Nazi plunder : great treasure stories of World War II

253 Pages·2003·7.128 MB·English

by  Alford, Kenneth D

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The tragedy of World War II did not end on the battlefields— U
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throughout the war, Germany systematically plundered Europe’s E P
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priceless historic treasures. German armed forces roamed from T
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Paris to Stalingrad, plundering gold, silver, coins, paintings and R
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other works of art, religious artifacts, and millions of books and ESU

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documents. The value of these items, many irreplaceable, is esti- FN

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mated in the billions of dollars. The artwork alone looted under O
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Hitler’s direction exceeded the combined collections of the L
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Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the Louvre. WE
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As the war wound to a conclusion in 1945, some of the Allied I
troops continued the looting—taking Germany’s spoils and rob-
bing Europe of its heritage. The story of these celebrated and
stolen works of art and other vanished treasures—and the mys-
tery of where they went—is a remarkable tale of greed, fraud,
deceit, and treachery.
KENNETH D. ALFORDhas been researching archival material N A Z I P L U N D E R
relating to World War II looting for over thirty years. His first
book, Spoils of World War II,was the subject of a History Chan-
A
nel documentary. He lives in northern Virginia.
L
F
O
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D G R E AT T R E A S U R E S T O R I E S
O F W O R L D WA R I I
HISTORY
ìI<(SBsNk0$-k3'06=-i8b12c4e1b-Xf< +Z-Å-[-^-Ö $16.95 US/$25.95 CAN THE LOOTING OF EUROPE’S TREASURES—AND THE MYSTERY
DA CAPO PRESS OF THEIR CURRENT WHEREABOUTS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
www.dacapopress.com
Cover design by Cooley Design Lab
Cover photograph depicts a roomful of solid gold objects
from Hermann Göring’s extensive collection of stolen K E N N E T H D . A L F O R D
treasure and art objects, courtesy National Archives
Nazi Plunder
Great Treasure Stories
of World War II
DA CAPO PRESS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Copyright ©2000 by Kenneth D. Alford
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of
Congress.
First Da Capo Press edition 2001
Originally published by Savas Publishing Company in 2001.
Originally published as Great Treasure Stories of World War II.
ISBN 0–306–81241–X
Published by Da Capo Press
AMember of the Perseus Books Group
http://www.dacapopress.com
Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in
the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more infor-
mation, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books
Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA02142, or call [phone]
or [phone], or e-mail [email protected].
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 89—06 05 04 03
ForEdda

-TableofContents-
Preface i
IntroductionandAcknowledgments iii
Chapter1:TheAlliedCaptureofNaziGold 1
Chapter2:ThePlunderingofMunich 17
Chapter3:HermannG(cid:1)ring’sArtTreasures 23
Chapter4:TheCaptureofHermannG(cid:1)ring 43
Chapter5:TheLootingofBerchtesgaden 61
Chapter6:SeppDietrich’sSouvenirs 77
Chapter7:TheMilitaryGovernorofWeimar 83
Chapter8:BuriedTreasureatBuchenwald 97
Chapter9:OperationMacabre 101
Chapter10:TheCollectionPoints 111
Chapter11:TheImperialCrownJewels
oftheHolyRomanEmpire 129
Chapter12:SaintStephen’sCrown 137
Chapter13:TheTheftoftheHesseCrownJewels 147
Chapter14:GermanWarArt 155
continued...
TableofContents
(continued)
Chapter15:ThePillageof
theFabulousHorsesofEurope 161
Chapter16:TheReturnoftheHersbruckSoldiers 167
Chapter17:TheHeinrichHoffman
PhotographCollection 171
Chapter18:Theftofthe
QuedlinburgChurchTreasure 177
Chapter19:AdolfEichmann’sTreasureMap 189
Chapter20:TheMysteryoftheLostAmberRoom 195
Chapter21:TheLibraryofCongressMission 207
Postscript 217
Appendix 219
Notes 223
Bibliography 229
Index 231
ListofPhotosandIllustrations
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Thephotosandillustrationsofthe
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treasuresdiscussedinthisbookarefoundthroughoutitspages
Credits:
KennethAlford:4,21middle,22,37top,51,67,70bottom,71top,72,74,79bottom,81,87,
133,174,186,190bottom,192,198;MikeandMarkChenaultCollection:21top;BenCurtis:68
top; Dallas Museum of Art: 179, 180, 181 182; Domgemeinde St. Servatii, Germany: 187;
Forty-fifthInfantryMuseum:20;GlobalExplorations:203,204;ThomasM.Johnson:49,50,70
top71bottom,73bottom,79top,175;KunstzuWeimar,Germany:92,93;LibraryofCongress:24,
25,27,28,30top,208,212,213,214;NationalArchives:3,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,
19,21;bottom,26,29,32,34,35,36,37bottom,38,39,40,44,45,46,47,48,49,52,53,57bottom,
62,63,64,65,66,69,78,86,94,98,99,100,102,103,104,106,108,109,112,113,114,115,116,
117,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,132,134,135,138,140,141,142,144,145,148,149,
150,151,152,153,162,163,165,166,168,169,172,173,191,193,201,210,211;National
GalleryofArt:118,119,120;MackStephensonandRobertWaits:56top;TedSavasCollection:
190top;Unknown:68bottom,84,197;KeithWilson:55;ThomasT.Wittmann:73top;U.S.Army
CenterofMilitaryHistory:156,157,158,159.

Preface
W
orld War II—the cataclysmic event of the Twentieth
Century—has been documented in fact and fiction by
writersworkinginavarietyofmedia.Fromgreatbattlesto
fascinating personalities to the horrors of the concentration camps, the
warofallwarshasbeencoveredonallfronts.
Inthepastfewyears,agrowingnumberofauthorshavefocusedon
thematerialplunderofthewarinEurope:Mostrecently,Holocaust-era
assets and reparations payments to survivors of Hitler’s death camps
have occupied the front pages of the world’s newspapers. Ken Alford’s
Great Treasure Stories of World War II continues this fascinating
investigation and offers incisive looks at not only the Nazi looting of
German-occupied countries, but also American involvement in the
looting of treasures our soldiers were entrusted to safeguard. This book
provides eye-opening accounts of villains and heroes in these
underhanded scenarios, proving all too clearly that once again where
thereisgold(andotherriches)thereisboundtobegreed—evenamong
normallyupright,law-abidingmenandwomen.
Great Treasure Stories of World War II makes for entertaining,
illuminatingreadingandispopularhistorythattouchesuponthetragic,
the loathsome, and at times, the comic, while at the same time meshing
smoothlyintothemainstreamofWorldWarIImovementsandevents.It