Nazi Millionaires
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Friedrich Walther Bernhard Krüger, the SS officer who had overseen the Sachsenhausen counterfeiting operation, was the subject of a global search that lasted for a decade. He and his mistress had reportedly absconded with a fortune at wars’s end. Ten years later he was discovered working as a clerk in a small store near Hannover, broke and without his girlfriend. He was released after questioning. No charges were ever brought against him. Although invited to do so by many journalists and historians, he steadfastly refused to discuss Operation Bernhard. We have been unable to determine whether he is still living.
One of the most cold blooded SS killers, Otto Ohlendorf turned himself in to the British in the third week of May 1945. He was interrogated extensively and provided chilling details about the Einsatzgruppen and RSHA operations. He testified at length at Nuremberg. Thereafter the table was turned and Ohlendorf found himself sitting in the dock as the leading defendant in one of the dozen later Nuremberg trials sponsored by the United States Army (Case No. 9, The Einsatzgruppen Case). He was sentenced to death and after four years was hanged for his crimes.
Unfortunately nothing has been discovered as to the postwar lives of Arthur and Iris Scheidler.
Walter Schellenberg escaped both a death penalty and a lengthy prison sentence by assisting the Allied prosecutors during the Nuremberg trials and by providing intelligence on the Soviet Union gathered during World War II. An extraordinarily light sentence of six years in prison was meted out in April 1949. While in jail Schellenberg penned his memoirs, The Labyrinth: The Memoirs of Hitler’s Secret Service Chief (New York, 1956), an interesting but wholly sanitized account of his wartime activities. While in prison Schellenberg developed a serious liver disease and was released after having served just two years. He died on March 31, 1952, in Turin, Italy.12
After working undercover with the CIC in the early postwar world, Gerhardt Schlemmer ran into trouble with Walter Hirschfeld, spent some time in jail for his fraudulent loan scheme—and vanished.
Former SS General Friedrich Schwend, the master organizer of a large network for the distribution of forged bank notes, was arrested shortly after the war in the company of fellow con man George Spitz. He was released in September 1945 and returned to Italy, where Spitz convinced him that as a high-ranking SS officer he could not safely remain in Europe. Spitz provided Schwend with falsified Jewish papers and a new alias as Vencel Turi. Another set of fake Red Cross papers listed him as a Croatian exile named Wenceslas Turi. With the help of the notorious “ratline,” Schwend and his wife escaped through Milan to South America. He lived comfortably in Lima, Peru, where he worked as a senior engineer for Volkswagen. Schwend traveled extensively, and American Intelligence believed he was the leader of a pro-Nazi group and that he helped shield Josef Mengele from arrest.
Schwend’s luck ran out when he was hauled before a Peruvian court for his involvement in a murder and other crimes. During the long trial that followed, the prosecution’s lead witness died under mysterious circumstances. A conviction on a minor charge followed and Schwend was expelled from Peru. German authorities then took him into custody for his role in a World War II-era murder in Italy (perhaps the time he had spent in a Rome jail during the war years was related to this matter), but the case had gone cold and Schwend was released after about one year. Peru lifted the expulsion order during his sojourn in a German jail, and Schwend returned to Lima. He lived, some say lavishly, until his death in 1980.13
Brigadier General Franz Six, cleverly arrested by Walter Hirschfeld with the unwitting help of Six’s sister Marianne, was tried in Nuremberg in 1947-1948. The mass murderer promoted by Himmler for his methodical work with Einsatzgruppen B was more than worthy of a seven-foot drop through a swinging door. Somehow he managed to escape the death penalty and was sentenced to a mere twenty years in prison. That paltry sentence was subsequently commuted to ten years, and he was released after serving just four. Forty-eight months for tens of thousands of lives. Six probably joined the Gehlen Organization (see Emil Augsburg entry) and was later an advertising consultant in the German town of Kressbronn. The date of his death is not known.
SS Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny, Adolf Hitler’s daring commando and ritual sword fighting duelist (one scar on the left side of his face resembles a perpetual grimace), was arrested by the Americans one week after his meeting with Josef Spacil on May 15, 1945. He was tried for war crimes in 1947, but prosecutors were unable to secure a conviction. Skorzeny was turned over to the German authorities, who probably did not have the stomach to put the former (and still popular) war hero on trial. He escaped custody the following summer and fled to Spain, where Fascist General Francisco Franco shielded him from extradition. Skorzeny had an endless supply of money. He created and organized ODESSA, a clandestine organization that helped SS criminals escape Europe. The former commando lived affluently in Spain until his death in Madrid in 1975. His memoirs are available in English as My Commando Operations: The Memoirs of Hitler’s Most Daring Commando (Schiffer, 1995).
Counterfeiter Salomon Smolianoff was arrested in 1947 by the U.S. Army for selling a $500.00 bill on the black market. He spent but a short time in custody. He married later that same year and emigrated first to Uruguay and then to Brazil. In 1955 he was painting and working on (apparently legitimate) commercial art projects. His fate is not known.
Colonel Josef Spacil was never charged with war crimes for his plundering activities or criminal SS past. After CIC agents finished with him and his mandatory imprisonment for serving in the SS ended, the nervous wreck of a man was released in the summer of 1948. He returned to Munich. There, he gathered himself together and established a chain of supermarkets. He lived untroubled for the rest of his days. Whether he gained access to the stolen loot he had buried in Austria has not been determined. We know nothing of Spacil’s final years.
Star swindler George Spitz was arrested shortly after the war. Speaking with a New York City accent, the smooth one volunteered to help the Americans recover some of Herman Göring’s stolen loot. Despite widespread knowledge of his multi-country pilfering, he was never charged with a crime. One CIC official called him a “snake, very difficult to catch.” It was therefore better to squeeze him for “as much information as possible.” Spitz tried to distance himself from his Nazi past by marrying his mistress in a Munich synagogue. He later told U.S. officials that he married her because she knew too much about his activities and was afraid of what she could be forced to reveal if they were not husband and wife. His efforts to convince the CIC that he was indeed a Jew and coerced into working for the Nazis were eventually successful.
SS Major Dieter Wisliceny, Adolf Eichmann’s deputy and the man on whose staff Kurt Becher admitted having served in Hungary, was the originator of the “Jewish Star” badge. His actions rounding up and deporting Jews from Slovakia, Greece, and Hungary earned him a trip to Czechoslovakia. Unlike the French, the Czechs knew a capital case when they saw one. Wisliceny breathed his last on a gallows in February 1948, just a few miles from the scene of some of his crimes.
Preface Notes
1. Lawrence Fellows, “Eichmann Dies on Gallows For Role in Killing Jews,” New York Times, p. 1, June 1, 1962.
Introduction Notes
1. Hitler’s efforts painting postcards are today reaping large sums for those who own them. The least expensive unattractive green on green card sells for at least $6,000. Nicer ones with a postmark fetch $15,000. Any of his paintings sell today for more than $1,000,000. The largest collection of Hitler art is owned by collector Billy Price of Houston, Texas.
2. The issue of Hitler’s rank, awards, and lifestyle are a minor mystery that is only now being understood by historians. Lothar Machtan, in his remarkable recent book The Hidden Hitler (New York, 2001), delves into these and many other issues surrounding Hitler’s early years, friendships, rise to power, and sexuality. Machtan’s work is based almost exclusively on police and army reports, diaries, letters, newspapers, and eyewitnes
s accounts. His trenchant study seems to confirm that Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross under dubious circumstances, and was not promoted to higher rank because of his homosexuality. Ibid., 68–69, 71, 91.
3. Alan Axelrod and Charles Phillips, The Macmillan Dictionary of Military Biography (NY, 1998), pp. 165–166. The best biography of Hitler is Ian Kershaw’s recent two volume set Hitler: Hubris, 1889–1936 (New York, 1999), and Hitler: Nemesis, 1936–1945 (New York, 2000). It is a meticulously researched and written study, but must be utilized in conjunction with Machtan’s The Hidden Hitler.
Chapter 1 Notes
1. This general background of Heinrich Himmler is extracted from Peter Padfield, Himmler: ReichsFührer-SS (London, Cassell Publishers, 2001). See specific references within. Padfield’s book is, by far, the best single source on Himmler’s life and career under the Nazi banner.
2. Joachim C. Fest, The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of Nazi Leadership (London, 1970), pp. 141–144.
3. Fest, The Face of the Third Reich, pp. 144–147.
4. Axelrod and Phillips, Dictionary of Military Biography, p. 166.
5. Padfield, Himmler, pp. 248–249.
Chapter 2 Notes
1. There are several good books dealing with Heydrich. Two of particularrelevance are: Edouard Calic, Reinhard Heydrich : The Chilling Story of the ManWho Masterminded the Nazi Death Camps (New York, 1984), and CallumMacDonald, The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich: The SS Butcher of Prague (DaCapo, 1998).
2. For an interesting psychological examination of Heydrich, see Fest, TheFaces of the Third Reich, pp. 98–110.
3. Dear, ed., Oxford Companion to World War II, pp. 526–527. Heydrich also probably took a hand in the Tukhachevsky Affair, which led to the purge ofmany top Red Army generals in the Soviet Union.
4. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (New York, 1996), pp. 148–153. According to themuseum at Wannsee, Germany, Reinhard Heydrich requested the Final Solutionassignment.
5. Adolf Eichmann testified at his trial in Israel that he sat in a corner with a stenographer and recorded “euphemisms,” although Heydrich spoke “in absolutely blunt terms” regarding the killing of the Jews. Eichmann Testimony, Session 107, July 24, 1961; Padfield, Himmler, p. 357.
6. The Faces of the Third Reich, pp. 108–109.
7. illiam L. Schirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York,1959), pp. 991–994.
8. Peter R. Black, Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Ideological Soldier of the ThirdReich (Princeton, 1984), p. 14.
9. Dear, ed., The Oxford Companion to World War II, p. 642.
10. Dear, ed., Oxford Companion to World War II, pp. 969–970. TheGermans referred to the individual bureaus as Amt. Thus, Bureau II, forexample, would be listed as Amt. II.
11. Goldhagan, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, p. 167.
12. Goldhagan, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, p.167.
13. Case No. 9, “The Einsatzgruppen Case.” Ohlendorf’s testimony can befound in RG 238, Entry 92, Box 1, vol. 2, National Archives.
14. Padfield, Himmler, pp. 127, 144–145.
15. Padfield, Himmler, pp. 198–200.
16. Dear, ed., Oxford Companion to World War II, pp. 189–190; HansBernd Gisevius, To the Bitter End (Boston, 1947), pp. 443–444.
Chapter 3 Notes
1. “Administration of Fischhorn Castle,” signed Hans Schneider, August 25, 1948, RG 260, U.S. Forces Austria, NA.
2. “Personal Name File, Franz Conrad [sic],” RG 319/631/31–32/54–2/4–4, Box 31A, IRR Case Files, hereinafter referred to as “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad.” See also, CIC, “Testimony of Franz Konrad, regarding his past doings in the Ghetto of Warsaw,” pp. 1–5, January 4, 1946, NA, hereinafter referred to as “Interrogation of Franz Konrad.”
3. Dear, ed., The Oxford Companion to World War II, p. 892.M
4. “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogation of Franz Konrad,”January 4, 1946, pp. 6–10.
5. “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogation of Franz Konrad,”January 4, 1946, pp. 1–5.
6. “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogation of Franz Konrad,”January 4, 1946, pp. 6–10.
7. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (April 1963), KZ Ghetto Korruption, p. 22, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary.
8. Padfield, Himmler, p. 295; John Toland, Adolf Hitler (NY, 1976), pp.773–774.
9. Toland, Adolf Hitler, pp. 773–774. According to Toland, Dr. Konrad Morgen brought 800 corruption cases to trial with 200 convictions. Morgen charged Karl Koch, the commander of Buchenwald, and his wife Ilse, with fraud and theft. Koch was convicted and executed; Ilse was acquitted. As astounding as this sounds, many SS personnel were imprisoned and executed because of Morgen’s efforts. Later, many more SS officers faced Polish wrath even while the war was still being fought. For example, a group of six officials of the Polish death camp at Maidanek outside Lublin, including commandant Herman Vogel, were tried and put to death by a Polish Special Criminal Court in Lublin in 1944.
10. For an excellent study of the sad story of Warsaw and the subsequent uprising, see Israel Gutman, The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (NY, 1994).
11. According to The Simon Wiesenthal Center, some 20,000 Jews and others, primarily partisans or surrendered soldiers, were killed during Fegelein’s tenure in Poland and the Soviet Union.
12. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (April 1963), KZ Ghetto Korruption, p. 23, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary; “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogation of FranzKonrad,” pp. 13–17.
13. “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogation of Franz Konrad,” p. 31.
14. Hitler File, Volume I and II, two folders (no box number), Headquarters European Command, Intelligence Division, Receipt for Property, October 14, 1949, RG 319, G-2, NA; “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogation of Franz Konrad,” p. 33.
15. Dear, Oxford Companion to World War II, p. 1260; Gutman, The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, selected references throughout; “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogation of Franz Konrad,” p. 33.
16. “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogation of Franz Konrad,” January 4, 1946, pp. 47–48.
17. “History and Identification of Polish Property,” Salzburg, March 5,1946, RG 260 USFA, NA; “Personal Name File, Franz Konrad”; “Interrogationof Franz Konrad,” January 4, 1946, pp. 66–67.
Chapter 4 Notes
1. International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, Frank Defense Exhibit 16.
2. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (December 1962), “Ein SchafferNicht,” p. 17, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary.
3. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (December 1962), “Ein SchafferNicht,” p. 17, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary. Like so many other SS officers, one of the first thingsBecher procured was a mistress by the name of Irene Polgar, a 37-year-oldsecretary employed by a rich, local industrial family.
4. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (December 1962), “Ein SchafferNicht,” p. 18, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary.
5. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (December 1962), “Ein SchafferNicht,” p. 17, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary. There was a secondary political motivation drivingBecher’s confiscation efforts. By taking over the Weiss complex, which was partof the Herman Göring Works, SS Reichsführer Himmler—throughBecher—was asserting and demonstrating SS dominance over the GöringWorks’ officials.
6. Eichmann, “Memoirs,” Life Magazine, Vol. 49, No. 23, December 5,1960, p. 146.
7. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (December 1962), “Ein SchafferNicht,” p. 18, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary.
8. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (February 1963), “
Mord an Dr. Billitz?” p. 18, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary.
9. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report in the Banality of Evil (London, England, 1994), pp. 141–142.
10. on Kurt Emmenegger, Sie und Er (February 1963), “Mord an Dr. Billitz?” p. 19, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary.
11. Eichmann, “Memoirs,” Life Magazine, p. 146.
12. Eichmann, “Memoirs,” Life Magazine, p. 146. Much of Eichmann’scontact with Kastner, and thus his subsequent assessment of him as related here, was the result of a lengthy negotiation designed to save a trainload of Jews ofKastner’s choosing. This sad episode is explained in detail elsewhere in thischapter.
13. Eichmann, “Memoirs,” Life Magazine, p. 146.
14. Alex Weissberg, Desperate Mission: Joel Brand’s Story (New York,1958), pp. 236–247; Ben Hecht, Perfidy (New York, 1961), p. 129. JoeNussbecher-Palgi eventually became the head of El-Al, the Israeli nationalairlines.
15. Arendt, Eichmann, p. 143; “Bureau of State, Incoming Telegram, signed Acheson,” June 21, 1946.
16. “Incoming Telegram, Signed Acheson,” January 4, 1946, RG 59, StateDepartment and Foreign Affairs, Bureau of State, National Archives.
17. Von Kurt Emmenegger, Sie Und Er (date and title missing, 1963), p. 89, Magyar Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, Budapest, Hungary.
18. Statement by Támas Bogyay, August 8, 1949, pp. 117–121, Sacco DiBudapest, compiled by László Mrvik (Egyetemi Nyomda Rt., Budapest, Hungary).