Nazi Gold: The Story of the World's Greatest Robbery--And Its Aftermath [Hardcover]

Ian Sayer (Author), Douglas Botting (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1985

In 1945, as Allied bombers continued their final pounding of Berlin, the panicking Nazis began moving the assets of the Reichsbank south for safekeeping. Vast trainloads of gold and currency were evacuated from the doomed capital of Hitler's 'Thousand-year Reich'. Nazi Gold is the real-life story of the theft of that fabulous treasure - worth some 2,500,000,000 at the time of the original investigation. It is also the story of a mystery and attempted whitewash in an American scandal that pre-dated Watergate by nearly 30 years. Investigators were impeded at every step as they struggled to uncover the truth and were left fearing for their lives. The authors' quest led them to a murky, dangerous post-war world of racketeering, corruption and gang warfare. Their brilliant reporting, matching eyewitness testimony with declassified Top Secret documents from the US Archives, lays bare this monumental crime in a narrative which throngs with SS desperadoes, a red-headed queen of crime and American military governors living like Kings. Also revealed is the authors' discovery of some of the missing treasure in the Bank of England.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A rather breathless account, first published in 1984 and updated for this edition, of what happened to the ``Nazi gold'' (and gold currency bonds, bank notes of various countries, coins, jewelry, paintings, and other goodies) that disappeared in the last days of the Third Reich. The immediate cause of its dispersal lay in a raid on Berlin on February 3, 1945 by nearly a thousand Flying Fortress bombers. The Reichsbank took 21 direct hits, and shortly thereafter the bulk of the gold reserves, weighing around 100 tons and requiring thirteen railway flat cars to transport them, were stored in a deep mine at Merkers, 200 miles southwest of Berlin. On April 4, this site was overrun by Patton's Third Army, which captured gold and currency worth some $315 million at 1945 prices, in addition to 400 tons of paintings, the 3,000-year-old Egyptian statuette of Queen Nefertiti, and two million books. Sayer and Botting (Hitlers Last General, not reviewed, etc.) deal with what remained. They estimate the overall total of funds missing or stolen at $433 million, worth nearly $4 billion today. That figure includes $3.6 billion in gold currency bonds seized by Red Army Intelligence, and quietly and efficiently marketed in later years (an intriguing episode unfortunately neglected here), and seven tons of gold from the German Foreign Office which the authors located in the Bank of England. A colorful crew of characters circle around or disappear with the remainder, but often Sayer and Botting get bogged down tracing two bars of gold here or voicing dark suspicions about what is being covered up by the US Occupation authorities there. Indeed, much of the latter part of their story deals less with Nazi gold than with the high living of occupation troops in Germany. Vivid investigative reporting is obscured by dust and cobwebs. (16 pages b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Ian Sayer is a transport executive and one-time truck driver and insurance clerk. His interest in Nazi gold was first aroused by the Guinness Book of Records' account of the greatest robbery of all time. He began his extensive search for this book back in 1974. Douglas Botting is a writer whose previous books reflect his interest in travel, exploration and twentieth century war. These include Aftermath in Europe, In the Ruins of the Reich and Gavin Maxwell: A Life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 423 pages
• Publisher: Congdon & Weed (January 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312925670
• ISBN-13: 978-0312925673
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,115,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Know is Wrong, January 18, 2004

By 

Brendan Dugan King (St. Cloud, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nazi Gold: The Story of the World's Greatest Robbery-And Its Aftermath (Paperback)

After years of researching their subject throughout the world, Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting first published this book in 1984. Their research began in response to a very simple question. What happened to the German National Gold Reserves after World War II? The answer proves shocking.
Aside from bringing the reader into the fascinating world of Postwar Black Marketeering and corruption,the book relates how a veritable Aladin's Cave of treasure disapeared into the pockets of Crooked S. S. men, K. G. B. stooges, and members of the United States Military, whose occupation of Germany was corrupt from top to bottom. This book remains a timeless reminder that no matter what uniform we wear, we're all dirty as Hell.

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nazi Gold disappeared after the war, March 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Nazi Gold: The Story of the World's Greatest Robbery-And Its Aftermath (Paperback)

The authors demonstrate how the Nazi gold seized by the US after the war disappeared without a trace. Quite unexpected. The Authors are historians.