Munich CID Report Evidence by Schwedler

  67 ‘the two missing bars gold’ Munich CID Report

  68 ‘“Colonel Pfeiffer made a remarkable impression”’ Munich CID Report Evidence by Schwedler

  68 ‘three new currency caches’ Ottmar Katz: Unpublished notes quoting Capt Hans Neuhauser (1952)

  69 ‘At night the captain slept in a cave’ Katz: op. cit. – Neuhauser’s statement Moss: op. cit.

  69 ‘“The fate of the Alpine Fortress lies in your hands”’ Pfeiffer interview (Munich, 1982)

  70 ‘“By order of Field-Marshal Kesselring”’ Gais: op. cit.

  70 ‘Major Michael Pössinger’ Pössinger: op. cit.

  70 ‘“Also bitte versuchen Sie es”’ Pössinger: op. cit.

  Chapter 4

  73 ‘“When and in what direction will you be running”’ V. Sevruk: How Wars End, p. 312 (Moscow, 1969)

  73 ‘at about 7 p.m. on the evening of 30 April’ Lt-Col. William E. Eckles: Correspondence

  73/4 ‘Mittenwald was actually under American artillery bombardment’ Michael Pössinger: ‘Artillerie-Salven auf Mittenwald und letztes Gefecht bei Klais’ (Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt, 30 April 1975)

  74 ‘“He stated that he wanted to talk with an honourable. American officer”’ Eckles: op. cit.

  74 ‘a Wehrmacht sergeant and the local baker waving a white flag’ Pössinger: op. cit.

  74 ‘a last special meeting . . . on the Klausenkopf’ Katz: op. cit. – Neuhauser’s statement

  75 ‘In an interview with a German journalist in 1952’ Katz: op. cit. – Neuhauser’s statement

  75 ‘Neuhauser believed that Colonels’ Katz: op. cit.

  75 ‘On Pfeiffer’s orders Captain Neuhauser’ Katz: op. cit.

  75 ‘Almost the last significant objective . . . Berchtesgaden’ After the Battle, No. 9: Obersalzberg (London, 1975) Turner and Jackson: Destination Berchtesgaden Ziemke: The US Army in the Occupation of Germany 1944–6

  76 ‘They found vast stocks of arms’ Percy Knauth: Germany in Defeat (New York, 1946)

  76 ‘Landrat (or Prefect) Karl Theodor Jacob’ Ziemke: op. cit.

  76 ‘Funk had been drunk for months’ John Kenneth Galbraith: A Life in Our Times (London, 1981)

  76 ‘the facts of Jacob’s case were submitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office’ Munich CID Report

  77 ‘2,000 important military and political prisoners’ Rodney G. Minott: The Fortress That Never Was, p. 127 Werner Maser: Nuremberg – A Nation on Trial (London, 1979) Percy Knauth: op. cit.

  77 ‘looked like a typical German tourist’ Public Records Office document WO 219 1700HM 09328

  77 ‘personal physician, Dr Morell’ David Irvin (ed): Adolf Hitler – the Medical Diaries, p. 280 (London, 1983)

  77 ‘a huge man standing nearly seven feet tall’ Douglas M. Kelley, MD.: Twenty-two Cells in Nuremberg (London, 1947)

  78 ‘Positive identification of Kaltenbrunner’ Minott: op. cit., p. 127 History of the CIC, vol. XXV

  76 ‘Kaltenbrunner had been caught’ Charles de Jaeger: The Linz File – Hitler’s Plunder of Europe’s Art, p. 132 (London, 1981)

  78 ‘Special Sections Sub-Division’ Ziemke: op. cit., pp. 249, 314, 316 Martin: All Honourable Men, pp. 27, 51

  78 ‘T (Target) Forces composed of boffins in uniform’ Martin: op. cit. p. 59

  78 ‘Enemy Personnel Exploitation Section’ Ziemke: op. cit.

  79 ‘Alsos Mission’ Prof. Samuel A. Goudsmit: Alsos – the Search for the German Atom Bomb (London, 1947)

  79 ‘Goldcup teams’ Ziemke: op. cit.

  79 ‘Strategic Bombing Survey’ Galbraith: op. cit., pp. 206, 226

  79 ‘The Allied Monuments, Fine Arts and Archaeology Commission’ de Jaeger: op. cit., pp. 90, 138

  79 ‘The Decartelization Branch’ Martin: op. cit., p. 109

  79 ‘the Gold Rush teams’ Martin: op. cit., pp. 73, 120, 121

  79 ‘The closing balances’ R. A. Nixon: Report on the Recovery of Reichsbank Precious Metals

  79 ‘The Gold Rush’ SHAEF: Report on Reconnaissance to Discover Further German Gold, Foreign Exchange and Loot (Frankfurt, c.May 1945) Martin: op. cit., p. 121

  80 ‘all sorts of treasure hoards’ Report on the Reconnaissance to Discover Further German Gold: op. cit.

  80 ‘35 bags of gold coins’ Public Records Office: Captured Currencies, WO 219 990

  80 ‘a prodigious 32 million dollars’ worth of gold’ Nixon: op. cit.

  80 ‘“With something tangible like looted gold to take in hand”’ Martin: op. cit., p. 73

  81 ‘I. G. Farben in the industrial suburb of Hoechst’ Martin: op. cit., pp. 56, 58, 74

  81 ‘the super poison Tabun and the supersuper poison Sarin’ Martin: op. cit., p. 59

  81 ‘The ruins of Frankfurt’ Klaus-Jörg Ruhl: Die Besatzer und die Deutschen-Amerikanische Zone 1945–8 (Düsseldorf, 1980) Knauth: op. cit., p. 9 D. A. Spencer: Diary, vol. 3, Germany, 1945 (private manuscript) Martin: op. cit., p. 58 95 ‘Farben’s suspected wartime connection’ Martin: op. cit., p. 58 Spencer: op. cit., p. 698

  81 ‘Into its six wings and seven storeys’ Frank C. Gabell: Essay on the FED and Letter (Bentonville, Arizona, 13 September 1982)

  82 ‘“In case of fire”’ Major K. L. Walitschck: Reporting Fire in Reichshank Premises (Currency Section for Germany, 30 May 1945)

  82 ‘The total value of all the assets’ Jack Bennett: Memo to OMGUS – Recommendation for Award to Frank C. Gabell (Berlin, 27 July 1948)

  82 ‘220 tons of Nazi gold’ Antony Terry: Operation Odessa, op. cit.

  82 ‘the largest single collection of wealth in the world’ Paul S. McCarroll: Foreign Exchange Depository (HQ USFET Finance, typescript, 24 January 1946)

  82 ‘Among the more spectacular sights in the FED’ McCarroll: op. cit.

  83 ‘17,000 carats worth $10,000,000’ Pittsburgh press: Pittsburgher Divides $500 million in Nazi War Loot, Wins Citation. January 1949

  83 ‘“not a simple problem”’ McCarroll: op. cit.

  83 ‘the most elaborate security system possible’ McCarroll: up. cit.

  84 ‘That still left over $14,000,000 of gold unaccounted for’ Nixon: op. cit.

  84 ‘By now Colonel Bernstein was deeply preoccupied’ Martin: op. cit., p. 89

  84 ‘he was working for SHAEF’s Financial Intelligence Section’ SHAEF G-5 Division: Telephone directory (classified) Issue No. 6, 10 April 1945

  85 ‘400 million cubic feet of rubble’ Koch: Fünf Jahre der Entscheidung – Deutschland nach dem Krieg, 1945–9, See also Grosser, p. 35, Balfour and Muir, p. 7, Davidson, p. 66

  86 ‘The autobahn down to Munich ran through a pastoral Lebensraum’ Spencer: op. cit.

  86 ‘streets were still labelled “Gruesome . . .”’ Spencer: op. cit., p. 689

  86 “BRING IN YOUR JEEP” “WE NEVER SLEEP” “BRIDGE OUT” Knauth: op. cit., p. 124

  86 “SOLDIERS WISE DON’T FRATERNISE” Eugene Davidson: The Death and Life of Germany, p. 85 (New York, 1959)

  86 ‘The road was full of people’ Knauth: op. cit., pp. 113, 123 Spencer: op. cit.

  87 ‘this vast ragged army of people’ W. Byford Jones: Berlin Twilight, p. 20 (London, c. 1946)

  87 ‘“YOU ARE NOW ENTERING 3RD ARMY TERRITORY”’ Knauth: op. cit., p. 121

  87 Paper is a passport to anywhere”’ Spencer: op. cit., p. 8

  88 ‘The devastation of Munich was different from that of other cities’ Heribert Schwan and Rolf Steininger: Besiegt, besetzt, geteilt (Oldenburg, 1979) James Stern: The Hidden Damage (New York, 1947)

  88 ‘Red Cross – or bivouac in the station yard’ Spencer: op. cit., p. 688

  88 ‘Mielke . . . was very uncertain about the facts’ DuBois: op. cit.

  88 ‘Half the streets in Germany’ Knauth: op. cit., p. 11 Spencer: op. cit.

  89 ‘Ne
uhauser professed to have little knowledge of the bags and boxes’ DuBois: op. cit., p. 4

  89 ‘Lt DuBois hesitated to continue the reconnaissance to Jachenau’ DuBois: op. cit.

  89 ‘The forest was infested with hungry soldiers’ Schirach: The Price of Glory Pfeiffer: Interview 1982

  89 ‘Fourteen German soldiers and two mules’ Lt K. Meyer MII: Report on Civilians held in PWE (Mittenwald, c. 22 May 1945)

  89 ‘a mother and her thirteen-year-old daughter’ Schirach: op. cit.

  89 ‘DuBois made a breakthrough’ DuBois: op. cit.

  90 ‘the Bergerhof’ Jack Fishman: The Seven Men of Spandau, p. 206 (London, 1954)

  90 ‘on the morning of 14 May’ DuBois: op. cit.

  91 ‘still chubby and round’ Victor H. Bernstein: Final Judgement, p. 24 (London, 1947)

  91 ‘He had contracted VD when he was thirteen’ Fishman: op. cit., pp. 41, 49

  91 ‘It should be stated . . . that no pressure was exerted on Funk’ DuBois: op. cit.

  91 ‘Sagen Sie die Wahrheit, sonst’ Ottmar Katz: Unpublished notes of interview with Veit, Munich, 1952

  92 ‘He was quartered in a working class block’ Maser: op. cit., p. 46

  92 ‘even his diamond ring’ However, he kept three other rings, inset with opals and other precious stones, and ostentatiously wore a different one each day Douglas M. Kelley: Twenty-two Cells in Nuremberg

  92 ‘codeine addiction,’ Galbraith: op. cit. Douglas M. Kelley: op. cit.

  92 ‘“I am convinced,’ Funk told his interrogator’ Top Secret Report of Interrogation of Funk and Goering (7th Army Interrogation Centre, 21 May 1945)

  93 ‘Camp Ashcan’ Maser: op. cit., p. 56 Galbraith: op. cit., p. 192 Ziemke: op. cit., p. 278 Kelley: op. cit.

  93 ‘“a pass from God and someone to verify the signature”’ Galbraith: op. cit., p. 192

  94 ‘“Who’d have thought we were fighting the war against a bunch of jerks?”’ Galbraith: op. cit.

  94 ‘“Our investigation of foreign exchange can be explained”’ Interrogation of Funk and Goering (7th Army Interrogation Centre, 26 June 1945)

  94 ‘four bridges along the road had been blown’ DuBois: op. cit.

  95 ‘But neither the intelligence officer with the 10th Armored detachments’ DuBois: op. cit.

  Chapter 5

  96 ‘“Gott behüte euch!”’ Jürgen Bungert and Armin Walter: Das Gold, die Nacht und der Nebel (Bild am Sonntag, 9 June 1974) The account of Pfeiffer’s movements is based on interviews with Pfeiffer in Munich in May 1974, May 1978, September 1982 and with Neuhauser in 1952 and von Blücher in 1982 Also: Bungert and Walter: op. cit., 9 June 1974 Ottmar Katz: op. cit. W. Stanley Moss: Gold Is Where You Hide It Munich CID Report Turicum Report Schirach: The Price of Glory and article in Wochenend in 1950 Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: Article entitled ‘Dunkle Rätsel aus dunklen Tagen’ 116 ‘“I don’t like to remember those bad times”’ Pfeiffer interview, September 1982

  98 ‘Major-General Reinhard Gehlen’ Heinz Höhne and Hermann Zolling: The General Was a Spy, pp. 50–53 (New York, 1972) Reinhard Gehlen: The Gehlen Memoirs (London, 1972)

  98 ‘Like Germany, Austria had been divided into four zones’ Michael Balfour and John Muir: Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria, 1945–6 (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1956)

  99 ‘The war between Finland and the Soviet Union’ Hubert von Blücher: Interview with Antony Terry in Düsseldorf, 27 April 1982 Waldeman Erfurth; The Last Finnish War (Washington, 1979)

  99 ‘seriously wounded at the fighting around the Kuban bridgehead’ von Blücher: op. cit., 27 April 1982

  100 ‘Hubert von Blücher’ Description of von Blücher from W. Stanley Moss, Ivar Buxell and Berlin Document Centre

  100 ‘working for the Abwehr’ Moss: op. cit.

  100 ‘According to his brother’ Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  101 ‘“Your military records say’” Hubert von Blücher: Interview in Düsseldorf, 23 June 1982

  101 ‘In fact, available records show’ Berlin Document Centre

  102 ‘“I turned up in Garmisch from Berlin” von Blücher: op. cit., 27 April 1982

  102 ‘Colonel Pfeiffer was later to claim’ Pfeiffer: Interview

  103 ‘38 Gsteigstrasse was bursting at the seams’ von Blücher: op. cit., 27 April 1982

  103 ‘Mathias Stinnes’ Berlin Document Centre

  104 ‘according to Hubert von Blücher’ von Blücher: op. cit.

  104 ‘Hugo Stinnes Sr’ Robert Wistrich: Who’s Who in Nazi Germany (London, 1982) Who’s Who in Germany and Austria (Foreign Office, London, 1945)

  104 ‘Stinnes had sent an extraordinary letter to the SS Central Chancellery’ Berlin Document Centre

  105 ‘the Reich Security Police . . . were asked to check out Mathias Stinnes’ credentials’ Berlin Document Centre

  105 ‘“From this journey,” reported the Berlin SD’ Berlin Document Centre

  106 ‘a grandiose scheme for irrigating the Sahara . . . The Berlin SD summed Stinnes up thus’ Berlin Document Centre

  106 ‘“He was a very fine man”’ von Blücher: op. cit., 27 April 1982

  106 ‘“When I arrived back at Gsteigstrasse”’ Moss: op. cit.

  107 ‘“Up to this day,” Mathias Stinnes wrote’ Moss: op. cit.

  107 ‘“The first scenario was Rauch’s”’ von Blücher: op. cit., 27 April 1982

  107 ‘“Colonel Pfeiffer took me into his confidence”’ Moss: op. cit.

  107 ‘Another idea put forward by Pfeiffer’ von Blücher: op. cit., 27 April 1982

  Chapter 6

  109 ‘In case the two ex-Colonels, Rauch and Pfeiffer, met anyone on the way’ Wieland: op. cit.

  109 ‘“The former head of the Gebirgsjäger School in Mittenwald”’ Munich CID Report

  109 ‘“Every night,” he related afterwards’ Moss: up. cit. – Stinnes quoted

  110 ‘“After each of these nightly trips”’ Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  110 ‘After the notes had been stacked’ Moss: op. cit. Bungert and Walter: op. cit. Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: op. cit.

  110 ‘“No mine detector would ever have found them”’ Moss: op. cit. – Stinnes quoted

  110 ‘“The von Blücher brothers,” Bremme related’ Moss: op. cit. – Bremme quoted

  111 ‘Bremme posted an OFF LIMITS Sign’ Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: ‘Dunkel Rättsel aus dunklen Tagen’ (Pt 3) (Garmisch, 28 January 1956)

  111 ‘According to a statement made by Bremme in 1978’ Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  111 ‘Hubert von Blücher does not concur with this account’ von Blücher: op. cit., 17 April 1982

  112 ‘Turicum had been formed towards the end of the war’ ‘Die Sauhund hau’n wit wieder ‘naus’, Die Geheimakten der US-Militärregierung in Bayern, 1945 his 1949 (Pt 3, Der Spiegel, I December 1980)

  113 ‘In a memo to Captain Walter R. Dee’ Lt DuBois: Memo on Reichsbank Treasure (Private papers of Captain Walter R. Dee)

  113 ‘Turicum had prepared a complete report’ Organisation Turicum to Lt DuBois: Subject Reichsbank Gold (Mittenwald, April 1945)

  114 ‘“I had no wish to conceal anything from them”’ Moss: op. cit.

  114 ‘“24 May 1945 – Sent patrol”’ 61st Armored Infantry Battalion: After Action Report 11–31 June [sic] 1945 (Mittenwald, 12 June 1945)

  114 ‘A few days later’ idem

  115 ‘“After some while I had the impression”’ Munich CID Report. Testimony of Will

  115 ‘In an extensive search and arrest operation’ Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: ‘Dunkle Rätsel aus dunklen Tagen’ (Pt 3) (Garmisch, 28 January 1956)

  116 ‘He began to collect unused headed notepaper’ Ivar Buxell: Correspondence Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: op. cit.

  116 ‘Hubert von Bücher was still the proprietor of a deposit of wine’ Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: op. cit. Moss: op. cit.

  116 ‘At 8.30 on the evening of 21 Ma
y’ G-2 journal: 10th Armored Division, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 22 May 1945

  117 ‘“Never in my life have I been so tight”’ Moss: op. cit.

  117 ‘they allegedly made tens of thousands of marks and dollars’ Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: op. cit.

  117 ‘dressed in the uniform of an officer of the Chasseurs Alpins’ Ottmar Katz: Unpublished notes, quoting Frau Stöttelmeier of the Hotel Einsiedl (Munich, 1952)

  Chapter 7

  118 ‘his trousers were amazingly baggy’ Moss: op. cit.

  Katz: Unpublished notes – Neuhauser’s statement

  118 ‘Captain Neuhauser’s mother’ Moss: op. cit.

  118 ‘“a highly cultivated man”’ von Blücher: op. cit., 27 April 1982

  118 ‘War Office representative . . . one of the liaison officers at SHAEF’ Public Record Office files FO 371 50804, HM 09328

  119 ‘“I had been down in Garmisch and Mittenwald”’ Brigadier Michael Waring: Transcript of telephone interview (Zimbabwe, September 1978)

  119 ‘Word that Brigadier Waring was looking for him’ Pfeiffer interviews: op. cit.

  120 ‘the two officials were subjected to an intensive interrogation’ Munich CID Report. Testimony of Will

  120 ‘“The search once again looked like proving a great waste of time”’ Munich CID Report. Testimony of Will

  121 ‘“When I stood in amazement”’ Will: op. cit.

  121 ‘Will succeeded in making his getaway’ Will: op. cit.

  121 ‘Arrested in Mittenwald on 22 May’ Lt-Col. W. E Eckles: Secret Intelligence Bulletin (10th Armored Division, Garmisch, 23 May 1945)

  121 ‘“Er weiss auch nichts”’ Katz: Unpublished notes

  122 ‘“Of course . . . it is generally assumed. . . . The only thing I got out of it”’ Moss: op. cit.

  122 ‘Mittenwald on 6 June’ Katz: Unpublished notes – statement by Josef Veit

  122 ‘Pinzl was not in the best of shape’ Statement by Pinzl to Bild am Sonntage (Mittenwald, 1974)

  123 ‘they met up with a platoon of C Company, 55th Armored Engineering Battalion’ For the recovery of the gold see: Moss: op. cit. Bungert and Walter: op. cit. Ottmar Katz Tiger’s Tales Munich CID Report Statements by Dee, Geiler, Graziano, Veit, Pinzl, et al.

 

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