Nazi Millionaires: The Allied Search for Hidden SS Gold

by Kenneth A. Alford

  Konrad and Becher were busy honing the mechanics of their city-wide pillaging scheme when the extermination of Warsaw’s Jews began in earnest. It was Konrad’s duty (and pleasure) to seize everything of value he could lay his hands on. Anything left behind by those deported to Auschwitz or elsewhere was confiscated. Books, paintings, furniture, automobiles, machinery, and clothing filled to overflowing the fifteen warehouses under Konrad’s control. Each storage facility was used to house separate items. For example, one warehouse contained pianos, furs and valuable carpets; another chemicals, paints, and medications. Eleven thousand Jewish laborers were required to oversee the mammoth pillaging operation. The Jews—and many Germans as well—heartily disliked Konrad, whose cruel streak, brusk manner in dealing with others, and tendency toward pompous display earned him the derisive title, “King of the Warsaw Ghetto.”13

  As the war dragged on and labor grew scarce, SS General Odilo Globocnik, Lublin police chief and the head of concentration camps in Poland, wanted to remove Jewish workers from Warsaw and use them to produce products for the German war machine. Globocnik petitioned Himmler to consider using Jews instead of sending them to the death camps. The Reichsführer paid a visit to Warsaw in early 1943 to observe firsthand the Jewish workers laboring there under Konrad’s authority. He met with Konrad at Warehouse No. 2, where he viewed with some amazement the immense quantity of textiles, silver, porcelain, and small mountain of loose buttons accumulating under Konrad’s watchful eye.

  “Konrad,” the bespectacled SS leader said, patting him on the shoulder, “if one of my SS men takes only as much as a pin from the Jewish properties, I shall punish the man with the death sentence.”

  Threats of death notwithstanding, many of the choicest valuables were set aside for Fegelein and others. Konrad himself acquired a large number of antiques, paintings, and other worthwhile items, including expensive stamp collections and several 700-year-old Torahs.14

  The Jewish workers General Globocnik hoped to obtain as slave laborers to manufacture merchandise for Germany were removed from Warsaw on Himmler’s orders—though not for the purpose Globocnik intended. The final evacuation and destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto began after the Reichsführer’s visit and unfolded during the most sacred Christian holiday: Easter through the Pentecost. By this time some 300,000 Jews had already been taken to Treblinka or Auschwitz; 60,000 remained in Warsaw. Konrad stood by and watched as 3,000 Wehrmacht, SS, and police, supported by tanks, armored vehicles, and machine guns, swept through the Ghetto to root out its inhabitants. Some of the Jews decided to go down fighting and launched a fierce building-by-building, block-by-block resistance. Caught flatfooted, the Germans suffered heavy casualties overcoming the fierce and unexpected opposition. Buildings were set on fire and the flames spread quickly. People of all ages climbed onto roof tops in a vain attempt to save themselves. As fire engulfed the structures the doomed, young and old alike, screamed from the heights overlooking devastated Warsaw or hung from window ledges in a futile attempt to escape. Some leapt to their deaths; most perished in the flames. One SS major was heard to whisper, “Those poor people.” According to Konrad, the words of mercy landed the major in prison. Eight weeks later the Warsaw Ghetto was declared free of Jews. Bullets and fire had consumed 14,000 people. The Germans lost 400 killed and perhaps another 1,000 wounded in the uprising.15

  Those Jews extracted alive from the Ghetto were herded into an assembly area, loaded onto trains, and shipped to the death camps. At one assembly point Konrad witnessed the execution of 2,000 Jews left behind because there were not enough to completely fill a train. They were lined up in small groups and shot in the back of the head with machine pistols. The corpses were dragged together and burned. Afterward, remembered Konrad, the piles of ashes were raked in the search for diamonds, gold coins, and any other valuables hidden or swallowed by the desperate victims that may have survived the hellish inferno.16

  By 1945, Stalin’s divisions were in complete control of the war in the East and driving relentlessly westward. Franz Konrad was still behind the lines in Warsaw, pillaging from innocents and living a comfortable life as a powerful SS officer. In early January, however, Fegelein decided it was time for Konrad and his staff—and his valuables—to evacuate. He ordered rail cars and trucks loaded with tons of valuables and shipped south and west to safer environs. Along with a handful of fortunate Jewish laborers, the SS officer and his associates beat a hasty retreat out of the war torn city and rode the rails south to the relative safety of north central Austria and Fischhorn castle, the SS gathering place outside Zell am See. He had been planning the move for some time. By the time he arrived, both Fischhorn and General Fegelein’s private residence in Ravensburg were luxuriously furnished with possessions stolen from Warsaw’s deported Jews.17

  Chapter 4

  He agreed to help keep the Jews from resisting deportation and even keep order in the collection camps if I could close my eyes and let a few hundred or a few thousand young Jews emigrate illegally to Palestine. It was a good bargain.

  — Adolf Eichmann, speaking of Dr. Rudolf Kastner

  Playing God in Budapest: The Kastner-Becher Faustian Bargain

  In the 1930s, Hungary was a country without a rudder, adrift in a dangerous sea. The anti-fascist leanings of its de facto head of state, Admiral Miklós Horthy, were balanced and eventually transcended by a rising tide of right-wing fascist movements, the most powerful of which was Ferenc Szálasi’s Arrow Cross faction. By 1939 Hungary’s politics and strategic location linked its fate with Hitler’s Germany. The Führer’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941 forced the hand of Hungarian Premier László Bárdossy to declare war on Stalin. Within a few months the Hungarians were also at war with England and the United States. Horthy saw the decisions for what they were: a trap that could only end badly for his beloved country.

  Premier Bárdossy’s successor, Miklós Kállay, strove mightily to steer a middle ground by limiting Hungary’s military involvement without bringing down Hitler’s wrath. For a time he succeeded in walking the razor’s edge. Because of the alliance with Germany, Hungary’s large Jewish population had thus far escaped the horrors of the concentration camps. But a fateful line was crossed in early 1944: Kállay entered secret negotiations with the Allies to secure his country’s withdrawal from the war. Hitler’s fury erupted and his reaction was both predictable and devastating. That March, Wehrmacht troops swept into Hungary and seized control of the country. Admiral Horthy was forced to appoint a pro-Nazi government. In the wake of the occupation, the SS arrived to loot the country’s industry and transportable wealth.

  And then the killing of Hungary’s Jews commenced.

  When war erupted in September 1939, Kurt Becher was serving as a member of the Mounted SS reinforcing the police. Before the war, this son of a rich businessman and product of Hamburg society worked with a firm as an importer of grain and fodder. He transferred to the Waffen-SS and saw service as an infantryman during the Polish Campaign. There is some evidence that he was directly involved in the commission of atrocities there. By the spring of 1940, Becher was attached to the First SS Cavalry Regiment in Warsaw, and thereafter assigned to the Bad Tölz Cadet School for officer training. Back with his unit in time for the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Becher’s outfit took part in the advance through northern Russia by way of Minsk, Bobruisk, and Smolensk. The offensive went well for the Germans during the summer and early autumn months. Stiffening Russian resistance and freezing cold weather changed that, and a bloody stalemate took root as 1941 approached its end. Fortunately for Becher, he fell sick and was shipped back to Germany and hospitalized in the Berlin-Lichterfelde Military Hospital. After his recovery he was dispatched to Warsaw to help streamline Franz Konrad’s thievery efforts before returning to Berlin, where he was attached to the SS Leadership Head Office, Cavalry, and Transport Bureau. Becher’s duties were to equip horse-drawn and mounted units with horses and other related equip
ment.1

  Becher’s new line of work was a vast improvement over the Russian front, and he happily remained in Berlin for several months. The bloody fighting in Russia, however, was chewing up Germans by the tens of thousands, and in December 1942 Becher was transferred back to the front lines and attached to General Hermann Fegelein’s cavalry task force. By this time, Fegelein’s command comprised a motley assemblage of Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units, hastily patched together to stem the advance of grinding Russian counterattacks. Becher participated in the hard fighting that followed. When Fegelein was badly wounded and his command virtually destroyed, the remnant was disbanded and Becher was ordered back to Berlin. There, he returned once again to his administrative position.2

  Becher, now a Oberturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel), was one of the many thousands of German soldiers sent in March 1944 to flood unfortunate Hungary with a heavy Third Reich military presence. He arrived in the lovely and largely untouched medieval city of Budapest as a staff member attached to the Cavalry and Transport Office. Ostensibly, he carried General Fegelein’s orders to procure horses and equipment for the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. Fegelein had provided Becher with $125,000 in U.S. currency to speed along the acquisition process. Three large houses belonging to Manfred Weiss, the owner of the Manfred Weiss industrial organization, were allocated to Becher and his staff. To his delight, Becher found the houses crammed full of rich furnishings, art work, and other valuables. In order to develop a full inventory—and learn of other opportunities that might be waiting around the next corner—Becher summoned Dr. Wilhelm Billitz, a representative from the Weiss plant, to assist him.3

  Dr. Wilhelm Billitz was born in Hungary in 1902 to Jewish parents. After receiving an education in law as well as political economics, he rose through the ranks and into a top management position with the Manfred Weiss organization. By the time the Germans arrived in Hungary in 1944, Billitz was the director of the Donau Airplane factory, a cooperative working under umbrella of the Herman Göring Works and a subsidiary of the Manfred Weiss industries. Dr. Billitz’s wife was an Aryan who had represented Hungary as a skater during the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany. Billitz was the sole remaining manager from the entire Manfred Weiss complex that had not yet been arrested by the Gestapo.4

  During the inventory, Billitz discovered that Becher was looking for horses and introduced him to Dr. Franz Chorin, a Budapest banker and connoisseur of fine equine stock. Chorin was also a major stockholder in the Manfred Weiss operation. Their discussions helped Becher acquire thousands of horses for distribution to Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, and military police units. The Weiss family’s large collection of art treasures also fell into his hands. Some of it was in Becher’s possession at war’s end. As time passed, however, the real reason for Becher’s presence in Hungary bubbled to the surface. Seizing horses was purely a secondary concern—a thin veneer to hide his real purpose: Becher had been sent to Budapest, on the orders of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, to identify and confiscate major Jewish business concerns for the SS without the Hungarian government’s knowledge. In return, he offered the displaced owners a chance to emigrate to Palestine or anywhere they chose—for a price. Failure to cooperate or pay for their lives earned them a one-way ticket to the death camps. His first victim was already in his sights: the mammoth Manfred Weiss industrial complex. His unwilling associate in the theft was none other than Dr. Billitz.5

  SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolph Eichmann, the officer in charge of Bureau IV B4, arrived by train in Budapest on March 19, 1944. His overall task was simple to define; only the logistics behind it were complex: rid Hungary of its large population of Jews quickly and with as little trouble as possible. It seemed to Eichmann that there was insufficient time and inadequate resources to carry out his duties. The Russians were already drawing near Hungary’s border. His own team of SS men numbered but 150, and only a modest number of Hungarian soldiers were available for assistance. This shortage of manpower to administer mass deportations was a critical problem for Eichmann—especially with the fiasco of Warsaw looking over his shoulder. There, a handful of armed Jews had defended themselves for weeks against German tanks and machine guns. In 1944, Budapest was home to 250,000 Jews. Another 650,000 were spread across the rest of Hungary. Many of Hungary’s young Jewish males had military training from their service in the army. Active resistance was a very real possibility. The Germans had learned a bitter lesson in the cellars and on the rooftops of Warsaw; they had no intention of attending that school a second time.

  Eichmann’s final plan to achieve his objective was as brilliant as it was evil. Unlike the early years, by this stage of the war the Jews did not trust the Nazis or their representatives (in this case, the Hungarian authorities). There was only one way to implement a large-scale deportation quickly and efficiently: use Jewish leaders as tools in the demise of their own people. The Jews, after all, trusted their own. Eichmann decided to befriend Jewish community leaders and allow a small number of selected individuals, usually their friends or family members, to escape to Palestine or a neutral country of their choosing. In return, they agreed to remain silent and not share what they knew with the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who were dutifully boarding the trains and riding the iron rails bound for hell.6

  While Eichmann quietly implemented his heinous strategy, Kurt Becher broke the news to Dr. Chorin about his first victim. The blood must have drained from the doctor’s face when he was told that Germany would be taking over the Manfred Weiss Works. In return, Becher coolly continued, he would see to it that the members of the Weiss family would be able to safely leave the country. The industrial plants belonging to the Manfred Weiss Works employed 30,000 workers and produced virtually everything an army needed, from aircraft, trucks, and motorbikes, to artillery shells, grenades, and mortars. Hungary, of course, was not yet schooled in the ways of the Third Reich but Chorin—a banker and major stockholder in Weiss—quickly understood what was happening. The SS officer was suggesting a gigantic plunder of personal property.

  After testing the waters with the experienced businessman, Becher squeezed Dr. Billitz into the negotiations. Billitz, the only top level manager available, was smart enough to know that resistance was futile. He tried as hard as possible to secure the best deal he could for his superiors and the Weiss stockholders. Between Becher, Billitz, Chorin, and Himmler, a final deal was hammered out transferring the Manfred Weiss Works to the Third Reich for a period of twenty-five years. Himmler formalized the blackmail in writing and drafted orders appointing Becher to the board of the organization. The Reichsführer was extremely pleased with the deal, which dovetailed with his long-term plan to acquire the means to make his precious SS completely self-sufficient by the time the war ended.7

  As Becher later explained it, in return for their cooperation, the Weiss family—together with Billitz’s mother, sister, and brother-in-law—were allowed to relocate to Portugal, a neutral country where Jews lived without fear of sudden death. Billitz and his own wife, however, were not so fortunate. The pair remained in Budapest as hostages. In exchange for the safety of his relatives, Billitz managed the company for Germany. (Becher knew nothing about the business or how it operated; he was merely a tool for its confiscation.) In addition to his own safety, another motive was in play. Billitz knew it was unlikely Germany would win the war and he wanted to keep the company—the basis of the Weiss family’s wealth—unified in an attempt to preserve it for the postwar period. Since his wife was Aryan and of some renown, Billitz was under the impression that nothing would happen to him personally. Quiet negotiations continued. Himmler approved the exodus of an additional forty-eight people, including members of the Weiss family, Dr. Franz Chorin, and an extended circle of friends. Himmler also paid the Weiss family 3,000,000 Reichsmarks. On May 17, 1944, the Weiss family left their homes for freedom in Portugal.8

  While Himmler smiled, Adolf Eichmann seethed. Becher’s deal infuriated him. Eichmann had gone to gre
at lengths to establish good relations with the Hungarian government, which expected to take over the ownership of confiscated Jewish property in return for not interfering with his deportations to the distant death camps. Viewed in that light, Eichmann’s anger was justified because Becher’s arrangement ran counter to established Nazi policy. Whether Becher knew it or not, Germany had a very specific procedure in place for dealing with Jews in foreign countries. In exchange for assistance in ridding their country of Jews, foreign governments were given the ownership rights to abandoned Jewish property. In return, Germany demanded only the costs for deportation and extermination. These costs varied from country to country. The Slovaks, for example, were supposed to pay 300 to 350 Reichsmarks per Jew, the Croats 30, the French 700, and the Belgians 250. As the war ground into 1944, however, the Third Reich needed more tangible items (such as industrial plants) instead of currency. Eichmann was aware that Hungary was to pay Germany in food, the amount based upon what each deported Jew would have consumed had he remained in that country. Thereafter, Hungarian officials would be free to seize Jewish assets. Becher’s meddling had thrown a giant monkey wrench into this arrangement.

  Eichmann and Becher did not see eye-to-eye on much of anything other than the righteousness of their terrible cause. The former was a bureaucrat, a cog in the mechanical wheel of the Third Reich machine. As far as Eichmann was concerned, his duty was nothing more or less than carrying out his assignment with as little deviation from his orders as possible. Becher, on the other hand, was a soldier armed with the mind of a shrewd businessman wrapped around a cold soul wholly devoid of conscience. He viewed his posting to Hungary as a godsend offering immense opportunity for acquiring wealth. Where the loot originated, or who suffered as a result of his aggrandizement, mattered not at all. Administrative bureaucrats like Adolf Eichmann made the task of making money all the more difficult for unprincipled miscreants like Becher.9