Nazi Gold

by Douglas Botting

  208 ‘“I heard about it”’ Col. Russell R. Lord: Transcript of telephone interview (Owosso, Michigan, 21 January 1978)

  208 ‘“The mission of the Investigation and Enforcement Branch”’ Finance Division OMGB: Briefing notes of Meeting 14 or 15 October 1946 with General Dwight Eisenhower, Chief of Staff, US Army

  208 ‘“He worked in investigating”’ Lord: Letter, op. cit.

  208 ‘Eisenhower’s cable to President Truman’ Dwight D. Eisenhower: Cable to Harry S. Truman (Trieste, 16 October 1946)

  208 ‘“As Mr Schwarz did not contact this office”’ R. R. Lord: Letter to Director, Finance Division, OMGUS re Direct Contact Between OMGUS and German Officials (OMGB Finance Division, 8 March 1947)

  209 ‘An inspection of the Land Central Bank in Munich’ Edwin P. Keller: Report on Visit to OMGB Munich (FED, Frankfurt, 31 July 1947)

  209 ‘Joseph A. Angotti, was able to report to the FED’ Joseph A. Angotti: Internal Memo – Annex-A, Item 37, Shipment 109 (OMGUS Finance Division, FED, 2 November 1948)

  209 ‘Two months later’ Edwin P Keller: Secret Memo – US Dollars Discussions on 3 January (Office of Finance Adviser, OMGUS, FED Group, Frankfurt, 3 January 1949)

  209/10 ‘“The United States”’ Murray D. Van Waggoner: Letter to Major-General George P. Hays re Military Government Law No. 53 (Munich, 3 February 1949)

  210 ‘“US policy has reached the stage”’ Eugene K. Bird: Prisoner No. 7 – Rudolf Hess (New York, 1972)

  211 ‘90 bars of gold and 4,580,878 gold coins taken from the Reichsbank in Berlin’ Nixon, op. cit. Terry: op. cit.

  211 ‘Jewels, diamonds, securities and foreign currency worth $9,131,000 taken at gunpoint’ Spacil file: op. cit. – interrogation reports and statement Infield: Secrets of the SS, op. cit.

  211 ‘1 bag of SS foreign currency taken from the Munich Reichsbank’ Munich CID Report Geib: Currency Sent from Berlin op. cit.

  211 ‘12 sacks of SS foreign currency’ Geib: op. cit.

  212 ‘85,000 Swiss francs’ Munich CID Report

  212 ‘$5,000 taken by Reichsbank official Mielke’ Munich CID Report Geib: op. cit.

  212 ‘$67,120 US dollars’ Munich CID Report FED Register of Valuables: op. cit.

  212 ‘2 gold bars worth $30,000’ Reports of deposits: op. cit. FED Register of Valuables: op. cit.

  212 ‘One truck-load of foreign currency’ Eckles: op. cit. Odorfer: op. cit. FED Register of Valuables: op. cit.

  212 ‘11 boxes weighing 150 kilos each’ Turicum Report DuBois: op. cit. Goering and Funk interrogation report

  212 ‘25 boxes containing 100 gold bars’ Munich CID Report FED Register of Valuables: op. cit.

  212 ‘6.5 tons of Ribbentrop gold’ Wiesenthal: op. cit. Kempner: op. cit.

  212 ‘17 bags of foreign currency from the Berlin Reichsbank’ Geib: op. cit.

  213 ‘the Brinks robbery’ David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace: The Book of Lists (Sensational Thefts, p. 16) (London, 1977)

  213 ‘Great Train Robbery’ Piers Paul Read: The Train Robbers (London, 1978)

  214 ‘On 27 November he was arrested’ Siegfried F. Feld, Special Agent, CIC: C.I. Arrest Report (Tegernsee, 28 November 1945)

  214 ‘Subsequent investigations . . . He was, however, sufficiently in funds’ Confidential source

  215 ‘a sum of between 100,000 and 150,000 dollars’ Buenos Aires Police records

  215 ‘according to the Innsbruck Police’ Munich CID Report

  215 ‘According to Pfeiffer’ Bungert and Walter: Bild am Sonntag op. cit., 9.6.74

  215 ‘in his application for a visa to the Innsbruck Police’ Munich CID Report

  215 ‘according to the Registry of Births in Munich’ idem

  215 ‘sailed with his wife from Cannes’ Bungert and Walter: op. cit., 9.6.74

  216 ‘to the tune of 100,000 dollars’ Buenos Aires Police records

  216 ‘“That is a lot of lies . . .”’ Telephone interview with Colonel Pfeiffer, I September 1983, Munich

  217 ‘“I am completely unqualified to say anything”’ Telephone interview with Colonel Rauch, 1982, Graz

  217 ‘In 1951 it seems he made his way to the United States’ Buenos Aires Police Department von Blücher: op. cit., 27 April 1982

  217 ‘Walt Disney film set in the Amazon’ Who’s Who in Germany

  217 ‘he wrote several novels and’ Who’s Who in Germany Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  218 ‘Helmut Groeger’ Charles S. Dimarino, CIC Special Agent: Secret Report re Helmut Groeger – Illegal Possession of Large Quantities of American Money (CIC Region IV, 17 June 1948)

  218 ‘“hidden by the Nazis shortly after World War Two”’ Dimarino: op. cit.

  218 ‘“Helmut Groeger lives exceedingly well”’ Lt-Col. Ellington D. Golden: Secret Report re Helmut Groeger (HQ CIC Region IV, 970th CIC Detachment, 17 February 1948)

  218 ‘part of a packet of $5,000’ Max L. Marshall, Special Agent: Secret Memo re Helmut Groeger (CIC Tegernsee, 25 May 1948)

  218 ‘“This investigation was inaugurated”’ Max L. Marshall, Special Agent: Report on Helmut Groeger and Illegal Possession of Large Quantities of American money (HQ CIC Region IV, 17 June 1948)

  219 ‘“You will never, never find out”’ Confidential source in Garmisch

  Chapter 14

  221 ‘It had not been envisaged that the Germans would fight to the last’ Zink: op. cit., p. 88

  221 ‘“The world had never known before”’ Balfour and Muir: op. cit., p. 116

  221 ‘The problems confronting Military Government’ Zink: op. cit., p. 82

  221 ‘these were often looked down’ Peterson: op. cit. Zink: op. cit., pp. 10–11, 23–6

  221 ‘average age of officers’ Zink: op. cit. pp. 8, 31–2

  222 ‘an immensely powerful pre-war Porsche’ Wilson: op. cit.

  222 ‘19,000 US Army deserters’ Stars and Stripes (Paris, 1945)

  222 ‘indulging in gang warfare’ Stars and Stripes (Paris, June 1945)

  223 ‘armed gangs of deserters’ Byford-Jones: op. cit., p. 151

  223 ‘American train bandits’ Public Records Office File WO 171

  223 ‘seen to loot rare antiquarian books’ Charles L. Mee: Meeting at Potsdam (London, 1975)

  223 ‘“a couple of thousand bucks”’ Mee: op. cit.

  223 ‘Reichspost stamp collection’ Wilson: Correspondence

  224 ‘their own private trains’ Guenther Reinhardt: 55-page memorandum on American occupation of Germany (Washington, December 1947, p. 49)

  224 ‘“We became an India Service”’ Arthur Kahn: Betrayal – Our Occupation of Germany (Warsaw, 1950), pp. 123–4

  224 ‘a sense of sheer horror’ George Kennan: Memoirs 1925–50, p. 452 (Boston, 1967)

  225 ‘“I decided to get out”’ Quoted in Peterson: op. cit.

  225 ‘universal concubinage’ Peterson: op. cit.

  225 ‘regular bed checks’ Davidson: op. cit.

  225 ‘“Bewate of Veronika Dankeschon”’ Communication from Antony Terry, Sunday Times (London, April 1983)

  225 ‘“our first 19-year-old Rhineland blonde”’ Byford-Jones: op. cit., pp. 25–6

  225 ‘“Moral standards have crashed to a new low”’ Byford-Jones: op. cit., p. 44

  225 ‘One Camel or Lucky Strike’ Byford-Jones: op. cit., p. 35

  226 ‘$12,000 a year on the cigarette economy’ Koch: Fünf Jahre der Entscheidung – Deutschland nach dem Krieg, 1945–9 (c. 1969)

  226 ‘$5.5 million more than they had been paid’ Byford-Jones: op. cit., p. 37 Davidson: op. cit., pp. 84–5

  226 ‘“Those conditions . . . created an atmosphere so unreal”’ B. U. Ratchford and W. D. Ross: Berlin Reparations Assignment, p. 3 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina University press, 1947)

  226 ‘“it was common gossip that Mrs ClayWilson: Correspondence

  226 ‘Brigadier-General . . . Walter Muller’ Peterson: op. cit., p. 226

  227 ‘“What a
collection of carpetbaggers”’ Wilson: Correspondence

  227 ‘3,500 had been illegally disposed of’ Agent George O. Muse: Alleged Illegal Traffic in German Automobiles (14th CI Detachment CID, 14 May 1947)

  227? – inefficient or dishonest Col. Thomas H. Young: Final Report of Investigation of Transportation Branch, OMGB (Eucom, 31 March 1948)

  228 – was the most poorly administered detachment I have seen Capt Elwood J. Pennetto: Inspection Report of Inspecting Colonel, OMGB (Munich, 4 May 1946)

  228 ‘“They changed like a revolving door”’ Paul O. Bruehl: Telephone interview (Long Island, 10 December 1977)

  229 ‘24 American personnel ordered out of Bavaria’ Col. Fred A. Mayer: Report on Personnel Ordered out of the Occupation Zones for Prejudicial Acts (P and A Division, OMGB, Munich, 30 October 1947)

  Chapter 15

  230 ‘the Kaiserin and . . . French Vichy Government’ Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  230 ‘many Germans of real wealth’ Wilson: Correspondence

  231 ‘the daily fat ration’ Frank Grube and Gerhard Richter: Die Schwarzmarktzeit, pp. 25–6 (Hamburg, 1979)

  231 ‘a rigid monetarist policy’ Balfour and Muir: op. cit., pp. 110–11

  231 ‘A Bokhara rug could be bought’ Grube: op. cit., p. 75

  231 ‘Germany became a cigarette civilisation’ Byford-Jones: op. cit., p. 35

  231 ‘Lucky Strike, Camel, Marlboro and Pall Mall’ Koch: op. cit.

  232 ‘Each train had its black-market nickname’ Koch: op. cit.

  232 ‘the Scheiber’ Grube: op. cit., pp. 77–8

  232 ‘penicillin, or “white gold”’ Wilson: op. cit.

  232 ‘The Duisburg Railway Station Gang’ Grube: op. cit., pp. 77–8

  233 ‘Another gang stole complete trains’ Grube: op. cit., p. 76

  233 ‘One of the most successful black-marketeers’ Wilson: op. cit.

  233 ‘In Garmisch-Partenkirchen there was no “Mr Big”’ Wilson: op. cit.

  233 ‘Zenta Hausner’ Garmisch Police files CIC Reports Personal recollections Articles in Wochenend, Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt

  236 ‘“Why don’t We keep mum about the past?”’ Confidential US sources

  237 ‘“the worst concentration of international gangsters James A. Rutter: Interview with Lt-Col. E. Van Buskirk (66th CIC Group, 13 August 1957)

  237 ‘in addition to the Reichsbank reserves’ Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt; ‘Dunkle Rätsel’ Pt 4 (Garmisch, 2 February 1956)

  237 ‘Ten cases of platinum’ Moss: op. cit.

  238 ‘Much of the uranium went missing’ Moss: op. cit. Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt CIC files CID and CIC agents

  239 ‘“We had a big hush-hush on it”’ Buck Wardle: Telephone interview (6 May 1978)

  239 ‘The radium affair’ Frank Orman: Was geschah in diesem Haus (Wochenend, Nuremberg, 19 November 1952)

  239 ‘was worth some $1,250,000’ Herald Tribune Bureau, Berlin, 4 December 1948

  240 ‘taken to Munich for trial by the Military Government Court’ Hochlande Bote, Bavaria, 8 May 1948

  240 ‘suggested it should be donated to some hospital’ Col. William G. Brey, Chief of FED: Letter to Mr Jack Bennett, Finance Adviser, OMGB (Frankfurt, 23 April 1948)

  241 ‘the post-war narcotics trade’ Victor H. Peccarelli, Chief Agent: Secret Preliminary Report on Narcotics Trafficking in Upper Bavaria (Project Garpeck, Eucom, 2 December 1947) Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  241 ‘a huge deposit of cocaine’ Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  241 ‘other sources had to be found’ Peccarelli: op. cit.

  241 ‘there were several dope rings’ Charles B. Dyer, Narcotics Officer, OMGB: Narcotics Situation in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Munich, 3 April 1948)

  242 ‘a self-styled Polish Count’ CIC Records Ivar Buxell: Correspondence Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: ‘Dunkle Rätsel’ Pt 8 (Garmisch, 18 February 1956)

  242 ‘“While no concrete evidence exists”’ Philip P. Benzell, Chief Agent: Concluding Report on Narcotics Trafficking in Upper Bavaria (Project Garpeck, Eucom, 10 January 1948)

  Chapter 16

  248 ‘Ivar Buxell’ For the episode involving Ivar Buxell the authors are indebted to Dr Buxell (who now lives in Caracas, Venezuela) for information concerning his remarkable life contained in his correspondence (Caracas, 1976–83), in his taped interviews (London, 1976) and manuscript autobiography (Caracas, 1983) Buxell’s CIC file from the US Army Intelligence Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland, has also been referred to

  248 ‘“I did not care for Hitler” Ivar Buxell: Taped interview – I was a member of the Abwehr Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  249 General Shandruk supplied me with all necessary documents Ivar Buxell: Correspondence ‘“Are you a spy or something?”’ Ivar Buxell: Taped interview

  250 – The CIC Lieutenant was very confused . . . Ivar Buxell: Unpublished autobiography (Caracas, 1983)

  250 “‘You can only survive in times after war or revolution’” Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  251 ‘Boleslaw Kasimierski’ CIC file on ‘Kasimierski’ Paul O. Bruehl: CIC Report (CIC Sub-Region, Garmisch, 9 March 1947)

  252 “‘the route they generally use on such trips”’ Major Earl S. Browning for Lt-Col. Dale M. Garvey: Report on Boleslaw ‘Kasimierski’ (HQ 970th CIC Detachment, Eucom, 27 February 1947)

  252 ‘“We went in two cars”’ Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  252 ‘Ivar and his brother were arrested’ Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: ‘Dunkle Rätsel Pt 7 (Garrnisch, 12 February 1956) Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  252 ‘“Your husband and his brother have had an accident”’ Garmisch-Parten-kirchner Tagblatt: op. cit.

  253 ‘travel documents’ Photocopies of original documents supplied by Ivar Buxell Paul Bruehl: op. cit.

  253 ‘“no charge . . . no explanation, nothing’” Ivar Buxell: Correspondence

  253 “‘Fräulein Loyal,” exclaimed the incredulous caller’ Civil Censorship Division, USFET: US Civil Censorship Submission – telephone call from Frau Link to Fräulein Loyal (Garmisch, 25 February 1947)

  Chapter 17

  255 ‘“It is recommended that the proper authorities in France”’ Bruehl: op. cit.

  256 “‘The same man turned up in both places”’ Lt-Col. Leonard H. Smith: Transcript of telephone interview (Clearwater, Florida, 1 December 1979)

  256 ‘“We wanna go home, we wanna go home”’ Peterson: op. cit., p. 192

  256 ‘“an aggregation of homesick Americans”’ Raymond Daniell: New York Times, 16 December 1945, quoted in Peterson: p. 92

  256 ‘“The German troops occupying France”’ Quoted in Peterson: op. cit., p. 91, from Senate Investigation of the National Defense Program, 25821

  256 “The ragged German . . . Peterson: op. cit., p. 90

  256 ‘“The most competent man in the executive departments”’ Peterson: op. cit., pp. 56–7

  257 ‘“During this period of unavoidable confusion”’ General Lucius D. Clay: Decision in Germany, p. 63 (London, 1950)

  257 ‘“I was just trying to find out what was going on”’ Leonard H. Smith: Transcript, op. cit.

  258 ‘“imbued with a spirit of creating a magnum opus”’ Lt-Col. Leonard H. Smith: Report of Investigation: Conditions in Garmisch. Interim Report 3 (Inspector General’s Division, Eucom, 14 July 1947)

  258 ‘“It didn’t cost the US Government a penny”’ Frank J. Gammache: Transcripts of telephone interview (Santa Fe, New Mexico, 13 December 1977)

  258 ‘“Where did the money come from?”’ Leonard H. Smith: Report, op. cit.

  258 ‘“I was told that the nightclub”’ Lt-Col. Lester J. Zucker: Correspondence, 27 May 1979

  258 ‘“The Army to this day” Bob Shawe: Transcript of telephone interview (Pebble Beach, California, 28 February 1978)

  258 ‘British urinals’ Leo de Gar Kulka: Taped reminiscences (Tape No. 1, San Francisco, 21 June 1978)

  259 ‘Agoston’s s
tory continues’ Tom Agoston: Transcript of telephone interview (Hamburg, 3 December 1977)

  259 ‘HUGE DOPE RING PROBED IN BAVARIA’ Tom Agoston: Stars and Stripes (Frankfurt, 13 January 1948)

  260 ‘Ed Hartrich had filed a similar story’ Ed Hartrich: Army Reveals Huge Bavarian Drug Traffic, New York Herald Tribune, 13 January 1948

  260 ‘“all possible influence”’ Message concerning Gammache case from HQ Eucom, Frankfurt, signed Huebner, 7 January 1948 CSO 19 3339

  260 ‘“the original tip”’ ibid.

  261 ‘After his bugging assignment in Garmisch’ Kulka: op. cit., Tape No. 1

  261 ‘“I could not help but sense”’ Lt Col. Leonard H. Smith: Testimony before Inspector General’s Investigation into Allegations by Guenther Reinhardt. Exhibit ‘B-3’, p. 15 (Berlin January 1948)

  261 ‘In his report to General Clay’ Leonard H. Smith: Report of Investigation, op. cit.

  261 – The first time we left our hotel room Lt-Col. Leonard H. Smith: ‘She Came by Night’ (unpublished manuscript, Clearwater, Florida, October 1980)

  262 ‘“Once physically installed”’ Leonard H. Smith: ‘She Came by Night’ 370 ‘“Accustomed to the German habit Leonard H. Smith: ‘She Came by Night’

  262 ‘“Myconclusion . . . was that this was not an ordinary housebreaker”’ Leonard H. Smith: Testimony, up. cit., p. 13. Record Group No. 159 333.9 Guenther Reinhardt. Box 527

  263 ‘Zenta Hausner’ Leonard H. Smith: Testimony, op. cit.

  263 ‘What he remembered most about that time’ Leonard H. Smith: Telephone transcript, op. cit.

  263 ‘“Several attempts were made on my life”’ Kulka: op. cit., Tape No. 1

  263 ‘“I decided that the way to sanity”’ Kulka: op. cit., Tape No. 1

  264 ‘imprisonment without trial’ OMGB Intelligence, Historical and Reports Branch: Time Necessary for Trial of Minor Cases after Arrest (Munich, 6 January 1947) Nat. Archives Record Group No. 260

  264 ‘“I knew through CIC channels Lt-Col. Leonard H. Smith: Testimony, op. cit., p. 16

  264 ‘Smith then took a most unusual step’ Smith: Testimony, op. cit.

  264 ‘“that gold and dope deal”’ Telex, HQ CIC Region IV, Munich, 4 June 1947

  265 ‘“All of a sudden”’ Kulka: op. cit., Tape No. 2 (San Francisco, January 1979)

  265 ‘One night . . . Ivar was picked up from the Rathaus cells’ Ivar Buxell: Correspondence, 28 September 1976 and June 1983 Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt: ‘Dunkle Rätsel’ Pt 7 (Garmisch, 11 February 1955)