The Ribbentrop Hoard - WWII's Finest GI Trophy

[Music] thank you Kim Von riventrop's life ended the Gallows at Nuremberg on the 16th of October 1946. before entering World War II riventrop had been Hitler's foreign minister responsible for among many things brokering the so-called pact of Steel the alliance with Mussolini's Italy signed in May in 1939 and for the momentous Molotov riventrop packed to the same year that had brought two disparate dictatorships Germany and the Soviet Union together and ended up with them carving up Poland he also pushed hard for Germany to declare war on the United States following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Once A full world war was underway diplomacy fell increasingly by the wayside and with it rivendrop's influence which declined precipitously however he did amass huge power in Nazi Germany and used this power to enrich himself using the foreign office as his own piggy bank including amassing a large stash of gold bullion that disappeared at War's end see my video on this fascinating topic Link in the end screen he lived very comfortably having residences in Berlin and his magnificent castle castle just inside Austria and not far from Hitler's Mountaintop home on the Ober Salzburg some time before War's end a lot of riventrop's personal effects were removed from the castle and hidden at a luxurious Hotel named krona in the Austrian Village of umhausen umhausen is a pretty little Austrian Village set in the deep valleys south of the Bavarian border and on the road south to Italy umhausen is a three-hour drive today from ribbentrop's Castle at fujo near Salzburg and at least two hours south of Munich where ribbentrop also had a home riventrop had a last meeting with Hitler in Berlin on the occasion of the fuhras 56th birthday on the 20th of April 1945 thereafter going north to join Grand Admiral Carl dernitz as headquarters in Northern Germany the material his men had stashed for him at the hotel krona included boxes of confidential foreign office documents and also some more personal Treasures it seems clear that ribbentrop was planning to return at some point and retrieve some of this material perhaps with the intention along with collecting some of his stash gold and other Treasures of evading capture by the allies and moving to Switzerland or perhaps joining one of the Rat lines used by fugitive Nazis to escape Europe most via Northern Italy and the port of Genera but events overtook reich's Minister Von riventrop and he ended up on the Run hiding out in a shoddy apartment in Hamburg in the north of Germany in the company of a young woman until eventually found out and arrested by an sas search team on the 14th of June 1945. in the meantime his castle-led Fusion had been captured by advancing U.S forces while the hotel krona also fell to GIS at the 44th Infantry Division on the 5th of May 1945. Captain Harry Goldsmith in the Vanguard of the division was delighted when one of his patrols found the hotel krona in umhausen for months he and his men had been fighting and sleeving wherever they could and with the Austrian Alps still cold and snowy soft beds and hot baths were the best reward he and his men could hope for in the dying days of World War II in Europe The Innkeeper had other ideas however and actually told Goldsmith that the hotel was closed and he also mentioned that the first floor the second to Americans was absolutely off limits Goldsmith was thoroughly intrigued and shoved The Innkeeper aside and commandeered the hotel taking some of his men with him Goldsmith checked the first floor forcing open each of the bedrooms in turn they discovered that they were piled high with boxes Trunks and suitcases there were boxes full of foreign office files and piles of clothing both civilian and various uniforms tapestries oil paintings jewelry and many other precious items interrogating The Innkeeper he admitted that it was the property of foreign minister Von riventrop as he rifled through one of the boxes Goldsmith noticed a large leather box with the initials GSM stamped on the top standing for State Foreign Ministry intrigued to open the box to reveal a glittering array of medals and decorations a hundred items neatly held inside padded partitions the rules were fairly simple anything of potential intelligence value was to be passed up the chain of command other items such as art Treasures that have been found including Lucid paintings by Rubens and Renoir that Von riventrub had acquired would be handed over to The Monuments Men to deal with but riventrop's personal items well they were just souvenirs Goldsmith only had to make a request to keep so and so item and usually medals uniforms and weapons were viewed as legitimate War trophies Von riventrop had served in the Cavalry in World War one as an officer earning the Iron Cross first and second class and also a wound badge and served in Turkey earning the famous iron the half moon badge his metal bar included several other World War One Service Awards as Reich foreign minister Riven Trump had received many high honors from foreign Nations and these enameled and Bejeweled orders of chivalry were eye-catching and valuable it has been suggested that many of these would have been given to Hitler but Hitler refused all such high honors during World War II and so instead the countries gave them to the foreign minister there were two orders from Bulgaria the Order of Saint kiril and methodoxious received in 1940 in the Order of Saint Alexander from Japan the highest honor for non-royals the order of the Rising Sun with Polonia leaves Grand Cross from Egypt the Grand Cross of the order of Ishmael all of these high orders made from gold and silver and set with semi-precious stones and diamonds from Denmark the special Grand Cross to the order of the danabrog two orders from the kingdom of Romania the Grand Cross of the order of Carol the first and the Grand Cross are the order of Romania from the Slovak puppet state the order of Prince prabina Grand Cross and from the Croatian puppets State the order of King xenomir from a fellow fascist Nation Spain the Grand Cross to the order of the yoken arrows and three from axis partner Hungary a special Grand Cross of the order of Merit the Grand Cross with swords the order of the holy crown of Hungary and finally the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Stephen the highest award bestowed by Admiral horti's Regency government last of the foreign orders came from Finland the grand collar of the order of the white rose awarded ribbon trop in 1942. there were Nazi Awards too the Olympic games decoration first class from 1936 and a special set of ss personalized cufflinks from Heinrich Himmler who had also made ribbon trop an honorary SS General and the most special of all the highest order awarded by the Nazi State the special Grand Cross to the German eagle riventrop being the only recipient it was clear to Captain Goldsmith that he was looking at a very important collection of medals a collection of international significance and also extremely valuable he put the box of medals riventrop's dress dagger and some of his uniforms out of sight and after cataloging and correctly dispatching all of the boxes of intelligence that they had found on up the chain of command to divisional headquarters he then had a word with the general about ribbon trops medals and uniforms would you have any objection if I kept them he asked the general had no problems with Goldsmith keeping these items as souvenirs accordingly as soon as he could Goldsmith had the items boxed up and shipped home via the Army postal system officer's mail was treated slightly different from enlisted men's and was not customarily searched or inspected so no one tampered with or pilfered from Goldsmith's packages and ribbon traps effects arrived safely at his home stateside Goldsmith left the Army a lieutenant colonel and settled in College Station Texas he spent years displaying riventrops medals tunics his dagger and other effects around shows in the U.S eventually after much interest from collectors Goldsmith offered to sell the collection of medals for twenty thousand dollars two collectors jointly purchased the collection after much face-to-face negotiations the collectors purchased the medal collection but not riventrops uniforms if you want to see the rib and drop medal collection today you can't ribbentrop's collection of medals was sold off individually to other collectors all over the United States as the man who bought the collection stated quote one of the greatest collections of personal World War II medals and decorations ever assembled vanished into history forever end quote as to what happened to riventrop's dagger and uniform tunics they were also sold off by Colonel Goldsmith many 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 [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 203,504

Keywords: Mark Felton, Ribbentrop Gold, Schloss Fuschl, Austria, Medals

Id: WIBM39D8JVs

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023