RichardQ Loc: Colorado

While the Soviet Red Army prepared its rapacious assault on Berlin in early April, 1945, Patton's Third Army tanks roared through eastern Germany toward Czechoslovakia. On their way they overran a series of salt mining villages sandwiched between two concentration camps, Buchenwald and Ohrdurf.

One of the villages was Merkers, home to the old salt mine of Kaiseroda, a 1,600-ft. deep labyrinth with 30 miles of galleries and five entrances.

Two military policemen, Pfcs Clyde Harmon and Anthony Kline, were assigned to monitor the night-time curfew of the village. They stopped two women in the streets, discovering they were French DPs (displaced persons) and one was a midwife being taken to a woman near childbirth. The GIs decided to drive them to their destination and passed one of the salt mine gates, where their passengers commented that the Nazis had deposited huge amounts of gold recently, so much that the unloading took 72 hours.

Harmon and Kline reported that info, and their commanders soon verified it from other DPs and a British POW who had been used in the unloading. The mine entrances were immediately secured by a tank brigade and an infantry regiment. The mine operators activated the ancient elevator system and an inspection party (including Signal Corps photographers, nine mine officials, and a team of division officers, found millions of bagged paper Reichsmarks, plus a sealed steel vault door set in a fresh brick wall.

Next day, division engineers blasted a hole in the vault wall, exposing a room 75 feet wide by 150 feet long. Part of the floor was covered by 7,000 numbered sacks, each filled with two or three 25-pound gold bars or gold coins (including more than $17 million in U.S. gold coins) and a million Swiss gold francs. Total weight: 250 tons, with an estimated 1945 value of $250 million. Bales of various European currencies were stacked alomg a wall. Another gallery contained an enormous quantity of loose paintings and other art works removed from Berlin's museums or stolen from other European museums and collectors. Estimated weight: 400 tons. Value: astronomical.

A macabre proof of Nazi greed was a pile of valises and suitcases, from the concentration camps, containing gold and silver dental fillings, wedding rings, eyeglass frames, watch cases. pearls and precious gems. Other trunks held huge quantities of gold and silver flatware and ornaments, flattened by hammers in preparation for smelting into gold or silver bars.

On April 12, 1945, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton inspected the mine. Because it was located in the area designated for the Soviet Occupation Zone, they quickly decided to move the treasures to a Reichsbank vault in Frankfurt, 85 miles away in the American Zone, which required two separate convoys (one for the gold and silver, one for the artworks). Each convoy had thirty overloaded 10-ton trucks, guarded by five rifle platoons, ten multiple-mount antiaircraft vehicles, and Piper Cub and fighter air cover. A rumor claims that one truck "disappeared."

1,600 feet underground, Nazis hid 7,000 bags of gold plus gruesome loot - April 12, 1945


This Monet painting was among 400 tons of stolen artwork found in German salt mine - April, 1945


General Eisenhower inspects art in Merkers' salt mine - April 12, 1945

geolaval Loc: Laval, Quebec

What an amazing story Richard. Thanks for posting.

DrWilk Loc: .

A great deal of the artwork was returned to the museums and some to the private owners but I think what we need to ask is whatever happened to the gold and money? Was it kept by the American government? Was it used for humanitarian purposes to help the DP's? Was it used to aid the cities and countries that were damaged or destoyed by the war?

DrWilk Loc: .

I just found this information which answers my previous questions.

The story of the Merkers treasure still continues. During the summer of 1948, most of the records of the Reichsbank's Precious Metals Department were microfilmed by the U.S. Army and, interestingly enough, turned over to Albert Thoms, who was working for the successor bank to the Reichsbank. These records have subsequently disappeared in Germany, and there has been a search for them the past two years in the belief they would shed light on how much non-monetary gold (e.g., dental gold) was melted down and mixed with the monetary gold (i.e., central bank gold) and thus indicate how much restitution still should be made to victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs.(71)

At an international Nazi Gold conference held in London in December 1997, several countries agreed to relinquish their claims to their share of the remaining 5.5 metric tons (worth about sixty million dollars) still held by the Tripartite Gold Commission (TGC) and donate it to a Nazi Persecution Relief Fund to help survivors of the Holocaust. Almost all of the claimant nations similarly agreed to such a policy during the course of 1998. Early in September 1998, in a ceremony held in Paris, the TGC announced its task was completed and went out of business. Thus, the Merkers story ends on a noble, selfless, just, and moral note, as upwards of fifteen countries were willing to forego receiving gold stolen from their nations by the Nazis and allow it to be used as compensation for victims of Nazi persecution.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

This was also depicted in the movie "Monuments Men". Which was an interesting movie based on true events...

http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your comments and interest, geolaval. The official Nazi government piracy behind the art and gold robberies remains jaw-dropping in scale, exceeded only by the scale of human slaughter in the concentration and death camps in only a few years.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your interest and comments, Dr. Wilk, and especially for your research on the subsequent dispensing of the funds and concluding report by the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold aka TGC. It should be noted that the TGC was formed in September 1946, about 16 months after the Merkers gold was transferred from the Kaiseroda mine to the Reichsbank vault in Frankfurt. What happened in those 16 months? Apparently in early 1946 the gold was turned over to something called the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency before being assigned to the TGC.

During that time and afterward, the artwork was held under the jurisdiction of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MHAA) section of G-5, the Army's Civil Affairs section which included Military Government operations. They were responsible for returning the paintings, statuary, etc. to the original owners. A "Final After Action Report" by 12th Army Group's G-5 section noted that "approximately two-thirds of the art found was legitimate German property" (conservative estimate 100,000 items). Looted collections and items totalled 10,500 items and cases.

But the gold bars and coins were not part of MHAA's responsibility. Colonel Bernard D. Bernstein, deputy chief off the Financial Branch of the G-5 Division of SHAEF, was assigned by General Eisenhower to head up the Merkers gold removal project. He selected the Reichsbank in Frankfurt as the most suitable storage site, and worked with MHAA ETO head, Captain
George Stout, to coordinate the removal of the artwork and gold in the convoys. After the gold was unloaded in Frankfurt, there doesn't seem to be any record of how it was secured and guarded during the 16 months before the TGC took over.

It must be noted that this was a turbulent manpower and staffing time, when the ETO was rapidly downsized. Men -- both officers and enlisted -- basically dropped their responsibilities on-the-spot when they received orders to be shipped home. There appears to be significant opportunity for unscrupulous "misappropriation" of gold, especially coins, without detection. I'd like to read one report, prepared by a Captain L. F. Murray for General Patton on May 7, 1945: "Report of Investigation of Alleged Discrepancies in Currency and Coin Found in Mine at Merkers, Germany."

DrWilk Loc: .

I'd quite like to read that report as well. If you ever locate a copy please let me know. I'll do some research and will forward any findings to you, Richard.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your interest, David. A key thing to keep in mind is the word "based", George Clooney admitted that some liberties were taken in the narrative. For example, the Americans did not withdraw from their occupied sections of the designated Russian Occupation Zone until July 1, 1945, well after MHAA had collected their findings and had withdrawn. So the MHAA men didn't have to scramble out in a panic mode. Clooney said, "After all, this is Hollywood." Another error involved showing six MHAA officers traveling in a group. There were only eight Americans and seven Brits in MHAA for the ETO, excluding Italy, and seven of those 15 served in headquarters in an organizational capacity, so there were only eight MHAA field officers assigned to the American and British armies. I should note that all MHAA personnel were officers (they needed that clout to get any respect for their work), so I don't know why John goodman's character wore sergeant's stripes. One interesting fact omitted from the Merkers mine episode was the fact that Capt. Stout needed padding to protect the paintings for shipment to Frankfurt. In a nearby mine, he found 1,000 long sheepkin coats worn by Nazi officers on the Russian front . He had his padding.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I also found it interesting as was following the story and the release of information on the foundation website. I was fortunate to have gone to the University of Oklahoma to get my degree in electrical engineering/computer design and while earning my degree was "forced" to take several humanities and art courses. Two of my professors were "Monuments Men". We had a several pretty good conversations about the military because I had been in the Air Force attached to US Army Special Forces as a TACP and had several years of interesting military play. All I can say is that these guys (most of whom were art professors and curators first and somewhere way down the line military men) had fantastic experiences and would do any branch (including people in Special Forces of whom I have the greatest respect) proud. I was pleased that a movie had finally come out, even if it did take certain liberties with the story. I have ordered and am anticipating the arrival of the hard bound edition of the book. I am currently reading the Nook version and, while as good as the movie was, the book is amazing.

Michael Hartley Loc: Deer Capital of Georgia

THANK YOU, Sir!

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

missing truck full of nazi gold? i bet kelly, big joe, oddball, crap shoot and all the rest of kelly's heros had something to do with it.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

You're welcome, Michael! I enjoy reminding folks about these too-often forgotten events.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thanks for your comments and interest, sinatraman. Actually, since we had some three million(!) American soldiers crowded into Germany in April, 1945, you'd better multiply those four-plus sharpies by about 20,000! Some of the worst grafters wore eagles and stars on their shoulders.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Dr. Wilk, I've been studying the Tripartite Gold Commission's final report (1959). I'm somewhat puzzled by what appears to be obfuscation. Correct me, please, if I'm wrong, but I assume the Army would have inventoried the gold bars as so-and-so many bars, not as so-and-so many ounces. That would be the way to ensure that any quantity discrepancies would become evident as time passed. The TGC report, however, states: "By July 1948 a total of 9,849,169 ounces of gold in bars, coins or pieces had been deposited with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Bank of England or was still being held at the Foreign Exchange Depository in Frankfurt by the U.S. military authorities." I'm aware that banks measure gold deposits in ounces, but at some stage the number of bars was converted to ounces by somebody, and I presume a record was kept of that conversion. I'd love to compare that to the original inventory taken at the mine. The grand total rose by another millon ounces during the next 26 years, indicating significant traffic volume in the gold storage areas.

Also, the fact that the bars were split up between New York, London, and Frankfurt reveals there was a lot of handling and shipping involved, exposing the gold to possible losses. As I mentioned earlier, the Army was engaged in drastic down-sizing and redeployments in 1945 to 1950, which meant frequent personnel changes among the officers and enlisted men assigned to guard, manage, and ship the gold.

According to the TGC, 80 percent of the total gold pool was distributed to the claimant Governments by November, 1950. The last two gold bars (net 797.539 ounces of fine gold) were recovered from "German financial authorities" on Sept. 27, 1996. They apparently were originally Belgian Central Bank gold bars looted by the Nazis, remelted by the Reichsbank and given false identification marks (Prussian State Mint insignia and a 1938 date stamp). But the Reichsbank had meticulous paper records that proved their real heritage.