REICHSBANK GOLD RESERVE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 9 April 1945, Page 5

REICHSBANK GOLD RESERVE

PRICELESS ART TREASURES ALSO VAULT 2100 FEET BELOW GROUND Rugby, April 7. What is believed to be the entire gold reserve of the Reichsbank, and also priceless art treasures recently removed from Berlin, have been captured by troops of the United States Third Army probing into the depths of a salt mine at Merkers, 30 miles south of Mulhausen, says a correspondent. An estimated total of 100 tons of gold bullion, probably all that Germany possesses, was stored in a vault 2100 ft. below ground level inside the mine. The estimated value of paper currency which was also discovered is £750,000,000 worth of marks, £500,000,000 worth of United States dollars, 100,000,000 French francs, 110,000 English pounds, and 4,000,000 Norwegian crowns. Smaller amounts in other currencies were also found. NOT YET VERIFIED “There is no verification yet of the captured German bullion at Merken,” says an official statement from the Third Army headquarters, “because no American has actually seen it. There is no question, however, that paper currency and art treasures were stored inside the mine.” According to another agency message, the treasure was brought to the mine in German army trucks on February 11, and for five weeks a stream of currency was stored by 200 British prisoners who were forced into the work of unloading and storing. Fritz Veick, who was captured by the Americans, was one of eight financial experts who were sent from Berlin to get the gold out of the treasurehouse. Reichsbank officials, of whom two were captured with Veick, arrived to have the gold removed back into trucks, but while they were in the mine the bridges of the town were blown up as United States infantry advanced. The trucks could not get away, and the gold was unloaded again into the mine just before United States infantry stormed the town last Wednesday.