Nazi Millionaires: The Allied Search for Hidden SS Gold
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On June 5, 1945, Schlemmer approached John E. Alter, an American military intelligence agent. An important officer, he explained, had asked him “before the German capitulation to take him into his company as a corporal in order to conceal his identify.” His interest aroused, Alter hurried Schlemmer away to a secure area so that they could speak freely. There, Schlemmer revealed the important SS Oberführer’s true identity. “He offered to reward me out of a hidden treasure.”
“What is it he wants you to do?” asked Alter.
“He wants me to approach an American officer and buy a discharge for him, me, and Hirschfeld,” came Schlemmer’s reply.
“Why would you turn in a fellow SS officer?” The intelligence officer was smart enough to be skeptical.
Schlemmer claimed a general loathing for the top brass who had led them all to disaster. “Neither of us,” he emphatically explained, referring to himself and Hirschfeld, “want to see an important Nazi party member go free while less important Germans sit in captivity.”12
In an effort to bolster his own credibility, Schlemmer explained to his suspicious interrogator that he had been thrown out of the SS early in the war and jailed, but reinstated later when the need for manpower had become overwhelming. By revealing Spacil’s identity and plan, Schlemmer and Hirschfeld hoped to improve their own situation and perhaps earn an early release themselves. Convinced Schlemmer was telling the truth, Alter and other intelligence agents, including Lieutenant Claus K. Nacke, devised a plan to trap and arrest the officer. Spacil would be picked up at Ebersburg and taken to the Oklahoma PW Cage. There, Schlemmer would convince Spacil he was buying a discharge for his freedom. The invaluable paper Spacil was trying to purchase was a single page Certificate of Discharge. The form exhibited a black thumb print, a statement in English that “the holder of the certificate is not verminous or suffering from any infectious or contagious disease,” and the signature of an American officer. The word “Official” was stamped across the paper. The simple and straightforward certificate was Spacil’s ticket home. With it he could walk out of the POW camp and into private life. But the price was steep: “1,000,000 Reichsmarks in American currency and gold.” Schlemmer was also instructed to “obtain all pertinent information possible” about his role during the war and the location of his concealed treasures.13
On or about June 8, Spacil was transferred from Ebersburg to Fuerstanfeldbruck and reunited with Schlemmer. The CIC agents saw to it that the pair were housed in the same tent. It did not take long for the informant to gain the complete confidence of the former Bureau II chief by acting as a diehard SS man. “Schlemmer was now playing the part of a fanatical Nazi,” reads one CIC memorandum, “and since he was Spacil’s commanding officer [as part of the 352nd Volksgrenadier Division], and was also acting as an intermediary with the Americans, Spacil’s future was more or less at Schlemmer’s mercy.” Blissfully unaware of the trap being set, Spacil shared a substantial amount of personal information about himself, his role in the war, and much more. All of it was captured in detailed notes when Schlemmer passed along the information to Americans investigators each evening.14
“I have to gain my freedom as quickly as possible,” Spacil emphatically told Schlemmer, “otherwise my whole network of agents will fall apart.” If the former Oberführer was to be believed, his wartime role was as important as it was extensive. When prompted for more information, Spacil confided that he had organized a web of agents all over the Third Reich who had procured vast amounts of valuables for him. The agents included several French, Swiss, and Italians—and even one American. The latter agent, explained Spacil, had a good grasp of international finance and was friendly to Germans, but had always steadfastly refused to have anything to do with matters that might adversely affect the American war effort. Despite Schlemmer’s best efforts, Spacil refused to reveal the American’s identity. Other information flew thick and fast from his lips. When Schlemmer explained that he was in bad financial straits, Spacil told him, “you need not fear for the future,” and that he would fix him up “with a fund of several million marks to be used at your discretion.” But you must get expert assistance when attempting to exchange the securities, cautioned Spacil, “to avoid being discovered.” As part of the continued effort to fool the Americans, Spacil gave his confidant the code name “Drogerie.” His own code name was “Lech.” “Once you are free,” he continued, give this code name to Frau Anna Ho—in Munich, to get in touch with [my] circle.”15
Copious bits of information were revealed to Schlemmer, who continued to feign deep interest in his new friend’s wartime role; Spacil loved the attention and dug his hole deeper. “I was once the administrative head for southern Russia,” Spacil disclosed, “and I know a little something about the Hungarian state treasure, and about the burning of Jews.” “The Reich accounting office would probably like to catch up with me,” he continued. “At the end of April the last remaining funds and foreign securities belonging to the Reichsbank in Berlin were removed at the point of a gun on my order.” This loot, he added, was “buried in the Tyrol, Austria, and is worth 23 million gold marks.”16
“So a lot of valuables were stashed away near the end?” prodded Schlemmer.
“Yes. I am very worried about a truck containing 300 million marks of English foreign exchange notes in chests.”
“Where is this truck now?” asked Schlemmer.
“I left it in charge of a capable Untersturmführer, but I fear this officer might act incautiously. I did receive a reassuring report about this man when he was in Taxenbach.”
“Who is he?” asked Schlemmer.
Spacil hesitated. “I cannot say.”
Changing gears, Schlemmer inquired about his associates. “You must have worked with a lot of people to hide all this treasure,” he said.
“Yes, but I fear that my secretary [Gretl Biesecker, in the custody of the CIC Seventh Army] might be arrested,” he whispered. “That would be very dangerous for me.”
“Why is that?” asked Schlemmer.
“Because she is acquainted with most of my secrets.” Many of Spacil’s “secrets” were already floating around in the public domain.17
One day, Spacil displayed a much higher level of nervousness and irritation than usual. He excitedly waved a newspaper clipping in front of Schlemmer concerning the discovery of foreign currency in a barn near St. Johann, Austria. The article also described how one of the largest gold finds in history was unearthed nearby. Spacil’s anxiety was understandable: the uncovered treasure was in the immediate vicinity of a large cache of loot he had hidden away. The more he read, the more agitated he became.
The story, and eventual discovery, of the treasure that so concerned Spacil began on April 17, 1945, when SS General Gottlob-Christian Berger reported to Reichsführer Himmler’s headquarters in the old Ziethen castle in Wustrow. The 48-year-old Berger, who had risen steadily through the ranks to become one of Himmler’s top generals and a recipient of the Knight’s Cross, was recognized primarily as a racial selection “expert.” He had served for a time on the Russian front and as chief of staff for the military SS and head of the SS main leadership office. When the war was winding down, Berger was named Inspector General of the Prisoners of War Administration. Himmler disclosed to Berger that eleven bags of currency were sitting in the Vereins Bank in Munich. Sealed by the Reichsbank, each sack contained a slip of paper indicating it was the property of the Reichsführer, held in the name of the Ministry of the Interior. A code word and secret number were provided to Berger so that he could obtain the money; the Reichsführer ordered him to hide it.
With Germany collapsing on all fronts and Hermann Göring long out of favor with the Führer, Himmler issued commands largely at his own pleasure. On April 22, Himmler made Berger his representative on the Southern Group’s staff. Berger dutifully left his position in northern Germany and headed toward Munich. The trip was detoured by a telephone call from Hitler’s bunker. Berger was to rep
ort to the Führer before leaving for his new post. Like von Greim, who would arrive a few days after him, Berger walked into a macabre scene orchestrated by a director gone mad. During their interview, the pair discussed what to do with the tens of thousands of British and American prisoners of war. “Shoot them all, shoot them all!” Hitler repeated over and over. We don’t know exactly how Berger responded to the order. We do know, however, that at great personal risk he ignored Hitler’s directive to execute Allied captives. In fact, many senior Allied POWs were transferred by train to Switzerland. It was 1:00 a.m., April 23, when an exhausted Berger climbed into Himmler’s personal four-engine plane and left for southern Germany. A barrage of Russian artillery shells danced dangerously close to the aircraft as it lifted off into the black night. The general’s luck, however, was about to run out.18
One week later U.S. army forces captured Berger. On May 22 (while Josef Spacil was sitting inside a detention center) an army military intelligence officer named Major Paul Kubala interrogated Berger. During this routine questioning, Berger nonchalantly mentioned the fact that he had worked directly under Heinrich Himmler, who had given him a large sum of money to hide. When pressed on the issue Berger claimed the currency did not belong to either Himmler or himself but to the Reichsbank. He even offered to show the Americans where he buried it. The following morning Berger and intelligence officer Lieutenant William S. Scheuer met Captain Harry Anderson at St. Johann. Berger led the pair to a chief forester’s home, which was connected to a barn. He entered the structure, fell to his knees, and began removing floorboards. The soil was loose, and after digging down several feet he extracted eight large cloth sacks and one large metal box. The officers raised their eyebrows in astonishment: Berger’s loot—foreign currency from more than two dozen countries—was worth about one million dollars. Not a single bill was of United States origin. The currency was sent under guard to the Foreign Exchange Depository in Frankfurt, Germany, stamped shipment number 27D.19
Berger had additional interesting information to share with his captors. During a second round of questioning by Lieutenant Scheuer, the SS officer revealed that twenty-five boxes of gold had been hidden in the vicinity of Mittenwald, Germany. Berger’s story was assigned to Lieutenant Eloy F. Perez. Armed with specific information gleaned from Berger, Perez traveled to Mittenwald and contacted the CIC Detachment at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. On June 7, 1945, American agents located nine men to interrogate on the subject. The first eight professed complete ignorance of both Berger and any hidden Nazi gold. Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Heintz Rüger, however, came clean. “I think I can help locate the gold. I and my men unloaded the gold on the night of April 25 and 26 and if you take me with you, I think I may be able to locate the spot where it is buried.”20
The following morning, June 8, Lieutenant Perez and his team drove to the foot of Altloch Berg and hiked up a trail for approximately twenty minutes. When the group reached a fork in the path, Rüger requested a minesweeper for use on the left branch of the track. It was almost too easy. Ten yards from the fork and five yards off the trail, the minesweeper detected the presence of metal spread out over an area six feet square. The recently dug money pit was well camouflaged with a tree stump surrounded by a thick bed of moss. A couple soldiers began digging and about fifteen minutes later one shovel nicked a bar of bright and shiny yellow gold several feet down. Excited by the discovery, Perez left a guard and transported the single bar to 10th Armored Headquarters. From there, he called Seventh Army Headquarters to report his find. Additional U.S. military personnel arrived at the scene to continue the excavation. Each shovel of dirt exposed more of the precious metal. By the time the men were through digging and lifting, 728 bars of pure gold worth millions of dollars were in the custody of the 10th Armored Division. The bullion was turned over to the Foreign Exchange Depository on June 10, 1945.21
With a display of disgust Spacil dropped the newspaper article about General Berger’s treasure trove and looked up nervously at Schlemmer. “Everything I have worked so hard, my entire network, is going to be discovered,” he lamented.
As he was waiting for his forged papers to be completed, Spacil revealed information even more amazing and in many ways more interesting to the Allies than stolen gold and currency: he boasted of his intimate knowledge of the fate of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun and their personal papers.
“I know Hitler is, without question, dead.”
“You are sure of this?” asked Schlemmer.
“Yes. The official version is that he fell in combat outside the Reich Chancellery with a machine pistol in hand, and that Gruppenführer [Hermann] Fegelein fell by his side.” Later, Spacil changed his story. “Inreality,” he whispered, “the Führer’s bunker was hit by a bomb which penetrated into the interior. It killed him and many of his staff. His entire right leg was said to be shattered,” continued Spacil, “and his upper left breast was hit by bomb splinters.”
“When did this happen?” asked an incredulous Schlemmer, who did not know whether the story Spacil was weaving was true or false.
“Just 48 hours before the Russians overran the bunker.”
“What happened to the Führer’s body?
“I hear it was possible to embalm and remove it from the Chancellery,” Spacil replied, “but I don’t know the men who embalmed his body. Only four men know the details of the burial. Two remained in Berlin and were probably killed; the other two got out safely.”
“Where was he buried and who were these men?” asked Schlemmer.
Spacil knowingly shook his head. “I can’t tell you that information. You really can’t demand that of me.” But then he continued, hinting that he was one of the four men. “We did it in the simplest manner. It is impossible that the Führer’s body [could] fall into the enemy’s hands.”
“I am not sure the Führer is really dead,” replied Schlemmer.
“Oh, you can believe me,” Spacil promptly cut in. “I have seen the Führer’s tattered trousers, his blood-drenched coat, his diaries, and his letters to and from Eva Braun.”
“Where are these things now?” Schlemmer inquired.
“They are in the possession of a confidential agent in Zell am See,” reported Spacil. “They are hidden away to preserve them for posterity. He intended to burn the letters and diaries but I urged him not to do so. I don’t think he destroyed them.” He paused, then added, “I hope they never find these things. That would cause a great sensation.”
“You have seen the Führer’s personal diaries? asked Schlemmer.
“Yes. He kept them since 1923. They are written in his own handwriting on very thin airmail paper.”
Schlemmer was turning in an Oscar-worthy performance as the sympathetic and dedicated Nazi SS officer. When he commented that he must have known Hitler well, Spacil rambled on for several minutes about the Führer’s poor health during the war’s final months, and that he had continued believing in complete victory until just a few weeks before his death.
Believing he had tapped out that line of questioning, Schlemmer turned to Eva Braun. “What of Eva Braun? Did she perish in Berlin as well?”
“No,” replied Spacil with authority and confidence, turning in an equally impressive performance. “She left Berlin at the last minute in a Fiesler Storch aircraft, taking off from the East-West Axis to join her sister Gretl in Zell am See. You know of course she is married to Gruppenführer Fegelein. Eva loved the Führer deeply, and in my opinion she will [eventually] take her own life.”
“According to the Allied reports, they were married in the bunker.” “That is nonsense! Completely untrue!” Spacil answered with a wave of his hand and look of disgust. “A long time ago I spoke to the Führer on this very subject—the possibility of marriage. It was thoroughly discussed. Hitler told me he would not think of placing any woman in such a dangerous position as his wife would occupy. ‘When I am with Eva, you can be sure that I am as good as married,’ he told me.”
Unab
le to stop spinning tales in an effort to enhance his image in the eyes of the one man who now held his fate in his hands, Spacil continued rambling on. “The Führer ordered me to assist Eva Braun regarding several private matters,” he said in all seriousness. “I visited her several times in Munich taking to her, among other things, a large amount of transparent blue silk cloth from France. She intended to make it into a long gown with a train. The Führer especially liked such things.”22
Unbeknownst to Spacil, of course, Schlemmer was regularly feeding this information to the Allies. As Lieutenants Scheuer and Perez were working with General Berger to locate his concealed millions, American agents Alter, Nacke and others were receiving Schlemmer’s reports while simultaneously reconstructing Spacil’s life and activities as they built their case against him.
In an effort to pay for his freedom, Spacil furnished a signed letter and the password “sun” to Lieutenant Nacke, both of which were necessary to enable him to contact those who knew where his treasures were hidden. On June 9, Alter, Nacke, and former SS officer (and Schlemmer’s subordinate) Walter Hirschfeld traveled to Taxenbach to contact Spacil’s liaisons. As instructed, the trio attempted to make contact with two men at Pulzel’s sawmill about eight miles south of Zell am See. Their names were “Captain Apfelbeck” and “Wimmer.” Neither man could be located. However, a forester named “Reisinger” who lived in Taxenbach and who was sympathetic to the Nazi cause was found. Nacke showed Spacil’s letter to the skeptical forester, spoke the password, and convinced him he had Spacil’s authority to remove the hidden valuables. Reisinger led the men to the home of a man named Urschunger, who lived in nearby Rauris southeast of Zell am See.