“Really? What bridge from the past are you trying to escape?” At that Konrad remained silent.24
The Ghetto King’s last bit of luck ran out in Amberg. The Americans bundled him tightly, signed the extradition papers, and shipped him off to Poland.
Based on the outstanding undercover work of Walter Hirschfeld and the determined investigation conducted by Robert A. Gutierrez and Master Sergeant William J. Conner, the Seventh Army’s Criminal Intelligence Corps recovered a fortune in currency, gold, silver, and jewels, personal items that had once belonged to Eva Braun, diamonds stolen from their rightful owners by Hermann Fegelein, photographs and motion pictures depicting the life of Braun and Hitler, a large pilfered stamp collection, and the clothes worn by Hitler during the attack on his life on July 20, 1944. Officially, all these valuables were turned over to the CIC. Eva Braun’s belongings were removed to the Foreign Exchange Depository, Frankfurt, Germany, on November 8, 1945, designated as shipment number 76.25
The whereabouts today of many of these items seized by U.S. intelligence agents is unknown. Part of Shipment 76, for example, Eva Braun’s small suitcase containing $1,000, was never accounted for in the final disposition of U.S. currency. As late as 1949, Mr. Ernst A. Jaffray, agent of the Bureau of Justice, was trying to locate the personal belongings of Hitler and Braun that had been confiscated and logged in by CIC officials. They were never located. Many of the photographs ended up in the National Archives. Recent inquiries by the authors as to the whereabouts of the more valuable items have been consistently shuttled aside. According to the government, these items are either in the thousands of crates stored in the Pentagon or have been stolen by U.S. Army personnel. In other words, they have no idea.
Franz Konrad’s wartime activities in Warsaw and elsewhere, together with his close connections with the men who administered the deportations of Jews, gave him ready access to as much wealth as he could carry away. Only a small percentage of this was ever located by American officials.
Chapter 10
“Eva sent me her jewelry at the end of the war with a will naming me as principal beneficiary.”
— Gretl Braun Fegelein
Walter Hirschfeld and the Search for Eva Braun’s Jewels
Tracking down the myriad of leads, rumors, and clues strewn in the wake of World War II about the fates of individuals and individual fortunes was a Herculean task. The best way to accomplish this job was to infiltrate postwar German society with undercover agents—a difficult proposition indeed. Somehow informants with credibility had to be located, men who would be welcomed and trusted by a skeptical German populace and thus shepherded into otherwise closed circles.
The discovery of Oberführer Josef Spacil cowering behind a common soldier disguise in a prisoner-of-war camp opened the door for the CIC to employ one such individual. This former SS officer was willing to utilize his in-depth knowledge of the structure of the SS and personal blood tattoo to unlock the door and spy for his former enemies. His assignments would prove fascinating, frustrating, and productive. And in the end they would destroy him.
Walter Werner Hirschfeld is one of the more intriguing minor players and scoundrels in the drama of World War II. The native of Grossröhrsdorf, Germany, was born on July 21, 1917. His association with the Hitler Youth in 1933 subjected the lad to a steady stream of propaganda describing the advantages of joining the neophyte SS. Living as he was in a time of financial instability, the impressionable youth enrolled in Heinrich Himmler’s paramilitary organization in January 1936.
His first assignment was to the Waffen-SS Totenkopf (or “Death’s Head”) Division and a posting as camp guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the late 1930s, normal duty at that time for that SS Division. In 1939, his battalion was sent to Danzig, Poland, to stage demonstrations in favor of the return of that beleaguered city to Germany. Service with the division during the September 1939 invasion of Poland followed, as did active campaigning into the Low Countries in the spring of 1940.
Private Hirschfeld remained in France until June 1941, stationed on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. When a bomb fragment wounded him, Hirschfeld was transferred to Berlin and assigned to a desk job as an inventory control clerk. In this post he administered the confiscation of household goods stolen from Jews. He looked on as expensive furniture and priceless works of art were stripped away from beautiful villas and delivered to the lavish apartments of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and other high-ranking SS members. Hirschfeld also spent time procuring champagne, wine, whiskey, refrigerators, and pictures. Most of these items were dispatched to various command headquarters on the Russian front. While German infantry fought and died in extreme heat and cold on the steppes of Russia, the brass wined and dined in luxury. The obvious double standard disgusted the private.1
Unable to remain quiet any longer, Hirschfeld unloaded on his battalion commander. A violent argument ensued concerning the luxurious field headquarters of Himmler and his cronies. Fortunate he was that more severe punishment was not meted out in his direction. Hirschfeld was sentenced to the guardhouse in September 1942. Three weeks later he was released and transferred to an 88-mm antiaircraft unit on the Russian front just before the cold winter set in. There was a shortage of qualified antiaircraft officers, however, so he was detoured to an SS officer’s training school at Bad Tölz, Germany. There, Hirschfeld met Captain Gerhardt Schlemmer, one of the instructors who would impact his life in a way Hirschfeld could not have imagined. When his instruction ended, Hirschfeld was reassigned to the 16th SS, or Reichsführer Division. Bloody fighting ensued in the defense of Italy, and later in the campaign to protect inland bridges and artillery positions from Allied dive-bombers.
In August of 1944, after suffering under a heavy shelling for three days, Hirschfeld asked for permission to withdraw his antiaircraft unit to a less exposed position. His commanding officer, drunk and sequestered in the safety of a cave with several Italian prostitutes, refused his request. A prolonged argument ensued before Hirschfeld finally received orders to reposition his unit near the front in the area of Pisa, Italy. A shell exploded in front of his Volkswagen jeep, which overturned and spilled him onto the pavement, fracturing his skull. The wound proved to be more than merely physically debilitating. Transfers in and out of a number of hospitals and sanatoriums followed before he finally ended up in an SS insane asylum in Giessen, Germany. When he was finally released in March 1945, Germany desperately needed every man who could walk and shoulder a weapon. Hirschfeld, however, had lost his stomach for fighting. Returning to the front lines to be killed in a losing effort was the last thing he intended to do. Instead, he worked overtime acquiring a venereal disease that would require hospitalization. He returned to his military unit briefly and was dispatched to Munich for treatment. When he was released, the war was nearly at an end. By May 8, he was marching into captivity along an Alpine road with thousands of his comrades.2
As we learned earlier, within a few weeks Hirschfeld and his former superior officer, Gerhardt Schlemmer, were cooperating with their Allied captors in the investigation of Oberführer Josef Spacil. The ever resourceful Hirschfeld ingratiated his way into the ranks of the CIC and finagled a job working for the 970th Counter Intelligence Corps, U.S. Seventh Army. Informing on Spacil’s activities related to the RSHA was only his first assignment as an undercover operative. Convinced he was a valuable and reliable intelligence asset, CIC agents arranged for Hirschfeld to work undercover tracking down former SS members. Locating Franz Konrad was his first formal assignment outside the confines of an American detention facility. Hirschfeld had a natural talent for clandestine work and the know-how to pull it off. He was armed with a unique knowledge of both the Nazi regime and structure of the SS. In addition, the SS blood type tattooed under his left arm provided him ready entry into otherwise closed circles of German and Austrian society.
In September 1945 he was given another difficult task: establish contact and gain the confidence o
f Hans Fegelein and his wife. The Fegeleins were the parents of SS Gruppenführer (Major General) Hans Georg Otto Hermann Fegelein. The shadow of the younger Fegelein has intermittently crossed these pages. Now it is time to meet him.3
The ruthless officer who preferred to be called by his middle name, Hermann, was born in a small Bavarian village on October 30, 1904. The pursuit of a technical education held little interest for him. Horses—even more than booze and women, both of which would later lead to his downfall—were the passion of his life. He looked down on the world from the towering perspective of a saddle at a very early age. By the time he reached his teen years he was both a skillful rider and an outstanding jockey. He spent much of the 1920s crisscrossing Europe to participate in riding and racing competitions. When earning a living finally demanded his attention he spent a pair of loathsome years serving as a police officer in the Bavarian Territorial Police. Although Fegelein’s early political outlook is largely conjecture, he saw his own path clearly after an influential friend from Monaco introduced him to the Nazi Party around 1930. On May 15, 1933, he joined the SS. His dedication to duty and chiseled Aryan features impressed Heinrich Himmler, who made Fegelein the director of the SS riding academy in Munich from 1936 until 1939. Himmler proudly looked on at the 1936 Olympics, in which Fegelein participated as a member of the German Equestrian Team.
When the war erupted in Poland Fegelein was dispatched to Warsaw to organize the first Waffen-SS cavalry units. His debauched behavior there almost cost him his rank and his life; only the timely intervention of Himmler saved his head. Service in Russia followed, where he led a cavalry brigade. Acting on the orders of the Reichsführer, SS Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant General) Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, the Higher SS and Police Chief for the center section of the Eastern front, and the chief of the Anti-Partisan Units, directed Fegelein to commit mass murder. He and his men, explained Bach-Zelewski, were to clean up the lingering partisan problem behind the front lines and round up Jews. The men were to be shot, the women and children driven into the swampy region bordering the Pripet River and drowned. Fegelein executed his duties with breathtaking speed and efficiency. The marshy land (known as the Pripet Marshes) was not deep enough to drown the victims herded there, so bullets were used indiscriminately to massacre partisans and civilians by the thousands. Promotions followed.
The year 1943 was a pivotal point in his life. A severe wound earned him a one-way ticket back to Germany. Privilege and higher rank raced in his direction the following year when Fegelein married the plump but cheerful Gretl Braun, Eva’s sister. His fanatical dedication to duty, close ties to Himmler, and marriage to the sister of Hitler’s faux mistress catapulted him into the Führer’s inner circle. During the final months Gruppenführer Fegelein worked as the liaison officer between Himmler (who referred to him often as “My Dear Fegelein”) and Führer headquarters. The overseer of the Pripet Marshes cleansing exercise vanished in Berlin during the war’s final hours. As Hirschfeld learned from CIC agents, they had reliable (if sketchy) information as to Fegelein’s fate. The whereabouts of Adolf Hitler, however, remained an open question. If Fegelein was alive, he would have the answers. Almost certainly Hitler was dead, for U.S. authorities had interrogated eyewitnesses regarding his suicide. Only the Russians, however, who had overrun Berlin and the Reich Chancellery seemed to know for sure, and they remained tight-lipped about the entire affair. The surviving elder Fegeleins were a well-connected Nazi family living in the Munich area. They were also extremely close to their son. The CIC wanted Hirschfeld to win their confidence and uncover reliable leads as to what happened to their offspring—and to Hitler and Eva Braun.4
Hirschfeld suspected it would be very difficult to win the confidence of the general’s parents, who had good reason to remain silent and keep their affairs private. Pondering how best to approach the couple, he decided to pose as a former SS officer who had played a major role in Operation Bernhard, the counterfeiting scheme run by the RSHA. Hirschfeld had become acquainted with the project during his work on the Josef Spacil case.
Hirschfeld arrived at the Fegelein residence on September 20 for the first of several visits. His knock brought forth Frau Fegelein, who admitted him, though with some reluctance, after discovering he was a former SS officer. Hans Fegelein was not nearly as receptive or accepting as his wife. Hirschfeld’s initial concern was correct. “The work is very difficult,” was how he began the day’s report. “These people are well informed about the work we did at Fischhorn. They have good communications with Austria.” Hans Fegelein was distinctly distant and circumspect. “The elder Fegelein is more than careful; his wife is somewhat less cautious,” Hirschfeld observed. Fegelein continually pressed Hirschfeld “for substantiation.” He asked him for his address and then wrote it down as if to later confirm it. (According to Hirschfeld, a man followed him when he left the house later that afternoon.)
“Why are you here,” demanded a suspicious and obviously hostile Fegelein.
Hirschfeld took a deep breath and launched his tale. “I buried large quantities of gold, silver, and diamonds in Austria during the war’s closing hours, and I am trying to establish communication with your son, General Fegelein.”
The elder Fegelein barely blinked in response. Hirschfeld cleared his throat and continued. “He is one of the last high ranking representatives of National Socialism still at large, and I must turn over to him maps and sketches of where these valuables are hidden. We can use this money in the future.” It was a convincing display of lying and acting, and Hirschfeld was an expert at both. The wary Fegelein listened closely but said little.
Quiet seconds ticked past. “I am in Munich to sell some rings I took from one of the hiding places.”
“We have almost no money left,” Fegelein broke in. “If Hermann were to return, he’d have nothing left.” Was he asking for money? wondered Hirschfeld.
Have you heard anything from the general?” asked Hirschfeld. “How can I contact him?”
“I telephoned my son only two days before the capitulation,” Fegelein replied, beginning to thaw a bit around the edges. “I heard from a reliable source that the English radio has broadcast that they captured him in good health. I don’t believe it, though, that they have found him. Besides, it was said to have been broadcast only once.” Fegelein paused for a moment before resuming. “Even if the English do have him, that is better than having him fall into Russian hands. They have already sentenced him to death. Twice!” Apparently the elder Fegelein knew about his son’s actions in the Soviet Union.
Hirschfeld sensed the general was alive and that his parents not only knew it, but knew where he was. They also seemed to know more than they let on about what had transpired at the SS-dominated Fischhorn castle during the war’s final weeks. Each time Frau Fegelein tried to tell Hirschfeld about something that had happened there Hans would admonish her to silence. “Be still! That would not interest Herr Hirschfeld at all!” They were hiding something. But what?
It was slow and careful work, but as the hours slipped past Hirschfeld managed to gain a confidential toehold inside the Fegelein home. Gently but expertly he guided the conversation around to the topic of hidden assets and Franz Konrad. Did they know him?
“Konrad!” spat Fegelein. “No, I did not get any money from him. They should rather have given me the money. I would have distributed it honestly. That crook is certain to have kept it all for himself.”
“Do you think he has much?” asked Hirschfeld. Fegelein nodded knowingly. “I know that Konrad has a lot of money. He and [Captain Erwin] Haufler had a tin trunk or chest, you know, the kind the officers always have. There was gold and jewelry in it. They were going to give me some, but then decided to bury it.” The old man paused. “Did you know that Haufler is in Dachau? I also heard Konrad has been arrested.”
Hirschfeld feigned ignorance. As the conversation continued Hirschfeld thought it rather macabre that neither parent discussed the fate of their son w
ho, more likely than not, was dead. “Not one word was spoken of the death of Hermann Fegelein, Eva Braun, or Hitler,” he recorded in his first report. Instead, the Fegeleins spoke of the trio in the present tense as if they were alive and little had changed. Were they indeed still among the living? Hirschfeld was told that a large amount of Eva’s baggage had been removed from Fischhorn castle and taken to a farm owned by Andreas Hofer. The Austrian native had been a high ranking member of the Nazi party and one of Hans Fegelein’s closest confidants. Hofer’s remote homestead now served as a safe house and message center for Nazi party members and former SS officers. Part of the jewelry was buried and the remainder stored with a “Doctor Winkler” in Zell am See. “The doctor has a large, fine house and surely no one will look for them there,” added Frau Fegelein before her husband could shut her up. She was too talkative now to silence completely. Ursula Göhler, the wife of SS Sturmbannführer (Major) Johannes Göhler, she continued, “sent a Boeckling painting, a gift to her from her husband, to the Hofer farm.” As Hirschfeld later discovered, Eva’s sewing machine, toy wagon, and several trunks, contents unknown, were sent to Traunstein, where Eva’s father worked at the hospital.5
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