Monetary Men: The Allies' Struggle to Recover and Restore Nazi Gold, Silver, and Diamonds

by Kenneth D. Alford

Overview

This book is a must for anyone with an interest in missing caches of gold and the financial aspects of military history. In the closing days of World War II, the U.S. Government took into custody 370 tons of gold from Nazi Germany, but the gold, silver, and currency still missing is even greater. The author traces the recovery of more than 500 of these large caches by the Allies and then their mysterious disbursement. Among their finds, the Monetary Men of the U.S. Army uncovered 288 tons of gold, with hordes of silver, diamonds, and precious jewels in a salt mine in Merkers, Germany. They took in Holocaust valuables from Dachau and Buchenwald, Ustasha Croatian Gold, and Italian Fascist gold. An appendix contains a timeline and summaries of all the shipments recovered by the U.S., as well as a financial spreadsheet detailing the 370 tons of gold recovered and its final distribution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780764348365
Publisher:	Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Publication date:	12/28/2015
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Kenneth D. Alford is a frequent historical consultant for television production, a contributor to news articles involving looted Nazi treasures and has written several books on the subject. He makes his home in Richmond, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Preface 6

Acknowledgments 7

Introduction 8

Part I Nazi Germany's Acquisition of Gold, Silver, and Diamonds 11

1 The Acquisition of the Austrian, Polish, and Norwegian Gold 12

2 The German invasion of Western Europe 15

3 The Ustasha Croatian Gold 19

4 The Italian Gold 25

5 The Netherlands' Diamonds 31

Part II The Foreign Exchange Depository 32

6 A Quick Look at the Foreign Exchange Depository 33

7 The Merkers Gold Cache 43

8 The Seizure of Germany's Gold Reserves 49

9 Task Force Fisher 57

10 Assorted Deposits 66

11 The Eagle and the Jackdaw 73

12 Shipment 27A-F 78

13 Alpine Gold Caches 81

Shipment 31 81

Shipment 21 82

Shipment 52 84

Shipment 60 89

Shipment 57 89

14 The Hungarian Treasures 91

15 Personalities 97

Eva Braun 97

Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring 101

The Grand Ducal House of Saxony-Weimar 104

The Royal Hohenzollern Treasures 105

Ursula Heinze-Freisler 107

Pierre Laval 109

Erich Viehmann 111

Friedrich Schwend 114

Unfamiliar Individuals 117

16 Diamonds, Radium, Rare Books, and Castle 120

Diamonds 120

Radium 124

Books 125

Castle 126

17 A Mixture of Gold, Silver, Coins, Religious Objects, and Sundry Items 129

Gold 129

Silver 133

Religious Objects 134

Berlin Coin Collection 137

Sundry Items 140

18 Acquired Under US Military Law 53 143

19 Shipments of Little or No Value 149

20 Housekeeping at the Foreign Exchange Depository 151

Part III The Tripartite Gold Commission 157

21 The Paris Conference of Reparations 158

22 US Currency 160

23 Gold Shipment to the Bank of England 164

24 The Tripartite Gold Deposits 167

Gold Deposited by Countries 168

Gold Delivered from Austria 172

Military Law 53 Gold 175

Assorted Deposits to the Gold Pot 177

25 The Tripartite Gold Commission Distributions 179

The French Gold Conundrum 181

The Netherlands Distribution 182

Albania 184

Austria 185

Belgium 185

Czechoslovakia 185

France 186

Greece 187

Italian Account 188

Luxembourg 189

Poland 189

Yugoslavia 190

Slavic Republic 191

26 Winding Up of the Tripartite Commission 193

Appendices

Appendix A The Foreign Exchange Depository-List of Shipments 196

Appendix B Deposits to the Allied Gold Pot 203

Appendix C Kaltenbrunner Missing Treasure 204

Appendix D Spreadsheets of all Monetary Gold Transactions 206

Appendix E Statistical Figures Complied by the Foreign Exchange Depository 211

Endnotes 213

Bibliography 221

Index 223