Nazi treasure at Merkers mine.
The bulk of this gold reserves was held at the Reichsbank in Berlin.
It contained a billion Reichsmarks bundled in one thousand bags, and a considerable quantity of foreign currency.
The Reichminister for Education also sent the nation’s art treasures to the mines for safekeeping.
These included one-fourth of the major holdings of fourteen of the principal Prussian state museums.
General Eisenhower inspects stolen artwork at Merkers mine.
Less than a week later, American troops walked into Merkers.
They took the elevator to the bottom of the main shaft twenty-one hundred feet beneath the surface.
In the main haulage way, stacked against the walls, they found 550 bags of Reichsmarks.
But the real treasure was in the vaults blocked by a brick wall three feet thick.
The brick wall was blasted through with a half a stick of dynamite.
The vault was approximately 75 feet wide by 150 feet long with a 12-foot-high ceiling.
In addition, Americans found 400 tons of artworks.
American soldiers examine the painting, Wintergarden, by Edouard Manet, at Merkers mine.
The TGC began returning the gold to most countries as quickly as possible.
However, cold war factors resulted in some delay.
The last gold was not restituted until 1996.
This share amounted to 5.5 metric tons of gold.
Photo:A.Savin/Wikimedia Commons
References:# Greg Bradsher,Nazi Gold: The Merkers Mine Treasure,Prologue Magazine
