SS Death's Head Rings - A Nazi Treasure Mystery

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win an iphone 12 rise of kingdoms get it today an infamous nazi treasure remains missing in 2021 an extremely valuable treasure that many have sought out but none have so far found this nazi treasure is unusual in that it is not looted art or bullion stolen by the germans from conquered countries or persecuted minorities rather it is a treasure created by the nazis themselves some time ago i tackled the fascinating subject of heinrich himmler's real castle wolfenstein the mysterious weevilsburg castle near paderborn in western germany fiefelsburg was the spiritual home of the ss a mystical center of the ss world as well as a headquarters for various ss research projects into subjects like arianism and occultism himmler revived paganism in germany and the ss was seen by him as an elite corps of nazi political spiritual soldiers that descended from various medieval traditions and groups including the teutonic knights in the process creating an alternative history for the organization that was embedded in germanic myth and history the ss like the wyatt and nazi movement used many symbols from german and norse history and adapted them for their own purposes the most famous being the zig runes and the death's head himmler saw weevilsburg as a place where the ss would be both honoured and educated parts of the castle carried names associated with history myth and folklore such as grail after the holy grail king arthur aryan runes teutonic order and german language the anunna ancestral heritage unit displayed objects of particular historical eras and modern national socialist art in the castle the exterior of the castle was remodeled to make it appear more castle-like and medieval and new towers and buildings were added adding to the place's mystery himmler banned all visits by the public from 1934 onwards and forbade its mention by the press or in books meetings of higher ss leaders took place occasionally at the castle and himmler created the ss generals hall where the highest 12 ss leaders would meet in a pastiche of king arthur's knights of the round table himmler took very seriously the objects and imagery associated with his ss as well as special ornamental daggers and swords that were presented to ss who distinguished themselves himmler was always keen to stress the brotherhood of the ss the unbreakable bonds between its members and its separateness from the other german armed forces on the 10th of april 1934 himmler ordered the creation of the ss aaron ring or honor ring a personal gift from the reish viewer separated from state honours and medals it was awarded for personal achievement devotion to duty and loyalty to hitler and national socialism as such it was treated on a par with a holy relic and with the greatest dignity the ring was derived from the story of the pagan god thor who it was said possessed a silver ring upon which people could take oaths the honor ring was likewise a silver band in the form of oak leaves the traditional german leaf a death's head represented how ss should be ready at any time to lay down their lives for the good of the germanic people there were also a number of runes around the ring one zeigrun left and right of the skull both spelled the name of the organization the ss and because they were framed by triangles the power of the sun and of conquering enemies the swastika in a square was a symbol of the power of the aryan race the hargell rune within a hexagon represented faith and camaraderie and the double runes at the rear of the ring were modern creations called house icon or signs of salvation of the past the honorings were manufactured by the firm of otto gar in munich inside they were engraved with the letters s dot lb an abbreviation of zeinan lieben or tudir followed by the recipient's surname days of award and himmler's signature in the beginning the ring was awarded to ss officers with membership numbers below 5000 the organization's old guard after 1939 officers with over three years service were eligible for the award lists were prepared by ss headquarters and citations were processed in berlin if an officer was demoted suspended or dismissed from the ss or if he resigned or retired the ring had to be returned to the ss personnel office if the officer died in the ss the ring had to be returned but the family could keep the citation if the officer was killed in action his unit had to make efforts to retrieve the ring from his body so where did the rings go after they were returned weevilsborg himmler created a shrine to the holders of the death's head ring at the castle as each ring was in effect the dead officers memorial so how many rings were presented manufacturing and presentation of the rings ended in 1944 and in the ten years since the ring's creation some fourteen and a half thousand were awarded the ss security police the zika heidsteins the sd kept records that revealed that as of the 1st of january 1945 64 had been returned to weevilsburg following the deaths of the holders 10 had been lost in combat and 26 percent were still being worn or had in fact disappeared so at war's end about three and a half thousand rings were in circulation many being captured by allied forces or thrown away by the recipients roughly nine thousand two hundred and eighty honorings were at weevilsburg castle at the end of the war by the 30th of march 1945 the us third armored division was rapidly approaching paderborn the closest big city to weevilsburg there would be no last stand at the castle instead ss obergruppenfuhrer siegfried taubert the castle commandant abandoned his post driving away with his men leaving the building intact but unguarded talbert and his staff fled to schleswig holstein parts of which would remain under the control of a new nazi government established by hitler's successor grand admiral karl durnitz until late may 1945. when talbert fled himmler was headquartered at branslau he ordered one of his trusted adjutants ss stumban fura or major heinz marker to take 15 men from himmler's escort battalion who had combat engineer experience to go to the castle and destroy it to prevent it falling intact into american hands marca and his command arrived at the castle on the 31st of march 1945. setting some charges the southeast tower was blown up and some fire set in other parts but little real damage was done to the structure apart from internal fire damage as maka lacked the explosives manpower and importantly the time there was one more important task that maca was specifically ordered by himmler to complete the story goes that marca was told to get rid of the honor rings but they represented the deaths of comrades in battle and would not simply be destroyed though many ss officers did not share himmler's interest and folklore and germanic mythology the rings nevertheless represented something precious to the ss and would be treated with dignity no records exist concerning the rings being melted down or thrown into a river or any other such disposal instead maka and his men apparently placed the box of rings which must have been an ornate chest of some description taken from the shrine and placed it inside a small cave or rock physio on a hill near to the castle and the entrance was sealed by using explosives blast sealed is the term most often used but there is one problem with the accepted story maka had only a limited amount of time to destroy the castle and he made a very poor job of it he noted that he had insufficient explosives to do the job even having to use jerry-rigged telemines to try and cause more damage in the end a fire was begun as well as some demolition and maka ordered the local fire brigade not to intervene hoping to gut the structure it stands to reason that blast sealing a hefty metal box into a cave or similar would have required explosives maca may not have had he would also have required a lengthy detour into the mountains again using up valuable time maka couldn't have with the americans literally at the door this is conjecture on my part but i think that the blast ceiling story was created in order to dissuade people from searching for the rings i think we can also rule out the following possible scenarios that maka ordered them buried somewhere within the lower portion of the castle tipped down a well or buried in the ground somewhere near the castle nothing has ever been found and it has been extensively searched i think it more likely that the chest of rings was placed in a vehicle and taken with markers column when they left what is certain is that maca and his men did not do a very complete job of gathering up the rings because when u.s forces from the third armored division reached the smoldering castle on the 2nd of april 1945 a captain black an intelligence officer found a packet containing 200 honor rings in one of the offices and distributed them to his men as souvenirs clearly major maca had been operating under extreme time constraints if such a number of rings were missed or abandoned there is one piece of evidence suggesting that i'm right that the honorings were removed from the castle by makkah and his men and not buried or concealed nearby there came a cauldron in 2001 divers discovered what was thought to be a priceless ancient celtic treasure in the kemese an alpine lake in bavaria however further examination revealed that the 10 kilogram or 23 pound solid gold vessel was a 20th century manufacturer in fact it had been made by otto garr the munich jeweler responsible for the death's head rings the cauldron was kept at weevilsburg castle and used in various ceremonies and as a decorative piece it was still at the castle when makka arrived so why did maka take the cauldron with him but see all the rings into a cave why not seal up the cauldron with the rings another important nazi items it doesn't make sense unless maka took the rings with him along with the cauldron and other items and how did the cauldron end up in southern germany in a lake according to several sources the cauldron ended up in the possession of a unit called the 38th ss grenadier division nibalungen named for the mythical race of scandinavian dwarfs who were the owners of a horde of gold and magic one of the constituent elements of the division was the reichsfuhrer ss escort battalion an elite ss unit attached to himmler's headquarters to protect him it's not too much of a stretch to hypothesize that maca on himmler's orders gave the weevilsburg treasures to himmler's bodyguard unit that ended up in southern germany at the end of the war and dumped the gold cauldron into the kimsey if i were to look for the 9000 plus missing death's head rings i'd look in the depths of the kemse as it makes logical sense based on what we know of the men and the units involved the cave story which originated with the ss was just that a story a diversion it was to prevent the real location of the rings and maybe other treasures from becoming known after the war so how much are the ss honor rings worth today the genuine articles sell for between three and five thousand dollars each meaning that the horde of missing rings is worth somewhere between 28 and 47 million dollars today the kimse is a very big place and there are plenty of places still left to be explored in its depths thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 502,496

Rating: 4.9406395 out of 5

Keywords: Death's Head Ring, SS Ring, Wewelsburg Castle, Himmler

Id: deGAMLWW_BA

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 03 2021