I recently saw a documentary by 20/20 or some news media program where they went to Switzerland where a young woman led them to a lake buried in the mountains, where she said, right before the fall of the Nazi regime, truckloads of wooden box were taken (led by her) to this lake and dumped. This program also found a Jewish man who said that at a concentration camp, he had been a printer who helped create millions of dollars worth of counterfeit British currency and was beginning to work on American... the idea of the Nazis was to "Undermine the oppositions economies" turning us belly up leaving them with economical supremacy. Anyway ... this documentary showed the result of the labor of bringing up some of the boxes in the bottom of this lake and finding them filled with British currency and the Jewish man verified they were his counterfeits. I have two questions, I guess (and sorry I can't remember the locale in Switzerland where this supposedly took place): 1. Does anyone know if this story has been verified (the actual finding of British currency in this lake?!?) 2. Does anyone know if the idea of the economical overthrow by the Nazis was indeed a strategy and what details do we have? Thanks!
Yes it's all true. I've seen photos of the divings that were made during the 50's (I think). There were also rumours that there would be hidden treasures in the lake but they never found anything. The mystery of the hidden treasures at the bottom of the lake is one of the most famous treasure- stories in the world. regards
This was true. What was found in the lake was 5 pound notes printed by the Germans in a scheme to undermine the British economy. Their plan was to launder this money into the British economy and create chaos. They even planned to dump some of it while flying over the UK. This obviously never came to light but they did use some of it through foreign governments. The Jewish concentration camp inmates that did the engraving were suppose to have been killed but the German Major in charge of the project saved them. They did begin a project to counterfeit American dollars but never completed the job. That was the Major's way of keeping the project going to keep himself and the others alive until the liberation.
Found the article: LAKE TOPLITZ, Austria is the place! The article: Nazis' fake British currency found in lake After three weeks of searching, the team found what it was looking for: a field of debris including the remnants of the crates. Soon, up came bundles of British pound notes, fakes crafted by Jewish laborers in concentration camps. Similar bills had been pulled from the lake in less sophisticated expeditions years ago. But this time Adolf Berger, 83, one of those Jewish craftsmen, watched in amazement. http://www.usatoday.com/life/lds020.htm http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/11/21/60II/main251339.shtml Yes, I think the Germans had a real idea to do this destroying of the English money market but I am not sure why they didn´t at least in a large scale!? But from some sites maybe we´ll find... The printing of counterfeit money at Sachsenhausen was code-named Operation Bernhard, in honor of the man who directed the operation, SS Major Bernhard Kruger. This was a Nazi scheme, begun in 1942, to wreak havoc by bombarding the British economy with millions of counterfeit Bank of England pound notes in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50. The Nazis had 100 German agents abroad who were putting these fake bills into circulation. The printing press in the Sachsenhausen camp produced 8,965,080 bank notes which had a value of 134,610,810 British pounds, or $377 million in American dollars. According to Adolf Burger, who wrote a book about his experiences, the forgers at Sachsenhausen also successfully copied the U.S. $100 bill. He said that the first 200 fake American bills were finished on February 22, 1945 and that the printing presses were scheduled to start printing the first million dollars in American money the next day. But this never happened, as an order from the Reich Security main office ordered the work to stop and the machinery to be dismantled. http://www.scrapbookpages.com/EasternGermany/Sachsenhausen/counterfeit.html Four months later, outside Paris, their work was unveiled. The pounds dried so well they could be separated. Even the fake watermarks could be seen. Hitler's bills were perfect. It turns out the Nazis used some of them to pay off spies and finance commando operations. They were in circulation from Europe to South America. There were so many that, by the end of the war, the Bank of England was forced to recall all its currency and redesign the pound. "If they had this counterfeiting operation fully organized in 1939 and early 1940, the results of World War II may have been quite different," said Hier. http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/docs/ToplitzSeeCont211100.html I still did not find the reason why they did not send the money to England. Maybe by then their network of spies was too small or non existent when the Pounds were ready for shipping?
Thanx! but thank Grampas Girl here...She brought it up! I just did the little one two with my net search engine and voila...
This all just so great! Learning about WWII is fast becoming my hobby. You guys are awesome to help me learn about this stuff.
Hello GG, also in Germany, there are many lakes where they dumped weapons and vehicles into them to keep them from falling into allied hands. When I was visiting a good friend of mine in Switzereland back in late Sepember 2000, on their news were three stories of interest. 1) They had a news crew covering a story in Germany where someone found large amounts of weapons that were strewn about some German lake. 2) In Switzerland--an American B-17 Bomber and the remains of its crew--was located somewhere in Switzerland--I cant remember where. Anyway--as they were reporting on that discovery--they discovered another ww2 crashed airplane. This was a German Messerschmidt fighter. They put two and two together--and came out with this: Apparently the US Bomber was just finished with a bombing raid in Germany--(Could have been in the Lake Konstanz area--Friedrichshaven perhaps? The American B-17 must have become seperated from its bomber group and was attacked by the German fighter. Many bulletholes were in the B-17 parts that they found. Apparently--the B-17 strayed or intentionally veered into Swiss airspace--to crash land in friendly territory. The German fighter pilot was intent on shooting down the B-17 by sticking with it over Swiss airspace where Swiss Messerschmidts shot the German down--which did happen on several occasions throuought the war. 3) The HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers" was being fimled at that time and several cast members were being interviewed in Switzerland. [ 03. December 2002, 12:28 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]
Ha! I guess should not be changing the subject like that but look what I found ...Almost as if it had fallen yesterday from the sky ( well, almost )...a FW 190!! In the Leningrad region near city of Kirishi! Sorry, click the left side for "site news" and next go for March 17, 2000. There´s the FW 190!! http://klad.hobby.ru/english.htm [ 03. December 2002, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]
You are forgiven for such an awesome find! I checked out the site. Pretty good stuff. Besides the FW, the T-26 pulled out from the lake.
Grampas Girl said it best- you gents come up with some REALLY INTERESTING STUFF!!! I had a bit of free time today at the end of work, and this thread really intrigued me. So I looked around a bit quickly and foudn this site as well- http://www.lerenfort.fsnet.co.uk/index.html Has some more neat stuff on battlefield finds, including lots from the Eastern Front. Good photos, too... Nice!
Another interesting site with Aviation Archaeology: http://ibelgique.ifrance.com/airwar-europe/archaeology.html