I am sure many have heard stories over the years as the Allies began to squeeze in toward the Third Reich, that certain individuals in the German high command decided to move their vast hoards of loot, especially gold, elsewhere in Germany or in some cases completely out of the country. Into countries like Austria, Switzerland or even to Argentina using a U-boat have been mentioned, which brings me to an interesting story concerning my late father. Back in the 80's I was visiting my Dad one day and spotted his WWII scrap book on the table. As I was thumbing thru it, I came to a page he marked "Switzerland Dec. 1945". Attached inside was an itinerary labeled Swiss-Tour C III. So I asked him about it, for I knew he was still stationed in Italy after the war. He said he didn't have enough points to rotate back to the states yet, so him and some buddies decided to take some leave and go visit Switzerland by train for a week. His scrapbook is full of photos of Bern, the Gotthard Tunnel, Lake Geneva, Zurich and Lake Lucerne. Which I have attached photos of both his itinerary and him standing along the shoreline of Lake Lucerne in his Army uniform in late 1945. Well a couple weeks later I had stopped by again for a quick visit and we began watching that show Ripley's Believe It Or Not, which was hosted by Jack Palance at the time. After some oddball stuff, the next episode was concerning a high ranking Nazi general and Switzerland, our ears began to perk up. As the story goes, sometime in late 1944, this German general commandeered some vehicles, some men and took off for the Swiss border with some long wooden crates in the back. Their final destination was Lake Lucerne in Switzerland and according to the show, this party buried those wooden crates reportedly full of gold bars, along the shoreline. The show also said they marked the location well, so I am guessing to come back after the war to retrieve it all but nobody ever has, as far as I can tell. Yes I have heard of divers looking into Lake Toplitz, Austria for years for buried Nazi gold but not Lake Lucerne before...or was it just a wild rumor???, or was my father actually standing on top of that buried gold back in December 1945 and never realized it...something to think about.
Toplitz has been a massive waste of money but nothing found. I also have heard of the Rommel gold so Many places to look for unfortunately.
There have been rumors about tons of gold in some giant vault under the streets of Zurich, even those reality shows traveling around the world are still searching for buried gold..makes for ratings I guess but nothing much found..except some investigator did find a German coin in South America...pfft. Personally I feel a lot of it was divided up by the Allies and the Swiss right after the war and nobody is talking.
Goldfinger had it......Gert Frobe was German, you know..and was in the nazi party Gert Fröbe - Wikipedia
It was a rainy night back in the fall of '75, when I first met Henrich Räul at a beer hall in the small Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden. I was on two weeks leave from the Air Force while stationed at Wiesbaden AB and always wanted to visit Hitler's Eagles Nest while I was here. I walked in the beer hall and settled down to a nearby wooden table and ordered some wiener schnitzel, home made spaetzle, with a side of promme frites and a big mug of doppelbock beer. There was a crackling fire across the room, with several conversations in German going on, while a cloud of cigarette smoke hung over the place like in some old movie. It could of been 1935 instead of the present I thought as I waited on my order. As I scanned the hall, I began wondering how many older men in here fought in the war for the Third Reich and survived to tell some war stories you don't read about in the history books...to be continued.
That's a nice door stop!!! When my dad was in Oslo in 1945 a Norwegian lass caught his fancy. Dad had an engagement ring made from gold teeth from the Merkers mine that "fell off the truck" while being transported to Frankfurt in an operation code named Task Force Whitney.
As I ate my meal alone, I noticed an older gentleman a few tables away watching me. I didn't really think much about it but he continued to stare. I was half starved as I finished my wonderful meal, for I hadn't eaten all day and always seemed to miss getting something to eat along the way on the train. I was about to order another beer, when the gentleman came over to my table and sat down. First instinct I thought was..ok what is he selling?..some fake Iron Cross?..passes to the Eagles Nest...hashish to some gullible American???...the wheels were turning in my head as he introduced himself. "Guten Abend...my name ist Henrich Raul" as he reached out his hand. I shook it..it was worn but firm. He got the waitress attention and ordered two more beers. I had a feeling he was a regular here, as she brought two more beers over and sat them down. "Danke schön" I said in my limited German. "Bitte schön" she replied with a smile and left us alone. His English was better than my German, for he said he could tell I was an American and probably in the military, due to my clothes and short haircut..right on both accounts I replied. He asked what branch of service I was in and I said the Air Force and stationed at Wiesbaden AB. His eyes lit up and he went on to say he was in the Luftwaffe during the war and flew Ju-52's, until late in the war when fuel was scarce, then was assigned to a flak unit in Munich. Then the Americans rolled in and the war was soon over for him. But he said he liked Americans and had no ill-will against us, even after some thirty years of occupation...to be continued.
Supposed "buried treasure" on Oak Island. Never found after decades of digging. But the HyFy channel has at least one show on it.
