A History of Death Camp Gold

A chronicle of how a top Austrian Nazi SS general and concentration camp commander stole and buried millions in treasure looted from his victims and how portions of it were dug up after the war, leaving millions of dollars still buried.

Odilo Lotario Globocnik
 (1904-1945?) 

                    Globocnik as a senior NSDAP official

Born in Trieste under Austro-Hungarian rule on April 21, 1904 to a Slovene family of minor officials, Globocnik was a contractor by profession.

From 1922 he was an active member of pre-Nazi Carinthian paramilitary organizations. He joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (better known as NSDAP or the Nazi Party- Party number 442-939) in 1931 and became a member of the SS in 1934. Between 1933 and 1935 he was arrested four times by Austrian authorities because of his activities for the illegal NSDAP and high treason. Altogether he spent 11 months in jail.

Regarded as an extremely energetic and dynamic person, Globocnik quickly climbed the NSDAP career ladder. In 1936 he was appointed provincial party leader in Carinthia, in 1938, in March to SS Standartenführer, and in May to state secretary and Gauleiter of Vienna, thus becoming one of the leading Austrian National Socialists who helped to organize the overthrow of the Austrian government and make the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria to the German Reich in 1938. As a reward for his assistance, Adolf Hitler made Globocnik Gauleiter of Vienna on May 22, 1938. {A Gauleiter was the head of a Reichsgau, an administrative division of the state.)

But soon his decline commenced. One reason was that Globocnik loved using an astonishing number of dirty tricks, in particular in financial matters. He was even involved in an armed robbery. Another reason was that he was an absolutely uncompromising person who was extremely successful in finding new opponents and enemies in the party ranks, mainly in the Catholic wing of the NSDAP. More important, Hermann Göring, Germany's economic dictator, endeavored to have Globocnik removed from his high party office. On January 30, 1939 Hitler suspended Globocnik as a Gauleiter because of his financial peculations and  proclaimed Josef Bürckel as his successor.

                               Globocnik as an SS-Gruppenführer, left, and as a Party Official, right

                His good friend Heinrich Himmler pardoned him and Globocnik soon volunteered for the Waffen-SS. served as a non-commissioned officer with the SS-Standarte Germania from March until November 1939, serving with distinction in the German invasion of Poland. In November 1939 Globocnik was appointed district SS- und Polizeiführer (SS and Police Leader) for the Lublin district of Poland and promoted to SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei.(SS number 292 776) He reported directly to Himmler and Friedrich-Wilhelm Kruger. After a disappointing party career, Globocnik now had a second chance in the ranks of the SS and the police. On November 11, 1942, Globocnik was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer und GeneralLeutnant der Polizei.

                In 1941 Himmler entrusted Globocnik with the planning and establishment of police and SS-fortified strongpoints in Poland, and in 1942, with the implementation of Aktion Reinhard (Operation Reinhard). For this purpose Globocnik was put in charge of special SS troops, subordinate only to Himmler. He used the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Majdanek to carry out a fourfold task: the exploitation of the Jewish work force, the extermination of Jews, the acquisition of the real estate of the murdered Jews, and the seizure of their valuables and moveable property. More than two million Jews were killed during Aktion Reinhard, and property to the value of 178 million Reichsmarks was seized “for the benefit of the Reich” although Globocnik managed to amass a personal treasure estimated from official records of many millions of US dollars.. For four years, Globocnik collected the cash, gold and jewelry from the gassed prisoners, as well as from many other sources in his district of the General Gouvernment (as conquered Poland was called) Instead of forwarding all to Berlin, he kept a good portion of the treasure for himself. On 27 Feb 1943, SS Obergruppenführer Globocnik sent an itemized list to Himmler of all the things they had confiscated from Polish Jews during "Aktion Reinhardt" as of the beginning of Feb. 1943 (International Military Tribunal, _Trial of the Major War Criminals_ [Blue Series], vol. 34 (Nuremberg: GPO, 1947-1949), pp. 58-63, document number GB-550, 4024-PS).

                 On August 2nd 1943, 150-200 prisoners at Treblinka rushed the guards with stolen hand grenades and guns. Due to these unacceptable incidents and activities, coupled with the fact that SS advocate general Konrad Morgan had uncovered information about Globocnik’s unauthorized gassing of prisoners, caused a concerned Himmler to relieve Globocnik from his command, order the Lublin district camps obliterated and then promoted Globocnik and transferred him to Trieste as Senior SS and Police leader (HSSPF) along with his Ukrainian camp guards and trucks filled with cases of gold coins, wedding rings and other treasures.He resided in Trieste  at Via Nizza 21. Under his command the SS persecuted Jews, political opponents and partisans. The code name for the operation was Einsatz R, a logical successor to the former Aktion Reinhard in Poland. While in Trieste, true to form, Globocnik looted funds allocated for the military defense of Trieste and added this to his large fortune, now under heavy guard in the cellar of his villa.

                He came to Trieste with a heavy contingent of "professionals" – a death squad which had already gained ‘notoriety’ in extermination operations in Russia, Poland and the Polish death camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.

                Altogether there were 92 components from the Einsatzkommando Reinhard in Trieste. They included both men and women and a large SS Ukrainian contingent. The Einsatzkommando were special units designed to "lead the struggle against enemies of the Reich and support the fighting troops". They reported directly to the Head Office of the Reich Security Police ( RSHA, Reichssicherheitshauptampt) which in turn was answerable to Heinrich Himmler’s Internal Ministry. The first Commander of the Einsatzkommando in Trieste was Cristian Wirth who arrived after the 8^th September from his participation in the famous "Aktion T4". This notorious "mission", a wish of Hitler himself, involved the extermination of tens of thousands of mentally and physically handicapped citizens as well as those classified as "incurably" sick. It was known as the "Euthanasia" program.. This concentration of top Nazi officials demonstrates the importance of the "Adriatic coast" for Hitler’s Third Reich.

                It was from his headquarters in Trieste that Globocnik confirmed in writing to Himmler (at the very time of the massacres occurring in Majdanek on November 4, 1943) that Reinhardt had been officially concluded on October 19, 1943, only five days after the revolt in Sobibor.

                Globocnik's 38 -page document that makes up his final report for Reinhardt, confirms that the extermination of several million Jews from different European countries was a massive act of industrial killing. The report is divided into two separate sections with appendices, which contained a number of significant explanations and requests. The documents included details of the resettlement of Jews from the Lublin District, the retention of working Jews for manufacture and, furthermore, that he (Globocnik) had finally handed over the Jewish work camps to Oswald Pohl, who was in charge of all concentration camps. A specific schedule showed (minus Reichsmarks) currency from 29 countries.

                In the same report, Globocnik reminded Himmler of his promise that for extraordinary achievements in fulfilling this work it would be possible to have the Iron Cross awarded to the men of Reinhardt. He requested permission to lodge special application forms and added that the had received such recognition for the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, which was only a small part of the task that had been Reinhardt. Globocnik concluded with the words that he would be grateful if the Reichsführer recognized the hard work of his subordinates.

                On November 4, 1943, Globocnik wrote to Himmler from Trieste: "I have on Oct. 19, 1943 completed Action Reinhard and closed all the camps." He asked for special medals for his men in recognition of their "specially difficult task."

                Himmler responded warmly to "Globos" on November 30, 1943, thanking him for carrying out Operation Reinhard. but made no mention of the medals:

                In October 1944 Globocnik married Lore Peterschinegg, head of the Carinthian BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel), this followed a relationship with Irmgard Rickheim in Lublin.

                In April 1945, at the war's end, Globocnik reportedly took a convoy of trucks loaded with his treasures from Muggia to Carinthia, Austria where he buried it along the accessible shores of the Weissensee Lake. In the general retreat of German forces, Globocnik teamed up with other fleeing Reinhardt personnel: Gauleiter Friedrich Rainer, Ernst Lerch, Hermann Höfle, Georg Michalsen, and Karl Helletsberger.

On May 31, 1945, he was presumably captured by a British commando at an alpine pasture (Möslacher Alm) near the lake, together with his comrades Ernst Lerch, Hermann Höfle and Georg Michalsen

Hermann Höfle, commander of the Head Office of the [Reinhard] Aktion, was released by the British. He then lived in Italy, Austria and Germany, for a brief period of time working in the Gehlen organizations. He was arrested in 1961 in Salzburg. From there he was transferred to Vienna where he hanged himself in his cell on 20 August 1962.

                Georg Michalsen was apparently also released as he is named, along with Globocnik, in a 1960 trial with Karl Streibel, and his case was separated in 1969.

                Different stories of Globocniks' capture and subsequent death have emerged. The one most commonly cited is that Globocnik committed suicide at about 11:30 a.m. the same day outside the small prison, 100 m west of the castle in Paternion. His body was photographed, together with his three comrades [pictured right], then said to be quickly buried and "confirmed" by poorly faked photographs of his body.  

                An official, declassified American Army CIC document from 1948 , revealed that Globocnik has indeed survived by bribing his British captors and eventually ended up as a U.S. CIA asset.

                A November 1996 report by Erwin H. Lerner describes the capture by the 4th Queen's Own Hussars of the 56th ("London") Division of Globocnik in Austria. The 4th Hussars were stationed in Italy as part of XIII Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Sir John Harding. They had no business in Austria, but were apparently working with the 78th Division and a Field Security Service unit based in Villach. Their target was not even Globocnik, but the Gauleiter of Carinthia, Dr. Friedrich Rainer.

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                Lerner wrote of the capture:

"Globocnik posing as an engineer in hiding from Partisans told a very plausible story, and had clearly thought out his cover very carefully. The whole party was marched off ... and taken to the HQ 4 Hussars in Paternion.

"Globocnik was left by himself for some time. He had not up to this time been challenged with his true identity. He betrayed himself by half answering a summons shouted in his real name, and was thereupon told that we knew who he was. Still professing innocence he was marched away, but he had gone only some 150 yards when he collapsed and quietly died from hydrocyanic poisoning. It is almost certain that the glass ampoule was under his tongue from the time of his early morning, arrest as all prisoners were searched for poison, and one ampoule discovered on SS Sturmbannführer Lerch.

"Rainer later confirmed that the dead man was in fact Globocnik. "At 1230 hours all the prisoners were handed over to Provost Office, 78 Division for disposal through 88 FSS."

                 In yet another story, it is said that Globocnik swapped some of his gold and jewels in exchange for his life. In that version, the "fact" is that he was actually traded to the US who employed him as an anti-partisan expert. His expertise proved to be worthless, and he supposedly lived out the remainder of his life in Syria with other escaped Nazi leaders as a corresponding member of the CIA-controlled Gehlen Organization.

                In any case, whether Globocnik was dead or remained alive after May 31, 1945, his treasure worth many millions, was partially unearthed in the 1990's, but it quickly vanished again. (See the updated account of the rediscovery: The Weissensee Gold which is excerpted from "Gestapo Chief, The 1948 Interrogation of Heinrich Muller" by Gregory Douglas, and other sources including Austrian police reports, a file on James P. Atwood of the CIA and an unreleased study by British MI6 under date of June 17^th, 1996 et seq.)

Notes and articles on Globocnik:

• From Edwin H. Lerner: Peter Black in CENTRAL EUROPEAN HISTORY, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1992, "Rehearsal for 'Reinhard'?: Odilo Globocnik and the Lublin SELBSTSCHUTZ," p. 207fn, states: "For Globocnik's background and early Nazi career, see relevant documentation in his SS personnel file, GDC ." [ref. # 4]

See also:

• The Weissensee Gold
• The San Sabba Rice Mill.

Further reading:

• Joseph Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, Hitler's Man in the East, McFarland & Company (March 1, 2004), ISBN: 0786416254.
• Robin O'Neil, Belzec: Prototype for the Final Solution (13-chapter online book)

Siegfried J. Pucher, "... in der Bewegung führend tätig". Odilo Globocnik - Kämpfer für den "Anschluß", Vollstrecker des Holocaust, Drava Verlag, Klagenfurt/Celoves 1997, ISBN 3854352786 SSSSS   

A History of Globocnik’s Treasure

The Weissensee Gold
[Globocnik's Treasure Horde]

A history of one of the largest and proven buried treasures in the world: what has been discovered and what is still waiting to be found.

In late April 1945, a convoy of German trucks left the German-occupied Italian city of Muggia [in Istria] on the Adriatic Sea and drove north through Udine and then northeast to Villach in what was once the Greater German Reich and is now Austria.

There were five trucks, all painted the medium camouflage yellow of the later war German Wehrmacht, and one staff car bearing license plates of the SS. This car was occupied by SS-Gruppenführer Odlio Globocnik, Senior SS and Police Commander of the Adriatic Region, his driver and two SS aides. The trucks each had, besides the driver, two armed Ukrainian guards, all in field-gray Waffen-SS uniforms.

Inside the trucks were stacked dozens of heavy wooden German ammunition boxes, containers of food, cases of liquor and miscellaneous furniture, carpets and household goods.

Before the convoy reached Villach, it turned off the main highway and headed west through the Gaitaler Alps, finally stopping on the north shore of the Weissensee, a long, deep mountain lake.

The ground was still hard from the winter cold, but throughout the night and into the early hours of the next day, holes were dug in the ground at various points around the lake and the wooden ammunition boxes carefully buried. The fresh earth was hastily covered with armfuls of old pine needles and branches. All of the sites were carefully marked on a map and then the trucks drove off, past the small towns of Neusach and Techendorf and onto the main road which is now E-66.

Globocnik was later captured by a British armored unit and purported by them to have killed himself while under interrogation. In fact, U.S. intelligence reports indicate very clearly that not only did Globocnik survive the end of the war, but ended up in American employment.

He had bought his freedom by bribing the British and turning over to them the contents of two of his buried cases, which consisted of many thousands of British pound notes. The remainder of the wooden chests contained millions of dollars worth of gold coins, religious medals, gold jewelry, platinum, silver, antique coins, gold pencils, containers of dental gold and bridgework, and wedding rings.

These had originated in the concentration camps under Globocnik’s control in the Lublin district of what had been pre-war Poland. While the head of such camps as Belzec and Treblinka, Globocnik who had been fired by Hitler from his official prewar position as Gauleiter, or Governor, of Vienna for theft, took advantage of his situation. He sequestered a large amount of treasure he took from the occupants of his camps as well as additional assets obtained from extensive treasure hunts in the districts he controlled.

When Heinrich Himmler learned of Globocnik’s completely unauthorized activities in his Polish domain, he ordered him to close the camps, destroy any trace of them and remove himself with a promotion, to the city of Trieste where Globocnik, a Slovenian, had been born in 1904. While there, Globocnik managed to acquire more loot and it was this money which he took into the Austrian Alps with a crew of his loyal Ukranians who had served as camp guards at Treblinka.

Himmler, and the head of the SS economic section, Oswald Pohl, were well aware that the Slovenian SS general had made off with money belonging to the SS, and the U.S. National Archives has an extensive file of correspondence between the trio, a file that also contains lists of stolen valuables. Globocnik, who ended up in Syria as a corresponding member of the CIA-controlled Gehlen Organization, was never able to recover any of his hidden treasure, but his disclosures to his captors, and later employers, led to an extensive treasure hunt after the war.

Globocnik supplied a map overlay which he claimed showed the exact locations of each burial spot along with a brief notation of the contents. The problem, as noted in U.S. reports, was that the overlay did not correspond to the standard German Wehrmacht 1:50 000 scale maps of the Alpen- und Donau-Reichsgaue of 1944. Other military maps were checked with equally negative results and the official opinion expressed both in the United States and England was that Globocnik had sold his captors a bill of goods.

In the following years, the thought of the buried treasure had energized a number of people from various countries and the Weissensee became a very popular vacation spot. In the winter, when the ground was frozen, the visitors were tourists partaking of winter sports. But in the summer, the guest registries in the various inns and pensions indicate a remarkable number of visitors from Germany, England and Israel, all of whom were no doubt seeking rest and relaxation in the deep pine woods or out on the placid lake.

Globocnik, however, had not sold his captors a bill of goods. The transparent overlay was completely accurate and it was the lack of persistence of both the British and Americans that led them to discount the validity of the treasure map.

Obtaining the overlay was one matter, after all no one believed it officially, but trying to find out what kind of a map Globocnik might have used was quite another. Eventually one was found in a shop in Klangenfurt which was of a pre-1938 printing and dealt specifically with the Weissensee area. It had originally been produced for hikers and was never used by the military.

When the overlay was placed over this map, the markings on the edges matched perfectly with the map, even down to penciled in lines showing the roads and trails that existed in the years before the war.

On this overlay, which was folded and repaired with transparent tape, were nine crosses marked in indelible pencil and after each mark was the notation “10 Kisten” or “8 Kisten,” and brief notations about the depth of the burial sites such as “1.5 m.”  The translation of Kisten is box or crate and the metric depths are obvious

.

When the information about the positive location of Globocnik’s horde was confirmed in 1989, individuals in possession of the overlay and the map embarked on an expedition to recover as much as possible, if not all, of the buried treasure.

Under then-current Austrian law, the treasure trove was to be divided equally between the finder or finders, the government of Austria and the owner or owners of the land on which it was found. Very discreet inquiry with agencies in Vienna disclosed that the Austrian government did not view their former Gauleiter’s money as having been acquired through criminal activities and that, therefore, the division of the find was to follow standard procedure. Had the government decreed that the buried money resulted from a criminal endeavor, the state would assume complete control over it and its eventual disposal.

Given this written assurance, four individuals embarked on a treasure hunt which, if successful, would rival any other such hunt, even the discovery of the Spanish treasure galleons in the waters of Florida. Two of these entrepreneurs were American. One was a CIA employee who worked in Berlin…for both the Company and the East German Stasi. and the other was along because of his possession of the map and overlay. The other two seekers were a German, once an officer in the SS and a former aide to Globocnik, and a Ukrainian SS man who had been involved with the original plantings, but had no specific memory of what he helped bury, and more important, where.

There were nine sites involved. One site had been discovered and looted by Globocnik’s British military captors in 1945, another had been paved over as a parking lot for a postwar inn and was completely inaccessible. Jackhammering up sections of asphalted parking lots was apt to draw the ire of the building’s operators as well as the completely unwelcome attentions of the Austrian gendarmes.

The remaining seven deposits were the goals of the recent arrivals at the towns of Techendorf and Neusach. It was decided to break the group into two sections for security reasons, the two Americans renting quarters at Neusach and the other two remaining at Techendorf.

The German had rented a camper wagon and was pretending to be deeply interested in healthful tours of the woods while his Ukrainian companion developed an equal interest in rowing about the lake in a rented boat, looking for ideal fishing spots.

One of the Americans, who had some artistic abilities, posed as a landscape artist and spent some of his time conspicuously working in watercolors in areas easily observed by the curious. His fellow countryman devoted a good deal of his time in courting various young women, who as often happens, came to the summer resort looking for remote and discreet romance far from permanent boyfriends, husbands or prying relatives. Both were reasonably successful and after two weeks of convincing the local residents that they were indeed both artistic and lecherous, the group came together one night to consolidate their strategy.

The first dig was begun on Sunday, June 10, 1990 at 11:30 p.m. The area selected was just past the town of Neusach where the main road ended. It was about a kilometer past the end of the official road and could easily be reached on foot.

Armed with the map, the overlay, shovels, two tarpaulins and a very expensive metal detector, they spent almost two hours in attempting to finesse Globocnik’s notes. The land had remained the same since 1945, but the growth of new trees since then created a number of problems.

The cache, consisting of four boxes, was located by the detector eventually, surprisingly close to the original location noted on the map and the digging began. The tarps were placed on either side of the opening and dirt from the dig was carefully dumped on top of them to facilitate filling in the excavation when they were finished.

The ground was well-thawed and after thirty minutes of shared digging, a spade resounded from the lid of one of the chests. Very much like 19th century grave robbers, the quartet worked in furtive haste, all of them positive that someone would discover their activities. No one came, however, and the first box was opened in situ. Much of the wood had rotted and the metal fittings were almost shapeless with rust, but the contents of the crate had been carefully packed in tin boxes which had been dipped in wax and were completely intact.

The small boxes, which were pleasantly heavy, were lifted out and carefully stacked at one end of the rectangular hole and the excavation process was continued until all four cases had been located, broken into and emptied.

Without making any attempt, pleasurable though it would have been for all concerned, to open the metal containers, the hole was quickly filled in again. The loose earth was tamped down by stamping on it and finally, a collection of small rocks, twigs, pine needles and forest detritus spread over the surface. The use of the tarps had kept telltale fresh earth from giving the site away and shortly before the sun came up, the German returned along a hiking path with his rented camper to load up the fruits of their nocturnal labors.

The Americans had rented a small vacation home at the edge of Neusach and by the time dawn had touched the tops of the trees and the mountains above the north side of the lake, the small boxes were being opened one by one. Each box had its own inventory and the contents were checked against this. The first expedition had garnered a considerable quantity of jewelry including many gold wedding rings, brooches, cameos, glass frames and gold coins.

These were put into tubes which consisted of black PVC plumbing pipe, about six inches in diameter and one meter long, threaded at both ends, and closed with PVC caps. Each tube was marked with a letter and number and the same markings were inked in at the top of the original typed inventory.

The tin boxes were flattened, put into a fishing bag and later discreetly dumped into the lake by the Ukrainian.

Everyone was tired after the evening’s exertions and with the exception of the Ukrainian’s foray onto the lake, the balance of the day was devoted to rest.

The next dig began on the evening of Monday, June 11, 1990 at the eastern end of the lake. There was a camping ground there and a road that led to Highway E-55, some 9 kilometers away. The site was about two kilometers from the camping ground and it was necessary to be especially vigilant to avoid attracting any unwanted attention from late hikers, inquisitive children or romantic couples seeking a nesting place in the trees.

The second site was discovered to have a pine tree growing over it, and a good deal of time was consumed in procuring a saw, removing the tree, dragging its carcass into the woods and hacking through the extensive root system. There were eight boxes in this horde and the root system had broken into several of them, but as before the contents were well protected in waxed tin boxes and removed without incident. The camper van became stuck in a deep rut on the way back and it took nearly an hour to extricate it. But stuck vehicles and muddy, unshaven individuals were not out of place and aside from an athletic young male camper who spent some time in assisting the treasure hunters in getting their loot-packed van back onto the track, there were no incidents.

The sun was well up when the second load was unpacked, checked and put into the PVC tubes. This load consisted almost entirely of rings, jewelry and scrap gold. There were a number of coins and the artistic American was delighted to note that a number of them were very valuable ancient Greek silver and gold coins, the true value of which seemed to be lost on everyone, but himself.

The Ukrainian made another trip with a far larger load of flattened containers, and because of a number of legitimate fishermen on the lake that morning, had to expend considerable effort in rowing around to unoccupied areas to discard the evidence.

The various members were experiencing considerable physical problems with sore muscles and it was generally agreed that they resume their regular social activities for several days to thwart any possible curious tourists. Two French-speaking individuals had been seen moving along the water’s edge between the towns carrying a metal detector. One of the Americans pointed them out to the Austrian proprietor of a restaurant who remarked in a sarcastic tone that they were looking for some treasure a “big Nazi” was supposed to have buried there at the end of the war. When pressed for information, he continued that there was no treasure, but it was considered good business to discuss the probability of it with foreign tourists. There was even one enterprising local gentleman who rented out metal detectors.

The next expedition set out on the night of Friday, June 15. It was decided to avoid the section of the eastern end of the lake and its campers and pot holes so they began early, circling around the end of the lake and commencing to dig about 1 a.m. on the morning of the 16th.

There were no tree roots to deal with and they were far enough from the main roads and unwanted visitors to make their labors much easier. The soil was looser, containing a quantity of sand, and the six boxes were in far better shape than the others they had encountered previously.

This dig went entirely without incident and the contents consisted mainly of gold coins, loose gem stones and a large number of gold bars weighing ten kilos each. These were packed at the bottom of the crates without wrappings, but as gold is relatively impervious to rot or destruction by the elements, they all appeared to be in pristine condition. All these bars had their weight stamped into them and they appeared to have been cast in a mold designed for lead bars. The only other marks on the bars were from an Italian metal foundry which had obviously been put into the molds on manufacture and did not indicate a bank or refinery origin.

The fourth exhumation took place on the night of Sunday, June 17th, about 20 meters west of the third site. It proceeded without incident and the contents of the six chests proved to be more gold coins, several large boxes of gold religious medallions, a quantity of old American paper gold certificates, several jewel-studded, gold-sheathed old Russian religious icons, an 18th century silver Jewish Torah case complete with parchment document inside, a silver table service bearing the double-headed Polish eagle, and a brace of cased, silver-mounted flintlock pistols from the palace of Catherine the Great at Tsarskoe Selo outside of what was then Leningrad. How these got into the hands of General Globocnik was never discovered. There were also a number of original musical scores by the Polish composer Chopin in excellent condition, and a miscellany of other items of value.

The German was beginning to have problems in his lower lumbar region following the exertions and it was decided to take a short break. During this period, the Americans borrowed the camping van and drove off to the city of Villach where they bought a truck. This was painted to resemble a moving van. As a number of people seeking peace and quiet from the more metropolitan areas of Austria bought property in the Weissensee area, the arrival and departure of moving vans was not considered a noteworthy event.

On Thursday, June 21, 1990, the visitation to the fifth site in the cluster of remaining burials was interrupted briefly by a nocturnal party of drunken hikers, who decided to rest within clear view of where the resurrection men were planning to work. What was worse, one of the hikers was possessed of a handgun which he began to discharge on a fairly regular basis at various trees and other objects. This eventually drew the attentions of the local police who drove down the sandy track in a lurching vehicle, frightening off the inebriates, and leaving the field to the treasure hunters who were concealed at some distance in the underbrush.

The German was now complaining of back pains again and his Ukrainian companion was terrified that the police would return, so the digging went much slower. This horde consisted of five cases, two of which had thoroughly rotted, spilling their contents out when the boxes were moved. From this find came more gold coins, several boxes of unset jewels, more wedding rings, a large German Bible from the sixteenth century with silver clasps and an inset coat of arms, another collection of ten kilo gold bars, and a thick file of official German records wrapped in oil skin and sealed in copper tubes. These proved to be the records of Globocnik’s prison camps listing the names, occupations and eventual fates of a large number of inmates.

The gold bars put a strain on the tires of the camper which blew a tire on its trip out of the area and the van had to be emptied to get at the spare. Throughout this process, the German complained constantly about the pains he was suffering, and the Ukrainian joined in as a sort of chorus. His lamentations centered around the fact that the police would certainly return and they would then lose everything they had worked so hard to acquire.

On the forenoon of Friday, June 22nd, an impromptu conference was held on the terrace of a convenient inn with all the parties participating. Over the consumption of various local beverages and a lengthy lunch, the European Union branch of the association declared that it was their unanimous wish to leave the area at once, taking with them their portion of the recovered loot. It was pointed out that two more sites remained and that these sites were sufficiently remote as to virtually preclude discovery. The objectors claimed that they now had more than enough precious metal to satisfy them and would have some problems transporting it to the relative safety of Germany. They agreed to abandon their shares in the remaining two troves in exchange for a larger share of the material already recovered. They had no interest in the guns or the religious artifacts, preferring to take just the coins and the jewels which were more easily transported.

Finally, after much muted disputation, it was agreed that the precious stones, containing a large number of loose diamonds, some of the gold coins, all of the gold jewelry, and a few of the gold bars would go to the German/Ukrainian part of the team. The balance of the heavy gold bars, the coins and the religious artifacts would remain with the Americans.

As one of the Americans later remarked to his fellow national, the value of diamonds was completely artificial and they were always hard to sell for a decent profit. Since the German was fascinated with the cold glitter of the stones, he was given all of them along with large, but flawed natural emeralds, some of the gold coins which would be more difficult to convert to cash, boxes of scrap gold, nineteenth century watches, and a considerable number of wedding rings.

Following this, the participants in this Last Supper went their separate ways, leaving the Americans in possession of a very valuable bible, a collection of ancient coins worth, at the very least, the aggregate value of all the unset stones, the more easily disposed of gold coins, and almost all the gold bars.

There were now two men left to exhume the remaining two sites, and while the panic of the departed team members had some effect on those remaining behind, it did not deter them from going forth twice more on the evenings of the 29th and 30th of July.

The final gathering consisted mainly of gold bars, a small suit of dress 16th century armor designed for a child and set with stones of some value, and a collection of books in Latin which later turned out to have come from the Polish state library at Cracow. With the cleansing of the last site and the scattering of the last armfuls of forest litter, the first part of the saga of the Globocnik gold was over.

The second part was about to begin.

Finding the treasure, unearthing it and dividing it was child’s play compared with the logistical problems inherent in moving a truck full of contraband gold out of Austria, and to an area where it could be removed from the European continent and enjoyed at leisure elsewhere.

On Wednesday, July 4, 1990, the freshly-painted moving van left Weissensee forever, heading the nine kilometers to E-66 and south towards Italy with its inviting port cities on the Adriatic.

The truck was properly registered and a portion of it was loaded with cheap, second-hand furniture purchased in Austria to lend some verisimilitude to the story that an Austrian family was moving to Venice for business reasons. The former CIA man had obtained all the correct forms and was prepared to encounter Italian customs. However, the customs post was closed and he drove straight through without incident.

What happened to the German and his partner is not known, although they both managed to drive into Germany without any incident. It was rumored that the German retired to nurse his bad back in an expensive suburb of Munich while his co-worker married a fellow Slav and opened an ethnic restaurant in Switzerland.

The Americans bought a serviceable ship in a marina at the northern end of the Adriatic, loaded up their cargo and engaged several local fisherman who had a desire to emigrate as far and as quickly from Italy as possible. The boat, which was a large diesel custom-built fishing boat, was entirely capable of transversing the Mediterranean as well as the central reaches of the Atlantic without undue effort.

The first part of the trip was very scenic, the artistic American spending most of his time making sketches of such points of interest as the ancient palace of Diocletian at Split, and taking a brief detour to make drawings of the palace of the Empress Elizabeth of Austria on the Greek island of Corfu.

They sailed through the wine-dark seas of Greece and out, eventually, past the Pillars of Hercules and vanished completely from this narrative.

In September of 1998, another expedition, this time under the direction of one Norman Scott of Alachua, Florida-based “Global Explorations,” arrived at the Hotel Cieslar in Techendorf.

There were twelve persons in the party, most of whom arrived on the eighth of September with the remaining members arriving on the ninth.

This expedition consisted of:

                        Mr. Scott and his secretary, Ms Doré, Room 117
                        Mr. McAfee, Room 101
                        Mr. Lee, Room 102
                        Mr. Anderson, Room 109
                        Mr. Constandy,  Room 202
                        Mr. Pochmüller, Room 208
                        Mr. Kiester, Room 219
                        Mr. Varga, Room 222
                        Dr. Pfoser, Room 115
                        Mr. Douglas, Room 211

This expedition made a number of searches of the area between 8^th  September and 14^th  September, 1998. Electric boats were rented at Neusach and the eastern end of the Weissensee, where the maps indicated the gold had been buried and partially recovered. Only sail and electric-powered boats were allowed on the lake to avoid pollution. The official police patrol speedboat was gasoline-fueled.

During this timeframe, numerous indications of buried gold were found but because the lake is a very popular tourist resort, there were far too many hikers, sunbathers, fishermen and campers to permit any kind of digging.

However, at the site called the “Lakawand,” Scott and some of his party climbed the stone bluff and discovered at least eight sites that had been previously excavated. The ground had sunk down and left behind a series of hollow impressions in the tree-covered earth overlooking the lake.

The expensive metal detectors located some metal but as it was far too late in the day to begin digging and since no one had the foresight to bring shovels, it was decided to return the next day for serious excavation.

The next day could only be described as controlled chaos. The diggers woke late, had trouble finding shovels and when they got to the Lakawand site, it began to rain very heavily. The local Gendarmerie had been alerted by the boat renter that a party of foreigners had set forth bearing shovels and since the Austrians are not happy about digging parties looking for gold they themselves could find, the irate and wet treasure hunters were accosted by even more irate Austrian police.

They were told that they were trespassing not only on private property but also in a state forest preserve and must depart.

They had not the time to uncover anything but one rusty can and three beer bottle caps.

There was considerable anger expressed by the frustrated hunters towards Mr. Douglas, the man with the overlays. It was discovered, in a heated and very vocal meeting held in the lounge of the Cieslar Hotel, that the contract Global Explorations had with him specified only that he bring them to within 100 square meters of existing, and previous, sites. As that much square footage approximated a football field, accurate location of buried gold was almost impossible.

They were even more irate to discover that Mr. Douglas had recovered a number of important German documents, once the property of General Globocnik, from where he had buried them earlier. They had no intrinsic value but it appeared that Douglas had used the opportunity presented to him by the Global people to have a pleasant and entirely free vacation to the beauties of the Austrian lake country with the opportunity of recovering documents of great political sensitivity.

The unfortunate Mr. Scott was the object of scorn and derision on the part of his investors and this expedition ended in violent recriminations, threats of lawsuits, bad checks tendered for lodgings and no gold to show for their extensive investments in time and money.

In June of 2000, there was yet another visit to the treasure troves of the Weissensee.

This one, far more successful than the 1998 gathering, consisted of only two people and was extensively photographed.

Mr. Douglas was the last of the two Americans involved in the primary exploration. His earlier companion, James Atwood, Lt.Colonel USA and former CIA official in Berlin, had died during a brain  operation, and his share of the loot was no doubt spent on medical bills.

                Since at least 1981, a worldwide network of independent  [i.e., no direct U.S. government ties] companies, including airlines, aviation and military spare parts suppliers, and trading companies, has been utilized by the CIA and the U.S. government to illegally ship arms and military spare parts to Iran and to the Contras. These companies were set up with the approval and knowledge of senior CIA officials and other senior U.S. government officials and staffed primarily by ex-CIA, ex-FBI and ex-military officers.

These CIA-controlled companies include Aero Systems, Inc., of Miami, Arrow Air, Aero Systems Pvt. Ltd of Singapore, Hierax of Hong Kong, Pan Aviation in Miami, Merex in Georgia, Sur International, St. Lucia Airways, Global International Airways, International Air Tours of Nigeria, Continental Shelf Explorations, Inc., Jupiter, Florida, Varicon, Inc., Dane Aviation Supply of Miami, Parvus, Safir, International Trading and Investment Guaranty Corp., Ltd.,  Air America, CAA, and Information Security International Inc.

During the Iran Contra affair, General Secord's arms shipments, arraigned through the CIA, transferred weapons destined for Central America to Merex Corporation,  (Merex International Arms)  of Savannah, Ga. The Merex address  was occupied by Combat Military Ordinances Ltd., controlled by retired  military officer James P. Atwood.  Atwood, a retired  Lieutenant Colonel of U.S. Military Intelligence, [and later a CIA contract worker], stationed in their Berlin office, was  involved in major arms trades with CIA-sponsored international buyers, specifically Middle Eastern Arab states. Monzer Al-Kassar utilized the Merex firm for some of his weapons transactions with the CIA-controlled international weapons cartel.

Merex systems was founded by Otto Skorzeny’s associate Gerhard Mertins in Bonn after the war and was considered a CIA proprietary firm. Merex was close to and worked with the BND, the German intelligence service evolved from the CIA-controlled Gehlen organization. Atwood was involved with Interarmco, run by Samuel Cummings, an Englishman who ran the largest arms firm in the world. Cummings died in Monaco Carlo with a country place at Villars in the Swiss Alps. where he resettled in 1960 because he had looted his CIA employers and found European residence safer than Warrenton, Virginia.

 Interarms (formerly  Interarmco and officially the International Armaments Corporation) was the world's largest private arms dealer, and once had enough weapons in their warehouses to equip forty U.S. divisions. The sole owner was Sam Cummings, who got his start working with the CIA to procure weapons for the 1954 coup in Guatemala

A most interesting individual was James P. Atwood (April 16, 1930- July 20, 1997).

A top US Army Intelligence agent and important CIA contract worker and former FBI employee who ran guns, drugs, counterfeit rare German daggers, stolen archives and much more in and out of various countries from his headquarters in Savannah, Georgia.

During his career, Atwood worked with the CIA's Sam Cummings, Tom Nelson, Jim Critchfield and many others

Atwood's activities are linked to Robert Crowley (who knew him and disliked him) ,to Jim Critchfield and a number of other CIA luminaries.

Arrested by the Army's CIC in the early 60s, for misuse of government mail, tax fraud and other matters,  Atwood  got the CIA to force the charges against him dropped. All the paperwork was supposed to have been destroyed but a copy of the 62 count indictment plus the Chicago Federal judge's orders have survived.

Atwood operated in the Middle East, Germany and Central America. He sold US secrets to Marcus Wolfe of the Stasi and the BND photographed them together in East Berlin

He smuggled guns into Guatemala and Nicaragua and drugs into the US.

Atwood’s role in supplying weapons and explosives to the Quebec Libré movement. The head of the Canada Desk at the Company was actively encouraging this group to split away from Canada. This is a chapter that the CIA does not want discussed. Atwood’s connections with Skorzeny and the IRA/Provo wing make dramatic reading. One of Atwood’s Irish connections is the man who ran the cell that blew up Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979. There is also the shipping of weapons into the southern Mexican provinces by Atwood and his Guatemala based consortium. Oceanic Cargo.

Atwood had a number of ex-Gestapo and SD people on board, some of whom were wanted for war crimes.

Both Schwend and Klaus Barbie formed Transmaritania which was a shipping company that also generated millions of dollars in profits from the cocaine business. They purchased their weapons from another SS colleague, Colonel Otto Skorzeny who had been head of SS Commando units towards the end of the war, later worked for the CIA and had started the Merex weapons business in Bonn after the war. Another Atwood contact was one Walter Rauff, a senior SD officer, friend of Dulles and once head of the SD in Milan (after a tour in Tunisia as head of the SD there during Rommel’s campaign in Africa.) The Rauff story is even more entertaining than the Barbie one and more disruptive when it becomes public. Rauff worked for the CIA, lived unmolested and well protected by the CIA, in South America .

While Atwood was involved in supplying weapons to Cuban insurgents for the Bay of Pigs incident, he stated to a number of his associates that he learned of highly classified information on the accidental release, in Florida, of deadly toxins that the CIA was planning to use in advance of the invasion to "soften up" Castro's militia.

The designated head of the CIA, Porter Goss, was a CIA agent in Florida at this time, was involved in the planning and expected execution of the Cuban invasion and suddenly became "very ill", as his specs on Google point out, and had to retire. Atwood told his friends that Goss, later a Florida political figure, was a participating party in this specific part of the CIA invasion plans.

In 1992, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was considerable concern expressed in US intelligence circles about the whereabouts, and also the security of, certain ex-Soviet military tactical atomic warheads. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union launched R&D to miniaturize and improve reliability of nuclear weapons. Development activities included strategic systems for the Navy; cruise missiles, aviation bombs and artillery projectiles [the smallest nuclear charge was developed for a 152mm artillery projectile].The model is based on unclassified data on the components in an atomic artillery shell, to see if such a system could be reassembled in a suitcase. Indeed, as it turns out, the physics package, neutron generators, batteries, arming mechanism and other essentials of a small atomic weapon can fit, just barely, in an attaché case. The result is a plutonium-fueled gun-type atomic weapon having a yield of one-to-ten kilotons, the same yield range attributed  in a 1998 US media interview by General Lebed to the Russian "nuclear suitcase" weapon."

The smallest possible bomb-like object would be a single critical mass of plutonium (or U-233) at maximum density under normal conditions. An unreflected spherical alpha-phase critical mass of Pu-239 weighs 10.5 kg and is 10.1 cm across.

In 1992, following his successful treasure hunt in Austria, James Atwood, the former Interarmco people and an Israeli Russian named  Yurenko (actually Schemiel  Gofshstein) formed a consortium in conjunction with James Critchfield, retired senior CIA specialist on oil matters in the Mideast  to obtain a number of these obsolete but still viable weapons. Both Critchfield and the Interarmco people had, at the behest of the CIA, supplied weapons to the rebels in Afghanistan during their protracted struggle with the Soviet Union. Critchfield worked with the Dalai Lama of Tibet in a guerrilla war against Communist China and headed a CIA task force during the Cuban missile crisis. He also ran regional agency operations when the two superpowers raced to secure satellites first in Eastern Europe, then in the Middle East. In the early 1960s, Critchfield recommended to the CIA that the United States support the Baath Party, which staged a 1963 coup against the Iraqi government that the CIA believed was falling under Soviet influence. Critchfield later boasted, during the Iran-Iraq war that he and the CIA “had created Saddam Hussein.” With the growing political importance of Middle East oil, he became the CIA's national intelligence officer for energy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, then an energy policy planner at the White House. He also fronted a dummy CIA corporation in the Middle East known as Basic Resources, which was used to gather OPEC-related intelligence for the Nixon administration. .Critchfield was the chief of the CIA's Near East and South Asia division in the 1960s and a national intelligence officer for energy as the oil shortage crisis began in the early 1970s.  Officially retiring from the CIA in 1974, Critchfield became a consultant, corporate president of Tetra Tech International  a Honeywell Inc. subsidiary  and which managed oil, gas, and water projects in the strategic Masandam Peninsula. It sits on the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the West's oil is transported. At the same time, Critchfield was a primary adviser to the Sultan of Oman., focusing on Middle East energy resources, especially those in Oman.

Col. James H. Critchfield. The man who ran the Gehlen

Org, a friend of Heinrich Müller, once head of the Gestapo,

and the man who sold ex-Soviet atom weapons to the

Pakistanis with James Atwood.

A  secret 1964 DoS telex concerning Critchfield’s activities in Pakistan. Documents on the sale of atomic weapons can be found in the Atwood files, MRZ-17/009

Utilizing Atwood’s STASI and ex-KGB contacts, they were able to obtain from bribed Russian military personnel, twenty of the atomic warheads. With Critchfield’s  Mideast and Afghanistan connections, these warheads were sold to a Pakistani group for an estimated US $20 million in early 1993. “Yurenko” brokered the transfer of money via two banks in Pakistan to a Swiss bank.(Specific account information is known) Some of the money, $US 50,000 was deposited into a so-called “white account” (i.e., one that the SBA could release information on to any outside probers) and the balance into three so-called “black accounts” (i.e., accounts that were truly secret.)

The new hunters arrived at the Hotel Cieslar on 11^th June, 2000. On 12^th June, a visit was made to the owner of the Kärtnerhof Hotel in Techendorf, one Herr Richard Domenig. The previous Global Exploration team had located, by means of the map, and confirmed by their electronic equipment, a very large cache of gold which was buried on the hotel’s property. The lowest estimate, based on Globocnik’s records, was that he had buried, in what was an empty field in 1945, over six million dollars in gold bars.

Herr Domenig had been spoken with by a Viennese attorney with an eye to permitting this treasure to be excavated. He initially agreed but then decided that he would rather do the work himself rather than share his buried treasure with anyone else.

Unfortunately, he had no idea where it was buried and since he refused to share any of the gold, he did not get the coordinates. The boxes of gold are still buried beneath his paved parking lot and while the hotel owner has brought in several specialists, they have to date been unable to locate the loot.

The next item of business was to check the grounds of the Hotel Cieslar. Just to the north of this elegant ‘Silence Hotel’ is the Hotel Enzian, also owned by the Cieslar family. It was at this hotel that Globocnik and his staff made their headquarters in April of 1945 and it is right near the Enzian building that an additional three million in gold and, according to the papers, a fortune in diamonds, was buried.

Frau Cieslar, manager of the hotel bearing her husband’s name and a prominent figure in the small vacation town of Techendorf, also was having none of strangers digging up her lot. Percentages were of no interest to her but the map coordinates were.

Those she never obtained, in spite of several hamhanded searches of the Douglas luggage while their owner was absent on other business. His incoming mail was opened and all telephone calls monitored in the office but to no avail.

On the 12^th, following the expressions of negativity expressed by the hotel owners, the searchers equipped themselves with two small camping folding shovels, rented another electric boat at Neusach and returned to the partially-mined site at Lakawand. Electronic detection devices were not needed in this instance. The electric boat was dragged up onto the small shingle beach and festooned with severed pine tree branches while more important business was transacted on the steeply sloping forest grounds above.

Here, it has been reported, between the 12^th and the 14^th of June, 2000, two of seven existing sites were excavated.

On the 12^th, one decaying wooden case was carefully pulled out of the damp ground. The weather was clear and warm and the case, marked ‘SS Eigentum” (or SS property) was sufficiently intact to permit it to be lowered by nylon rope to the beach below. It was subsequently put in the back of the small electric boat and hidden at the mouth of a rock-filled seasonal stream on the south side of the lake. This was well outside the sight of anyone and the case was then opened. It was filled with gold coins, covered with branches and left for the time being. The only road to the area was a very narrow path that a small car could just manage to navagate.

On the 13^th of June, two more cases were excavated. One was reasonably intact but the other had rotten through and its contents of coins had be be put into a large hiking haversack that had been brought along just for that purpose. The contents of this case, which consisted of gold coins and various items of German militaria including identity disks, papers, medals, an antique flintlock pistol and several knives, were photographed.

It rained heavily around noontime and the trip up the lake with the contents of the day’s dig was a damp one.

On the 14^th of June, and the last day of the digging, two more cases were recovered and taken to join their comrades but not before it became very evident that the Austrian Gendarmes had taken an interest in the subject of treasure hunting on the Weissensee. At 2100, one of the excavators noted, and subsequently photographed, a police boat patrolling back and forth in the eastern reaches of the lake and at 2120, a well-marked police helicopter flew back over the landscape on both sides of the lake. They apparently saw nothing and flew off towards the north.

The patrolling boat was moving slowly along the lakeshore, about thirty meters off the land, and it was possible to see some of the crew scanning the shore with binoculars. Finding no trace of a boat or any activity, the patrol boat eventually moved north out of sight and when it disappeared around a point of land, the remaining two chests were hastily lowered to the stony beach and loaded into the concealed boat.

The trip up the west shore was stressful but uneventful and it was only when the hunters returned to the site that the cruising police boat resumed its beat.

It was then decided to fill in the holes as best as possible (after photographing them first) and depart from the scenic but by now somewhat dangerous area. Mud was washed off in the lake and the two folding shovels were thrown out as far into the cold, deep lake as possible.

There were two splashes followed by a third as the boat was shoved into the water from its hiding place behind a windfall and the electric engine started. When they were out in the middle of the lake, heading back to Neusach, the police boat came up quickly, overtook them and slowed down until it was only a few meters off the starboard side.

Several unformed police officials came over to the side and stared down into the boat. What they observed were two obvious tourists, one camera bag, two cameras, a sack of potato chips and three bottles of warm beer. There were brief comments, some waving and off the boat went to hunt for trespassers with boats filled with Nazi loot.

Sitting on the end of the boat dock at Neusach was a pleasant youngish Austrian gentlemen in his shirtsleeves. He was very pale and obviously getting a marvellous sunburn while watching the fishermen sitting off the shore, the birds skimming the water and anything else of interest. The Austrians are always noted for their politeness and when the boat bearing the excavators came up, he got to his feet and very kindly offered to give the occupants a hand up. He looked curiously into the boat, noted the cameras, the beer and the potato chips and smiled.

The newly-minted tourists explained with much glee how they were photographing the beautiful lake for an American travel magazine. Rather than make a hasty and suspicious departure, both the diggers spent some time boring the poor man half to death with comments about shutter speeds, fishing and the excellent food to be had at the restaurant at the far eastern end of the lake. Finally, it was the observer who beat a hasty retreat. And no doubt returned to the local Polizeirevier to put something on his inflamed, balding head.

The next day, it was mutually decided to leave the visual pleasures of the Weissensee and after informing the very curious hotel staff that Vienna was their goal, the successful treasure hunters departed. Instead of taking the fork that led to the highway and Vienna, they took another one, crossed the Techendorf bridge and drove down the south side of the lake until the came to the remote area where they had hidden the discovered gold.

Gold is very heavy and the car’s suspension system made the rest of their journey through Italy and France a matter of some concern.

An inventory of the recovery was as follows:

Russian Imperial gold coins
                        810   5 Rouble pieces valued (in 1990 spot gold prices) at $64,800
                        475   10 Rouble pieces valued at $95,000

Austrian gold coins
                        1, 470  Imperial 1 ducat pieces valued at $88,200
                            975  Imperial 4 ducat pieces valued at $438,750
                         1,355  10 Corona pieces valued at $101,625
                         2,101  20 Corona pieces valued at $630,600
                            217  100 Corona pieces valued at $184,450
                          6320  Kronen pieces valued at  $58,275
                              28  100 Kronen pieces valued at $56,000
                         4,150  25 Schilling pieces valued at 229,800
                           517   100 Schilling pieces valued at $310,200

Polish gold  coins
                          4158  10 Zloty pieces valued at $249,480

French gold coins
                            802  20 Franc pieces valued at $64,160
                              50  50 Franc pieces valued at $22,500
                            142  100 Franc pieces valued at $60, 350

Swiss gold coins
                             907  10 Franc pieces valued at $54,420
                          1 121  20 Franc pieces valued at $78,470

British gold coins
                                804 Sovereign pieces valued at $54,420
                                202 ½ Sovereign pieces valued at $15,150

The total number of coins was 20,247 and the approximate value as of the date of discovery was $2,998,707. The spot price of gold has increased since that time but all in all, this represented an excellent return on an investment.

There are still nearly ten million dollars, in today’s sport gold prices, in Nazi concentration loot buried along the shores of the Weissensee, there for the taking… if the vigilance of two hotel owners, greedy citizens and the vigilant local Gendarmerie ever slackens.

Although it never arose at the time, the moral issue of the actual ownership of the loot is an interesting one. Aside from those who dug it up, who could be considered the rightful owners?

The heirs of the late General Globocnik? Various bureaus of the Austrian government? Landowners around the Weissensee? A number of Jews had died in the camps during their existence. Could their heirs or even their co-religionists lay a valid claim to the gold? Since there were a large number of Catholic religious medals in the treasure, might not the population of Poland enter a claim? Or the Vatican? And surely the Russians would wish to recover the Catherine pistols and rare icons which had been looted by the Wehrmacht during their Eastern Campaign.

                And who could lay claim to the cases of gold and platinum wedding rings or, most interestingly, an ancient Jewish torah scroll housed in a beautifully chased early 18^th century silver case?

In attempting to sort out the validity of any of these claims, it might be better advised to consider the old couplet:

Let him take who is able
Let him keep who can.

Reprinted from:

Excerpt from Gestapo Chief, The 1948 Interrogation of Heinrich Muller by Gregory Douglas - The Weissensee Gold - http://65.160.172.250/globocnik.htm (URL is no longer available)

Photographs and additional text - TBRNews.org, Archives - http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a358a.htm, http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a358b.htm and http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a358c.htm