I have been in doubt about the nazi gold and where it went. Here´s one story.Any ideas about that? Or do you yourselves have some idea/articles on it? "The Nazi Party and the S.S., as organizations, got away intact. They got away with the money, the Reichsbank treasury, $15,000,000,000 in 1945 money. This included the tooth gold. Guinness calls it the world's largest unsolved robbery. The treasure included a couple of U-boats full of bearer bonds, numbered stock shares and patent certificates. This represented: " ... the hard core of Nazi wealth in Latin America. In 1944 a great treasure had been sent secretly across the Atlantic, the famous 'Bormann treasure.' Toward the end of 1943, Bormann gave orders for Aktion Fuerland – "Operation Land of Fire" – to begin. This operation involved the transport from Germany to Argentina of several tons of gold, some securities, shares, and works of art ... ... Several U-boats arrived in Argentine waters after the capitulation of Germany. They were the carriers of bundles of documents, industrial patents, and securities. On July 10, 1945, the U-530 surfaced at the mouth of the River Platte and entered the port of La Plata. The following month, on August 17, the U-977 also arrived at La Plata. In accordance with international conventions, both U-boats were interned by Argentina and later handed over to the United States authorities." – The Avengers, by Michael Bar-Zohar, Hawthorn Books, 1967, p 101 To the surprise of few, they were found to be empty of treasure. "Two more U-boats, according to reliable sources, appeared off an uninhabited stretch of the coast of Patagonia between July 23, and 29, 1945.– Ibid., p. 101 In occupied Germany one could neither vote with these shares nor could one collect interest, dividends, nor royalties. When (West) Germany again "took its place among the nations of the World" in 1955, the Bundestag immediately changed all this. The holders of these once worthless scraps of paper suddenly, once again, possessed incredibly wealth. http://www.sfbg.com/nessie/company.html
I would not doubt that something similar would have happened. There were so many corrupt officials who did their own plundering or were in on the 'official' plundering scheme, their knowledge of the whereabouts of hidden caches or even those in positions could have used Hitler's name to transport some of the loot outside of the country. Take the Swiss bank accounts that held much SS loot. It would not surprise me if this was true. Hitler may have taken a way out but those who were left behind wanted to make sure they would end up well off.
Also so as some news programs and documentaries have reported--supposedly there is alot of this wealth that is still sitting in some Swiss banks.
Don't forget the train loads of treasures that the Americans shipped to the States after the war. Whom has accounted for all that....where did all this go?
As well as those sent to mother Russia. The Soviet Union considered such loot as reparations for the damages caused by Germany. I watched a documentary where they had some crown jewels hidden away. Can't remember which country it belonged to. I believe it was Hungary.
Hi Frau, its probably in ex-officials collections--instead of where it properly belongs. I remember a story from a documentary I watched about 2 yrs ago on The History Channel, which was about treasures captured from Germany when the war ended. There was a team of Americans responsible for the cataloging and safeguarding captured art treasures. I think it was headed by a Colonal and a Major. Apparently--they decided to keep the crown jewels from I forget which country--there were about 96 pieces that one of these guys took. This is why this guy was cought--because of greed. Now--had he taken only a few items--most likely they would have never been missed. These people were courtmarshalled for stealing art treasures. I guess that is what one gets when they are greedy.
Books have been written and even a Hollywood movie made ( 'Brass Target' ) about the mystery of the 'Nazi Gold'. It's not really my 'subject', but for anyone interested, the book called 'Nazi Gold' by Ian Sayer & Douglas Botting is worth a read, and also 'After The Battle' No 31 has an interesting article about the disappearance of gold caches from the Bavarian Alps. For a detailed article about the 250,000,000 dollars of treasure 'liberated' at the Merkurs salt mine, see 'After The Battle' No 93 which has fascinating photos. This is a fun subject to theorise about, but I reckon that at this stage no-one will ever know for sure.... [ 27. November 2002, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ]
If they really did manage to smuggle gold and other treasures out of Germany before war's end, I'd say by now it's been turned into something more manageable and a lot less traceable, like McDonalds franchises (just kidding). But it is true, apparently there was a lot of gold, bank notes etc. that was accounted for when Germany fell. Probably most of it ended up in Swiss bank accounts or was used to bribe various people by escaping Nazi's. And who knows what went East into the Soviet Union. Wherever it went, by now it will have been melted down and sold, turned it "legitimate" investments, and making someone a small fortune. Guess we will never know. Mind you, I wouldn't mind a bar or two marked with the Reich Bank stamp and date. I think they'd look really nice next to the rest of my militaria collection. ___________________ "What do you take me for, an idiot?" - General Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), when a journalist asked him if he was happy
Hmmmm.... "LONDON, England -- British museums and art galleries could contain up to 600 pieces of art looted by the Nazis. The National Museum Directors' Conference (NMDC) has identified work, many by famous artists including Picasso and Degas, for which there is no record between 1933 and 1945." When the Allies liberated Europe, they found more than 2,000 caches of stolen works in Germany alone. Around 110,000 of those looted pieces remained missing in 1998 One 40-page document released at the conference in Washington listed 700 pieces that Nazis confiscated from Jews in Vienna, Austria, before the war and which ended up in Austrian museums http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/UK/10/27/art.looted/
How surprising.... The Red Army transported many works from Berlin to the Soviet Union, including a Cezanne drawing originally in the Silberberg collection. Anja Heuss, an art historian with the Jewish Claims Conference, said the drawing has been traced to a museum in St. Petersburg, but Russia has so far refused to recognise any claim for restitution --------- A LAWRENCE OF LONDON INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY In 1945, the Russian Army entered Berlin and a secret team of NKVD commandos captured thirty one million dollars in Nazi gold. (Now worth hundreds of millions.) This super secret agency of the Russian elite did not turn the gold over to the government. Instead, they had it shipped to South America and melted down to make busts of historic Soviet leaders. The busts were then painted black, white or bronze to disguise their valuable content. Members of this secret elite had the busts shipped to them in Russia and thereby hid their ill gotten wealth in plain sight in the form of patriotic "BUSTS" which were then proudly displayed for all to see....(????) http://www.webspawner.com/users/bust/ --------- But France and Russia, whose museums contain thousands of works of art thought to have been stolen from Jews, indicated that they were unwilling to discuss the question of ownership. The wartime allies - Britain, the US, and France - face their own problem regarding the proceeds of Nazi looting. They are thought to hold a total of 5.5 million tons of gold moved after 1945 from Germany to their central banks. He claimed that gold and other valuables taken from Gypsies in Croatia ended up in the Vatican. The World Jewish Congress claims that the Vatican allowed itself to be used as a "pipeline" for wartime shipments of gold to Spain and Argentina http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1997/12/08/intl/intl.1.html ---------- MOSCOW -- The lower house of the Russian Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to assert Russia's ownership of works of art seized from Nazi Germany at the end of World War II( the art that was taken by the "Trophy Brigades " ). The lower house, known as the Duma, voted 308-15 in early April 1997 to override President Boris Yeltsin's veto in March of a bill that claims the seized art as Russian property. The trophy art -- consisting of about 200,000 pieces valued at some $65 billion -- has been the subject of sensitive negotiations between Moscow and Bonn. http://www.jewishsf.com/bk970502/iclaim.htm
Site for nazi treasures: places and what was there: http://www.xs4all.nl/~odu/kaart.html [ 16. April 2003, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]
Just been amusing myself in the duller part of the Xmas hols by reading Sayer & Botting's 'Nazi Gold'. Interesting that film-makers and just about everyone else assumes that the Reichsbank gold reserves went missing ( in fact, thay were virtually all accounted for ). But something like five tons of bars - very likely from the German Foreign Office - was removed from a bunker near Mittenwald in July '45, loaded onto two 6x6 trucks under the supervision of two OSS officers, drove off without heavy guard - and disappeared. At least, that's what it says here.....
Ha! Next thing is you will state that Kelly's Heroes was all fiction! Recently National Geographic broadcasted a doc. about a German U boat that was on its way to Japan and sunk in the Atlantic. Rumoured was that a large amount of gold bars was part of the cargo. Enough 'evidence' was given by a researcher for an American millionaire to finance the operation. Nothing made of gold was found however. Well, I am sure large amounts of money, jewellery, art, etc. did 'change hands' during the war and especially the last part of it. Yes, interesting concept...Kinda takes me back to my childhood years and my fantasies of treasurehunting....
I´m afraid the Swiss bankers could tell us more about this... I also read that there was an underground bunker in Berlin with cars of Göring, Hitler etc (in the final part of war). Wonder where they ended up? Into Stalin´s weekend crash rally races?
Do anyone know the exact place of the bunker or can give me more details? I live near Mittenwald and i am interested in every piece of this story. Tom allradteam@yahoo.de
