Published by Charleston Voice
General Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier's Story, Page 540-541, 1951
We published this (Stash of £156BILLION in gold bars found stored in former WWII canteen under London)a short time ago as a codicil to the below post.
(This site translated from the original German)
Gold Reserves
The gold reserves of potash in the flag (Merkers Mine) on 8 April 1945
In early 1945, it became clear that the military situation of the city had become hopeless.
East of the Red Army was approaching rapidly, and from the air let the constant series of Allied bombing raids after no more. At 31 January 1945 suggested that the Minister of Finance, Ernst-Anton Kroigk before, to shift the government and the gold and foreign exchange holdings of the Reichsbank to Thuringia. An evacuation of the imperial government refused Hitler, but not the treasures of the Reichsbank. On 3 February was also the building of the Reichsbank several direct hits. For the monetary authority of the millennium, this was the signal to make their evacuation plans Ernst: From 12 February to 13 March 1945 a special train left with twenty-four railroad cars, the capital and brought the most essential part of the gold and currency reserves to Thuringia, where the shaft Kaiseroda II / III were the Wintershall AG stored in flag. The operation as well as the depot received the secret code "Walrus".
Immediately after this action brought - a directive from the Reich Chancellery - also the Berlin State Museums under their most valuable treasures in the potash mining shafts of flag.
In early 1945, it became clear that the military situation of the city had become hopeless.
East of the Red Army was approaching rapidly, and from the air let the constant series of Allied bombing raids after no more. At 31 January 1945 suggested that the Minister of Finance, Ernst-Anton Kroigk before, to shift the government and the gold and foreign exchange holdings of the Reichsbank to Thuringia. An evacuation of the imperial government refused Hitler, but not the treasures of the Reichsbank. On 3 February was also the building of the Reichsbank several direct hits. For the monetary authority of the millennium, this was the signal to make their evacuation plans Ernst: From 12 February to 13 March 1945 a special train left with twenty-four railroad cars, the capital and brought the most essential part of the gold and currency reserves to Thuringia, where the shaft Kaiseroda II / III were the Wintershall AG stored in flag. The operation as well as the depot received the secret code "Walrus".
Immediately after this action brought - a directive from the Reich Chancellery - also the Berlin State Museums under their most valuable treasures in the potash mining shafts of flag.
Gate marker of potash 1945
Figure: The "historic" Gold bunker (area 8) in the flag to the potash plant opening on 8 April 1945
At 31 March 1945 had the armored units of the XII. Corps reached the western border of Thuringia, and there were ten miles west of Eisenach. The national route Kassel-Eisenach in Thuringia, Hesse tips of their border in the Rhon approached. The operational directives for Patton's army were aimed at the conquest of the Americans in the heart of Thuringia suspected German intelligence center in the area Ohrdruf - Gotha - Erfurt - Weimar from and also saw a rapid advance in the Thuringian city of Weimar, the seat of the supreme authorities of the country as also the key military command posts of the Reich Defense Commissioner of Thuringia was.
Ill.: American tanks on the site in April 1945 in the mine
The first units of the 4th Armored Division were on 1 April at Creuzburg on the Werra. Erfurt and Weimar were on 12 April occupied Jena on 13 April taken. Located in the middle of the front section VIII Corps deployed pushed further into the East Thuringian city and county, and occupied it until 16 April. The conquest of Thuringia was complete.
Ill.: American soldiers in the bunker loading work in gold (Room 8)
At that time, General Patton ordered to stop after reaching the line in Meiningen Mühlhausen and Gotha, Ohrdruf, waiting for the unlocking of the First and Ninth Army. This delayed the advance of the Third Army for several days. On 8 April were the heads of the three corps commanded at the stop line in Thuringia. The occupation of the northern Thuringian town and rural districts was after 9 April. Since the 12th April focused the advance of American troops in the area of Erfurt - Weimar - Jena.
On this day, met the commander of the Allied Streitkräfle, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Thuringia, and visited the flag of potash in the Rhön there stored art treasures and gold stocks to be already on the 4th April liberated Ohrdruf camp outside of the Buchenwald concentration camp to take a look.
On this day, met the commander of the Allied Streitkräfle, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Thuringia, and visited the flag of potash in the Rhön there stored art treasures and gold stocks to be already on the 4th April liberated Ohrdruf camp outside of the Buchenwald concentration camp to take a look.
Ill.: American soldiers under Capt.. Robert Posey (MFAA Officer) for the inspection of paintings from the Berlin State Museums in other routes outside the bunker in the potash mine gold flag
On the morning of 7 April in the abandoned mines of the flag to make the most incredible discovery soldiers their lives, hundreds of bags and boxes with the swastika. Inside: gold teeth, gold bullion and - coins, securities, bank notes and art objects. The value of the booty: former U.S. Dollar 238.5 million, equivalent today to approximately 2.5 billion DM. The command in Eisenach gets immediately ordered all transported to Frankfort, where the American occupation troops have their high command. The prey is to be converted into dollars, and later used to pay off the war reparations and with the help of the Marshall Plan to help Europe back on its feet.
Figure: The Generals Bradley, Patton and Eisenhower in the examination of historical paintings
Figure: Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower, along with Generals Bradley and Patton inspect art treasures stolen by the Nazis and hidden in underground salt mines in the mine, Germany (Photo credits: U.S. National Archives)
In Frankfurt, the Allies had created a new Commission, which led the investigation into the looting of the Nazis, the Division of Investigation of Cartels and external assets (DICEA). It was led by U.S. Colonel Bernard Bernstein, the only General Dwight Eisenhower - was subordinated to - head of the U.S. Military Government for Germany (OMGUS). There begins the hitherto unknown part of our history.
Figure: An American soldier under Capt.. Robert Posey (MFAA Officer) for the inspection of a painting from the Berlin State Museums in other routes outside the bunker in the potash mine gold flag
A first unveiling of the succinic colonel, was that the Nazis during the war, the American banks and the industry were not so hostile to each other as they had always believed. On the contrary, the connections and interdependence were so large and the corresponding interests of times now so strong that it was succinic impossible to bring his work to end, for example, the handling of the 238.5 million from the potash mines in the mine. And so in the end no one knew how much of the money was now actually flowed into the Marshall Plan and how much seeped into other channels.
Figure: General Eisenhower inspected, along with General Patton and Bradley, a box of utensils made of gold.
The Reichsbank had hidden, particularly in the salt mines in gold flag with a value of about 400 million Reichsmarks. The gold came from central banks of countries occupied by Germany, of civilians and victims of Nazi persecution. By summer, a large part remained in the Reichsbank building in Frankfurt in the care of Devisenverwahrstätte (Foreign Exchange Depository, FED), a section of the Office of Military Government of the United States (Office of Military Government, United States, OMGUS). Collected between 1945 and 1948, secured and inventoried the Fed almost $ 300 million (now $ 2.9 billion) in gold bullion and gold coins, so they can be distributed to various countries.
Figure: A GI guarded boxes each with 200,000 Reichsmark
After the war, the Americans won insights about as sophisticated program for transferring the Reichsbank gold and valuables from victims of concentration camps on German official accounts. The Riksbank established the account "Melmer" one, named after the SS Captain Bruno Melmer, on the SS looted gold and other assets of Holocaust victims and other civilians deposited. Although it remained unclear how many deaths in the German gold reserve gold flowed, so did but the discovery of gold mines in the flag-1945, a clue. There is clear evidence that gold, which deprived the Nazis of civilians and concentration camp inmates from the Reichsbank taken systematically classified, sold, pledged, deposited or converted and melted down, and reopened as gold bullion in the monetary gold reserve reached, together with looted gold from the rest of Europe. The melted gold SS differed not externally by the bullion came from looting the banks.
Source: Greg Bradsher, Nazi Gold: The flag Treasure Mine, National Archives at College Park, Spring 1999
Source: Greg Bradsher, Nazi Gold: The flag Treasure Mine, National Archives at College Park, Spring 1999
General Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier's Story, Page 540-541, 1951
