The Death of Himmler - Episode 6: Himmler's Gold

[Music] one aspect of the story of heinrich himmler's demise has bothered me for years it's probably already occurred to many of you who have watched my series thus far or read about the subject more widely and that is why did himmler go south no answer is ever given in the history books one explanation i've come across is that himmler and his group planned to wander around for a few weeks until things had calmed down in the war's immediate aftermath then the reich's fuhrer would re-emerge in some form onto the political stage one aspect which many commentators have failed to recognize at this point is the fact of himmler's intelligence and cunning do you think an idiot could have become as powerful as himmler became the man was careful reserved calculating and extremely ruthless he would have had a plan before he left his last headquarters in northern germany to strike south and i think i found it so the situation in early may 1945 for heinrich himmler was simple enough he could have escaped with relative ease to neutral sweden from the rump nazi territory still under german control for about three weeks after the surrender he chose instead to drive south the length of allied occupied germany through the american and british zones as many historians have alleged to reach bavaria then under u.s occupation the reasons for such a risky journey are never stated only surmised however there was something in germany that would have been of great interest to himmler and his cohorts gold himmler's plan was apparently outlined by none other than one of his closest aides who followed him into british captivity ss dumban fura or lieutenant colonel verna grotman grotman told his interrogators that the plan was for himless party to make it to the hearts mountains where it was felt himmler could hide out until the human cry of the early occupation had abated and instead of re-emerging into some sort of political sphere make his way down to the alps grotman never explained what would happen once they crossed the alps but i think it's fairly self-explanatory where this story is going one of the most important things that himmler and his party needed if such a move was to be successful was money mobile cash or bullion and valuables so what did himmler have in may 1945 that he could have taken with him himmler was clearly making plans for some kind of move even in april 1945 as he had two strong boxes stored at the house of ss stumban fura or major heinrich springer principal staff officer at army group vistula himmler's last military command on the eastern front according to springer's wife one box contained gold jewelry and personal articles including a valuable pearl necklace and some diamond encrusted watches the other box contained a large amount of banknotes in various foreign currencies the strong boxes were collected from frauspringer by a member of himless personal staff unknown to her on the night of the 12th to 13th of may 1945 and never seen again by this date himmler was already on the road and had left the area did the officer who collected the two strong strongboxes have orders to take them to the hearts mountains to this alleged hideout that grotman was talking about it's a possibility or perhaps the officer simply helped himself knowing that himmler had already left the area himmler and his party did not appear to be traveling with boxers of bullion or cash in the cars the only mention of money comes when himmler's party abandoned their cars and bribed the fishermen with 500 reichsmarks to ferry them across a river the british never reported finding himmler and his 14 traveling companions with pockets stuffed with gold diamonds or cash and himmler's adjutants never said they were robbed of valuables by the british in interviews they gave after the war therefore it seems likely that himmler would rendezvous with his mobile wealth later in his planned journey south however the idea of a move into hiding in the hearts mountains for a few weeks or months was completely sensible and it does in fact tie in with something else we know about himmler the location of an extremely large cache of gold the hearts mountains are located in saxony and tohingya an area of 859 square miles of rugged wooded highlands the highest point standing just over 3000 feet high my research has led me to find a further compelling reason why himmler according to a senior adjutant had decided on the hearts mountains of all places to hide close by in saxony is the city of ploughm in 2015 a document was discovered by a researcher in the u.s national archives it was from himmler ordering gold and also currency weighing about 900 kilograms to be deposited in the vault of a city post office in plun a clandestine vault in effect the city of plun which was bombed heavily fell to the advancing u.s forces on the 16th of april 1945 a fact that himmler would have been fully aware of and have been briefed on while he was still reich's fuhrer ss himmler would also have known that plaun was destined to form part of the post-war soviet occupation zone of germany since a map showing the post-war division of germany had been captured by the germans during the arden offensive during the previous winter which had caused quite a stir in the german high command the americans didn't actually discover this stash until the 26th of april 1945 11 days after occupying the city and for all himmler knew they hadn't found it when he began his move towards the hearts mountains in the second week of may 1945 all information about ploughin no longer flowing to the german camp because all communications had been cut off by the american occupation this secret bank account was opened on heinrich himmler's personal orders and in his name in april 1944 again showing that himmler was preparing for some sort of escape from germany it could also have been one of several such stashes put into place by heinrich himmler that we simply have no information about the information buried somewhere in the archives yet to be examined but it does sound like part of a plan so perhaps himmler was going to move as grotman alleged firstly with his small group of subordinates in total numbering 15 men down to the hearts mountains and hide out for a few weeks or months until all the commotion of the initial occupation had died down at the same time perhaps one of his loyal subordinates would go forward in civilian clothing to the city of plowen make contact with local nazi organizations there particularly those officials who are looking after the gold and then obtain some of this gold or all of it move it back into the hearts mountains and then suitably disguised and carrying the correct false identification papers himmler's group would move down to the alps and cross over either into italy or switzerland this is of course speculation on my part but we have two important pieces of evidence firstly we have lieutenant colonel grotman who gave us the first part of the plan quite clearly secondly we have the gold itself being held in a vault clearly this is some kind of emergency stash and it's on the way to the alps which is quite convenient now a special gold hunting 75-man u.s army unit codenamed task force fisher commanded by u.s coast guard lieutenant commander joel fisher who was a washington dc lawyer at the u.s treasury department had been following u.s units as they advanced through central germany gathering up nazi gold and currency along the way at plowen reichsbank officials admitted that bags of gold were inside a safe in the post office basement that said they didn't have the key the key was on an official who had been killed in bombing and his corpse along with the key buried under tons of rubble task force fisher received help from a combat engineer company who used explosives to blow open the secret vault fischer and his men discovered the following at 1945 prices they found 250 000 us dollars in gold coins 1 million swiss francs again in gold coins 98 450 dutch gilders in gold coins and 151 560 norwegian gold krona there was also a smaller amount of yugoslav dinars and hungarian currency in total the gold coins weighed 900 kilograms in 35 sacks and would be worth at today's gold prices 41 million 900 000 pounds or 49.6 million us dollars gold coins are of course much easier to move around than bullion bars and are also readily exchangeable anywhere if we believe vienna grotman and we have no reason not to what he said does make sense himmler's plan clearly was to leave germany cross the alps into either italy or switzerland it is striking in the history books to note that many nazi war criminals headed for italy where rat lines existed running down through germany and austria to the port of genoa from there having obtained red cross passports and perhaps argentinian entry visas it was quite simple to board a ship and sail away to south america with some others also going to the middle east particularly to syria was this himmler's ultimate plan we will never know because himmler was of course captured by the british and died under very mysterious circumstances in their custody the significance of the gold stash at plowan we will never know as well except that it most definitely belonged personally to heinrich himmler but i think this theory does go some way to helping to explain what himmler was doing traveling south why he was prepared to undertake such a risky journey it has all the hallmarks of the clever planning that himmler was famous for [Music] thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark feldson 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: 438,780

Keywords: Mark Felton, Himmler, Himmler's Gold

Id: 05JI4BSIM1E

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 15 2022