As WWII Drew to a Close, the Nazis Stashed Gold All Across Southern Germany
Between Allied bombers methodically wrecking Berlin and the Red Army drawing ever closer, the spring of 1945 was a jittery time in the Nazi capital. Walther Funk, the Reich Minister for Economic Affairs and president of the Reichsbank, decided to transfer the bulk of Nazi reserves to hidden locations in what was still left of the Third Reich. In just one transfer, about 100 tons of gold, and 1000 bags of banknotes, were transferred to the huge Kaiseroda salt mine, about 200 miles southwest of Berlin. 13 train cars were needed to haul the booty.
Little more than a month later, in early April, 1945, just a few weeks before WWII in Europe ended, George S. Patton’s Third US Army launched a surprise attack that brought it to Kaiseroda. The Germans managed to hurriedly move some of the treasure held there, but American GIs got wind of that and seized the bulk of it on April 7th. Kaiseroda was just one of the Nazi stashes. There were plenty more in scattered locations in southern Germany. One of them was kept in a remote Alpine mountain lodge near the Bavarian resort town of Mittenwald. As seen below, hundreds of gold bars from that stash would go missing – and form the factual basis for Kelly’s Heroes.