Nazi Treasures Book 1

60 years later

THE SEARCH FOR NAZI TREASURES I. Proposal for an Exploration Project and TV Documentary Series

c 2004 Jaro Sveceny V Podbabe 29a 160 00 Prague 6 Czech Republic jarosveceny@yahoo.com

In April of 1945, in the closing weeks of the Second World War, units of German Army in occupied Czechoslovakia under General Schomer raced against time to hide secret documents and war booty - before surrendering to the Allies. In February of 1946, a daring raid by a special U.S. Army task force deep inside of Soviet-controlled territory near Prague resulted in the discovery of thirty-two crates of Nazi top secret documents. An intelligence report about this mission found at the USFET (U.S. Forces, European Theater) archives in College Park, Maryland revealed that more than three hundred other crates are still resting nearby, protected by sophisticated explosive devices.

LIST OF CONTENTS

0

FORWARD

1

AMERICAN RAID IN STECHOVICE, February 11. -12. 1946, Czechoslovakia

2 KAISERODA MINE TREASURE, April 6, 1946, West Durynia, Germany

3

EMIL HEINRICH CHRISTOPH KLEIN, (1898-1973)

4 OPERATION NEPTUNE , August, 1964, Czechoslovakia

5 "THE BRIDGE IN REMAGEN", August, 1968, Stechovice, Czechoslovakia

6 RICHARD MINE, May, 1985, Czechoslovakia

7

GOLDEN RELIQUARY OF SAINT-MOOR, November 5, 1985, Becov Castle, Czechoslovakia

8

RUSSIAN ICONS, September 1986, Czechoslovakia

9

GORING’S ART COLLECTION, June, 1990, Carinhall, Germany

10

LOST COFFINS, July 23, 1990, Zakupy, Czech Republic

11

GOLDBERG TREASURES, November 5, 1992, Czech Republic

12

VOTICE, October 1992-, Czech Republic

13

THE CASE OF MISSING CHAMBER, October 28, 1993, Vrchlabi Castle, Czech Republic

14

STECHOVICE TREASURE RACE, August, 1994-, Czech Republic

15

"BY RIGHT OF VICTORS," 1995, Moscow, Russia

FORWARD In May of 1990, while on a TV assignment in Prague, I was introduced by a Czech journalist to two former Czechoslovak secret agents. During our meeting in a small cafe, they made a surprising offer - to take me along with my camera to several sites supposedly housing secret Nazi archives and plundered Nazi war treasures.

The agents asked for no money, arguing that my video recording would serve as clear proof of their honest motives and their intention to turn everything they find over to the Czech government. They calculated that the 10% finder’s fee, guaranteed by Czech law, would be more than fair compensation for their work.

Through local contacts, I was able to determine that one of the agents (we’ll call him M.C.) was, until his dismissal in 1989, a Major in the Czechoslovak security forces. He had headed a special unit designated to search for antiquities stolen by Hitler’s Army during WWII. The other agent (Z.H.) was a well-known Czech explosives expert, who had gained international notoriety for being involved in the invention of the sophisticated plastic explosive SEMTEX. To validate their bona fides, I accepted their invitation to follow several days later to a small village called Zakupy, located in the northern part of the country. After a full day of extensive excavation work, we came across an entrance to a crypt. After descending about twenty steps, a breathtaking view opened up in front of me.

Sitting on a stone pedestal were two richly decorated medieval coffins. Regal crowns, mounted on the heads of the caskets, bore testimony to the aristocratic owners inside. Sculpted skeletons and cross-bones were situated at the opposite end. The name inscribed on the copper nameplate was that of Maria Francesca de Tuscany, Italian 18th century Archduchess (1672-1741). Her first husband, Philip Wilhelm of Faltz and Neuburg, was lying in the coffin next to her. Precious stones, carved symbols and guardian angels ornately decorated the almost intact caskets. Hoping that this magnificent find might lead to yet other and more significant discoveries, I agreed to the agents’ offer to have me document their intended hunts into the Nazi pa s t WHY BURY IT THERE? In April of 1945, the western part of Czechoslovakia was the last European battleground of WWII. The German Army, one million strong and under the leadership of General Schorner, was still fresh and well equipped. Fearing harsh treatment from the Soviet Red Army led by Field Marshal Konev, German forces began moving south in order to be able to surrender to the Americans. Despite imminent defeat, close members of Hitler’s inner circle, Borman and Miller, drafted plans to salvage what was left of their crumbling empire with hopes that someday the Third Reich might rise again as a Fourth.

Top-secret archives and stolen treasures that were once kept in Hitler’s Chancellery were now hurriedly transported from Berlin to the protection of Schorner’s army. The entire operation was entrusted into the hands of Otto Skorzeny, one of Hitler’s most trusted and capable intelligence officers. He had earlier demonstrated his abilities by orchestrating the daring rescue of Mussolini in 1944. Skorzeny’s plan was to direct this closely guarded cargo through Bohemia toward its final destination in Austria’s Alpine Triangle and, if necessary, to a newly-established safe haven in Peron’s Argentina.

In Skorzeny’s charge were 540 crates containing an assortment of gold, art objects, German archives and secret research data from the Kaiser Institute which had conducted Germany’s nuclear, biochemical, and other secret weapons programs. Some 450 crates were transported across the Czechoslovak border by train to the capital Prague. In spite of serious fuel shortages, the remaining 90 crates also landed aboard two Junker planes in Prague.

From the beginning of February 1945, the main roads and railway lines in central and southeastern Czechoslovakia were under direct attack by the planes of the 8th, 9th and 15th U.S. Army Airborne Divisions. By April 18th, Allied troops had successfully taken control of Austria and had crossed the Czechoslovak border. From an authenticated document, we learned that on April 21, 1945 K.H. Frank, the German Supreme Commander of occupied Czechoslovakia, had received a telegraph from Berlin Headquarters, suddenly changing his orders and directing this precious secret cargo to a new location.

STECHOVICE Situated only 30 miles from Prague, the quiet and secluded village of Stechovice had by 1943-45 become the training and testing grounds of the Weapons Engineering School for the SS. Oberfuhrer Emil Klein - an injured veteran of Hitler’s 1942 Russian campaign, headed it. A concentration camp had been established nearby to provide forced labor for the construction of the myriad underground tunnels and bunkers. German Commander Frank had visited the area several times during that period. On April 22, 1945, he met with Emil Klein at the Czernin Palace in Prague and ordered him to transport the crates (temporarily stored in the palace’s large cellars) to Stechovice. Commander Frank’s personal servant later confessed that he had supervised delivery of at least 56 crates through the SS base at Konopiste Castle to the crossroads just outside of Stechovice.

AMERICAN DISCOVERY In February 1946, a year after Czechoslovakia had ignominiously fallen into the anonymity of a Soviet satellite, the U.S. Military Command in Germany (USFET) dispatched a special secret intelligence unit on a daring raid deep into Soviet-occupied territory outside of Prague. It was headed by Captain Stephen M. Richards, one of the U.S. Army’s most experienced explosive experts, and by captured SS officer Gunter Achenbach, whom the Americans discovered at the POW camp in Mulhouse, France. During a routine interrogation, Achenbach had admitted to supervising the construction of some of the underground bunkers in Stechovice.

Ten Americans and two French intelligence officers disembarked from Nuremberg on February 10.

With the assistance of Major Charles Katek, head of the U.S. Military Mission in Prague, they had been granted a two-week permit to enter the Czech Republic. Their cover story was that they wanted to recover the body of an American pilot shot down during the war over Stechovice. In a surgical covert operation, which took place between the 11th and the 12th of February and lasted only 36 hours, the commandos, guided by Achenbach, managed to locate one of the bunkers. After dismantling an intricate explosive system protecting the bunker, they carried away 32 crates. These crates measuring approximately 100 x 80 x 70 cm and each weighed a minimum of 200 kg.

Photographs show members of the unit lifting heavy wooden boxes from a snow-covered bunker and loading them into waiting trucks. Others in the background searched the grounds with mine detectors.

When three of the officers were confronted by Czechoslovak police at the Alcron Hotel in Prague the night following the operation, the crates had already been safely secreted to the American Occupied Zone in Germany. The three American officers were arrested and held until March 3. Following a public outcry and strenuous protests from the Czech government, the crates were ultimately ’returned’ to Prague. Lionel S. B. Shapiro, a correspondent of the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA) was the only civilian participating in the raid. He recorded that among the materials found, the Americans had discovered K.H. Frank’s daily journals (1940-1945); a list of 60-70,000 Czechoslovak Nazi collaborators; guidelines for security measures to be used with the secret German research projects; and a complete inventory of all significant Czechoslovak antiquities and State treasures including the coronation jewels of past Bohemian Kings and Regents.

It is believed that the most valuable of the documents remained in American hands despite the boxes return. By 1946, only Gunther Achenbach and Emil Klein could have provided any information leading to the discovery of the remaining crates. All of the other possible witnesses, i.e. SS staff

and concentration camp inmates had apparently been eliminated to protect the secrets.

COLD WAR SEARCHES At the end of 1945, the Czechoslovak government established a special investigative team, led by General Ecer. This team combed most of Germany for Nazi war criminals and stolen property. The Soviet Red Army, the NKVD (predecessor to the KGB) and Soviet military intelligence had mostly focused their own searches on areas near the Austrian and German borders, where they expected to find valuables that the German army tried to hide before surrendering to the Americans. Two MOSSAD agents were apprehended while surveying various locations near the Stechovice dam in 1950. Israel always has claimed that it was only interested in finding the names of those responsible for WWII atrocities committed against their people - but one wonders .

When the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service (CIS) managed to recruit captured war criminal Werner Tutter in 1948 as a Communist agent, he warned that the discovery of the documents would lead to the implication of several top Czechoslovak ministers of the Soviet-installed government as having been Nazi collaborators. As a result, the CIS, the Federal Criminal Police, and the Ministry of Interior did not pursue their search activities further until the late 1950’s. Their effort then was aided by East Germany, which provided Czechoslovak authorities with a list of approximately 25 locations suspected of sheltering Nazi documents and valuable plundered objects. Although different teams conducted clandestine operations at several of these sites, they were usually impeded by internal conflicts within the Communist administration.

But the Stechovice region had remained the top priority ever since the successful American raid in 1946. The Special People’s Court in Prague sentenced Emil Klein, after the war to a 20-year long imprisonment. He was an essential key to the mystery of the missing crates. According to his frustrated Czechoslovak captors, he behaved: "...as a duty-bound Prussian" and refused to co-operate despite severe physical and psychological torture. Each time he was escorted to the former SS training grounds, he would draw yet another elaborate and false plan of the underground corridors and bunkers that he claimed him and his men had built.

In 1962, a Soviet KGB agent in Vienna gave the CIS a new promising lead. With a renewed interest in the case, the interrogation of Klein was resumed. But Klein, now aged and sickly, stayed silent until his release to West Germany in December 1964. His release strangely coincided with the discovery of 15 steel boxes found at the bottom of ’Black Lake’, located near the Czechoslovak-German border. They were filled with SS documents, describing in great detail Hitler’s successful assassination plots against several European opposition leaders.

In June of 1968, Hollywood director John Guillermin decided to shoot some of the key scenes of his WWII. epic "The Bridge at Remagen" in Stechovice. He had chosen an area in close proximity to the bunker once raided by the American commandos. Popular speculation had it that this multi-million dollar production was just a cover for a CIA sponsored attempt to take away whatever was left of the Nazi treasure. Soon thereafter, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia abruptly ended the ill-fated film production. This also quieted down all conspiracy theories connected with it and effectively postponed any plans for new Stechovice searches for many years. In 1975, a team of at least one dozen military draftees equipped with picks and shovels, supervised by officers from the Ministry of Interior, was brought back to Stechovice and permanently stationed there. Konopiste Castle, having served as an SS-headquarters during the war, became another target under special scrutiny by the Ministry of the Interior. Following the end of WWII, several medieval manuscripts traced to Kiev’s "Library of Old Russia," were found scattered in the woods near the castle. The Czech Police scored big in 1985. Under dramatic circumstances, they discovered the 12th century Reliquary Box of St. Maur. This precious piece had been buried by an aristocratic family, the Beauforts, who had been Nazi collaborators. They had buried it under their private chapel floor in Becov Castle in March of 1945 shortly before their escape from the advancing Red Army.

In the fall of 1989, at the very end of the Communist era, an American team of scientists, supposedly from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA and in close cooperation with Omnipol, the largest Czech weapons exporter, carried out an ambitious project in the Stechovice hills under a veil of high secrecy. Around the clock, trucks were seen being continuously loaded with tons of excavated dirt leaving the closely guarded and fenced-off compound. Mr. Z.H., had been invited to the site as an explosives expert, but he got only a sketchy picture of the true purpose for this undertaking. All activities were suddenly stopped just a few weeks following the toppling of the Communist government and the installation of Vaclav Havel as President. The project’s main organizer, a son of the Communist Party General Secretary (Mr. Jakes, Jr.) escaped to Germany.

RACE FOR DISCOVERY: 1989 - 2006 Since the 1989 fall of the ’Iron Curtain’, which opened Czechoslovak borders to the West, new treasure hunting ventures and interest have emerged. Russian President Boris Yeltsin greatly raised the interest in the quest for Nazi treasures by announcing, during a state visit to Germany, that he had exclusive information as to where the stolen ’Amber Room’ was to be found. This Room stolen from a castle in St. Petersburg was perhaps the most valuable and famous of all the yet missing plundered war items.

THE ENIGMATIC AMERICAN The first to arrive was Helmut Gaensel (71). Originally from the Sudetenland, a predominantly German-populated region of pre-war Czechoslovakia. Since his defection in the mid 1960’s, he had become a U.S. citizen and had started a Miami based mining company prospecting for gold in Nicaragua and Bolivia.

According to Gaensel, in 1962 upon his return from a brief imprisonment, he was approached by the Czech Intelligence Service (CIS) officials and offered a tough, exciting and lucrative job. Posing as a captured West German spy, he was to spend a period of time in Valdice, one of the toughest prison facilities in the country. His job was to befriend former SS-officer Emil Klein, who was serving a 20-year war crimes sentence. This ambitious, bright young man was the CIS’s last hope to achieve what even the shrewd Communist police apparatus had failed to do - to lure Klein into revealing his Stechovice secrets. When Gaensel accepted, a plan code-named "Opera" was jointly devised. The CIS briefed Gaensel for two weeks before escorting him to the Valdice prison.

On secret overnight trips to Prague, he kept his superiors informed of the latest developments. Months passed without any progress. Although Klein seemed to open-up in the company of this ’anti-Communist’ compatriot, a year later Gaensel, still hadn’t made any headway.

When he eventually revealed his true identity to the already suspecting Klein, the aged officer promised to co-operate in exchange for an immediate release. The Czechs had already decided to release two German POW’s, in a move to assuage the West German government, and the non co-operative Klein was already being considered. The CIS sanctioned Gaensel’s trip to Dusseldorf, where he met with Klein’s Nazi Party contact: Major Von Dressler, the treasurer of "Odessa" a support network for former high-level Nazi Party members. On his own and unauthorized initiative, he collected 150,000 DM to secure the release.

On Christmas Eve of 1964, seventeen years after his arrest, Emil Klein walked-out of Valdice prison a free man. Gaensel visited him further at his new home in Nurnberg at least three times between 1964-67. A tentative friendship had developed between two former adversaries as documented by a number of warm letters. Following the West German government’s rebuff to Klein’s offer to reclaim the treasure, the disillusioned officer supposedly revealed his secret to Gaensel.

Jaroslav Klima, Deputy Minister of Interior and one of the most powerful men in Communist Czechoslovakia during the 1960’s, was in charge of Klein’s case. In a recent interview he said that

he had found Gaensel’s story quite plausible. During that time Gaensel had ’disappeared’ into South America, Emil Klein died - in 1972. Gaensel briefly returned to Prague during Dubcek’s 1968 ’Prague Spring’. He negotiated and received the Czechoslovak Government’s approval to start the Stechovice expedition in September or that year.

Shortly before the Soviet tanks rolled into Prague that August, Gaensel left his homeland indefinitely. In 1991, more than thirty years after obtaining his exclusive information from Klein, Gaensel, confident and cocky, once again appeared in Stechovice ready to claim the buried treasures. He brought with him a team consisting of professional treasure hunters, geologists, explosive experts, psychics and his Dutch investors. During his first three-year sojourn in Stechovice, he established a base at the Mandate, a local hotel, and maintained a life of luxury not common in this bucolic village.

At considerable cost, he rented 39 acres of land in six different locations to conduct his search. Some of the locations were said to be used as decoys. Gaensel complained bitterly that local residents were exploiting his status as a ’wealthy American’. He blamed the local municipality for delaying his efforts - holding-up the approval of construction permits needed to start the excavations. It was assumed that the city fathers were trying to find a way of cashing-in on any potential discovery. Since1994, the year he finally received official blessing for his project, Gaensel has insisted several times that the find was imminent. Large areas of this popular Czech recreation resort had been turned into quasi-military compounds - complete with barbwire fences, armed guards and watchdogs.

Heavy mining and drilling equipment were brought to the scene. As the shafts grew deeper, a ’gold rush fever’ caught on all over the Czech Republic. Gaensel, "the real American", used to throw Thanksgiving bashes that were attended by scores of journalists and VIP’s - but also by the envious ’competition’. By 1995, four years after his return to what had by then become the Czech Republic and two years from when he had started his excavations, Gaensel had to admit that his initial expectations were ’too optimistic’ and that he was in for a long ’haul’ and unexpected difficulties.

Meanwhile, the Dutch investors came and went, soon to be replaced by others. William "Big Bill" Turner and Graham Smith, a Florida investment banker, took over and pumped some more badly needed capital into the venture. By then, the expedition costs were estimated to have reached approximately 1.8 million U.S. dollars. The Czech government, exhausted by the constant flow of Gaensel’s requests and swamped by numerous complaints and appeals from peace movement activists, environmental groups - as well as victims of the Holocaust - finally stepped aside and conveniently allowed responsibility for overseeing the operation to be shifted to the municipal level.

THE UNCONQUERABLE CZECH: JOSEF MUZIK Though under-financed and relying heavily on information from the older area residents, Muz k has put together a devoted team of volunteers and has displayed an uncanny degree of resourcefulness.

He has been obtaining some of the confidential documents compiled by the Ministry of Interior during its Stechovice searches in the 70’s and 80’s. He doesn’t deny the constant rumors that he himself worked for the CIS at some point in the past. He has used his inexhaustible energy to travel around the country and to interview the few remaining survivors of the Stechovice concentration camp.

Acting on a tip from a local man, who in May of 1945 had witnessed a Nazi execution, he discovered a mass grave of 40 POW’s who were shot after finishing the construction of a nearby shaft. When the Stechovice municipality finally issued Gaensel construction permits to begin his excavations in 1994, Muzik and the members of his volunteer group didn’t want to fall too far behind, so they chipped-in to co-lease at least a few of what they thought were the most promising locations.

A year later Muzik’s financial sources dried up and his camp in the Stechovice woods was briefly deserted. He was then renegotiating his excavation permits with the Stechovice municipality.

However, four months later he came back, this time sufficiently funded by a Czech millionaire. Despite the para-military appearance of the competing teams and the intense personal hatred reported between Gaensel and Muz k, each side remained civil to the other. "You can’t underestimate Muz k," Gaensel says, "Muz k is determined and very intelligent. He has a lot of useful documents."

Each team had specifically outlined and carefully guards their territories. There had been no reports of trespassing or mutual interference by either Muz k or Gaensel. Aside from the pressures of this intense competition, the two teams searching for the treasures face a deadline with each approaching holiday season. Because the Stechovice Lake and its surrounding hills are a popular recreation area, excavation activities have to cease once the school vacations began at the end of June and can only be resumed in the fall.

Muz k and Gaensel speculate about the nature of any potential finds without consciously or unconsciously realizing exactly the kind of a high stakes game they have become embroiled in.

SUMMARY Returning to Prague, almost a year after our 1990 coffin expedition in Zakupy, I paid a visit to Mrs. B., the art historian at the Ministry of Culture who had filed a detailed discovery report and signed a release form which stripped me of any future responsibility - so no one could accuse me of pocketing any of the precious and semi-precious stones spread over the crypt’s floor. A special clause stated that I was entitled to a 10% finder’s fee - plus expedition costs. But I was more curious about what happened to the coffins, which we left resting in the flooded crypt. Mrs. B. first mentioned some recent top level changes at the Ministry of Culture and then pointed at the ’State of the Czech Economy Report’ sitting on her desk. I got the point. There was no money in the state treasury for a preservation of even the most precious of the Czech antiquities, let alone the legally mandated finder’s fee.

A couple of days later, I contacted my secret agent collaborators. We decided to put together our limited resources and to resume the search on at least a limited basis. At about the same time, I learned that the Stechovice treasure hunt was just about to begin in earnest. Whenever my working schedule permitted, I was also drilling holes, constructing shafts, using mine detectors, groundpenetrating radar, explosives, learning about land mines and booby traps, and diving into the murky waters of Stechovice Lake... Unfortunately, many times we were forced to abandon promising leads or leave the exploration sites due to either time constraints, lack of sophisticated equipment, insufficient funding or a combination of the three.

Along the way, I met a number of interesting people. I was lucky that a sudden tourist boom brought into the Czech Republic thousands of young American expats. They brought with them their positive energy and taste for adventure. They never hesitated to volunteer - picking up a shovel or a pick and team to locate a passageway to the vast labyrinth of the medieval burial grounds under Zakupy church in just 24-hours.

I have videotaped all of our expeditions using a variety of recording equipment - from PAL/NTSC Hi-8 and Super VHS to digital BETA cameras. Along the way, I have established a close working relationship with both of the two Stechovice rivals, Mr. Gaensel and Mr. Muzik while covering their treasure hunt from the very beginning. I was able to gain access to the Czech Police recordings of communist era searches and have also obtained access to the film footage shot by Russian and Swedish explorers. .

*****

joining me on my weekend searches.

By 1995, we had managed to prove that the Stechovice region is just one of several potential locations within the Czech Republic worth of exploring. Some of these locations may be hiding what the intelligence services of at least five countries and many private groups have been looking for since the end of WWII. My cooperation with the two former agents, Mr. M.C. and Mr. Z.H., has been instrumental in making most of my discoveries. It also saved us from taking unnecessary risks during the excavation work.

During the last couple of years, I have received occasional assistance from the Canadian geotechnical company ’ZEBRA.’ Their state-of-the-art radar and sonar equipment has helped my

1 AMERICAN RAID IN STECHOVICE

Operation “Hidden Documents”

(Courtesy of the National Archives, Doc. control sec. G-2 Div. HQ. USFET)

At 0900 hours, 7 February 1946, a briefing conference was called by Lt. Col. Marc M. Spiegel in his office to outline "Operation Hidden Documents." Present at this briefing were: Lt. Col. Spiegel, Captain E. Winn, 1st Lt. William J. Owen and 1st Lt. Leo A. Silberbauer (French) of the Document Control Section, Captain Stephen M. Richards of the 123rd Ordinance Bomb Disposal Squad and 1st Lt. Wayne Leeman of the 3264th Signal Service Photo Company.

Col. Spiegel explained the mission and developed the background. The background was as follows: In Ootober 1945 the the French Secret Service informed Lt. Silberbauer that a German PW’ (Waffen -SS) held in a French PW camp in the Mulhouse area had given information regarding a cache of boxes containing documents. He (the PW) had worked on the construction of the Shift and claimed he could point out the location and give a reasonable outline of the intricate demolition arrangements made by the Germans to insure the destruction of the documents. The shaft was filled and camouflaged apparently early in April 1945.

On 29 November 1945 Lt. Silberbauer went to Mulhouse to interrogate the PW (Gunter Achenbach, Sergeant, Engineer Regiment "Das Reich", Waffen-SS Division). Achenbach gave convincing evidence of the cache by drawing sketches of the area and rough designs of the shaft and the demolition preparations. He confirmed that he was prepared to guide a mission to the location which was in the area of Stechovice, about 15 miles south of Prague.

On return to Frankfurt, Lt. Silberbauer made a report to Lt. Col. S. F. Gronich who ordered aerial pictures made of the area. Col. Gronich decided to postpone action until the departure from the area of the Soviet occupation forces. On 18 January 1946 Lt. Silberbauer was sent to France to bring Achenbach to Frankfurt. On 4 February 1946 Capt. Richards and Lt. Owen made a detailed interrogation of Achenbach to obtain information necessary to planning the operation. Achenbach examined the aerial photos of the area and confirmed the exact location of the shaft.

Col. Spiegel ordered the party to proceed to Nuremberg where they were to make a rendezvous with L. S. B. Shapiro, an accredited war correspondent given permission to accompany the mission, and an SSU representative from Prague who was to guide the party across the border to the area. Col. Spiegel ordered that the party was to dig up the boxes and return them immediately to Frankfurt where they would be opened and examined. Col. Spiegel placed Lt. Owen in charge of the party as G-2 representative for all details except those concerning the technical arrangements for recovering the boxes from the shaft. Capt. Ricbards was put in charge of the engineering detail. Lt. Si1berbauer was put in charge of the PW and Lt. Leeman was ordered to make adequate photographic records of the operation.

On 7 February 1946 the party departed from Frankfurt at 1000 hours. The party consisted of Capt.

Richards, Lt. Owen, Lt. Leeman, Lt. Silberbauer, Sgt. Antoine Vital (French, guarding Achenbach), Carmine R. Catusco, 3578 QM Truck Co., 88 Millview Street, Uniontown, Pa., Pvt. John C. Ecker, S/Sgt. Taylor R. Fulton and Sgt. Philip J. Urquhart of the 1264th Engineer Combat Battalion, Pvt same outfit, 25 Allegheny Avenue, Towson, Md., Pvt. Leroy Hall (drivers) and Achenbach. On arrival in Nuremberg the party made contact with Mr. Shapiro and obtained an air compressor truck driven

by Pvt. Thomas E. Jenkins of the 178th Engineer Combat Battalion.

The party kept in constant telephonic communication with Frankfurt to ascertain when the SSU representative would arrive in Nuremberg to guide the party. Since no reply was received from Prague, permission was obtained from Col. Spiegel on the afternoon of 9 February 1946 to procure border clearances from the Czech mission in Regensburg and proceed across the border without the SSU guide.

At 1000 hours 10 February 1946 the party departed from Nuremberg and arrived in Prague at 2000 hours the same evening. Contact was made with Vice-Consul Guiney at the U.S. Embassy, who arranged for billeting of the party.

At 0745 hours 11 February 1946 the party departed from Prague, proceeding south along the Moldau River for about 15 miles until the town of Stechovice was reached. From here Achenbach took place beside Lt. Owen in the C & R to guide the party across the Moldau bridge at Stechovice, thence along a second class road for a mile and a half leading into a deep forested area which was formerly an SS engineer training area. At the extremity of this road the party debussed and Achenbach led the way through the thick forest to the bed of a brook running through the base of a narrow valley, the sides of which rose for 150 yards at a 60 to 65 degree angle. The party proceeded up the bed of the brook in heavy going for 250 yards. At this point Achenbach examined the terrain carefully and pointed to a spot where he estimated the shaft had been dug. There was no surface sign that this was anything but wild virgin ground. After five minutes of examination of the ground including minute inspection of trees and rocks, Achenbach discovered a rock ten yards beyond his original choice of location. This rock bore signs of having been drilled by an air compressor drill. Guided by this, he reached up and pulled a small fir tree up by the roots. The fact that this tree lifted so easily confirmed that it was one of those placed on the location for camouflage purposes. Achenbach then indicated the exact spot where digging should start. At approximately 1100 hours Capt. Richards, S/Sgt. Fulton and Sgt. Urquhart probed a small area with mine detectors and found no evidence of mines. Thereupon they began digging.

Lt. Owen and Lt. Sjlberbauer returned at this point to Prague to contact their respective military attaches. A. situation report was rendered, and upon telephonic communication with Col. Spiegel, Col. Taylor, U.S. Military Attache, gave permission to proceed with the mission on an unofficial basis.

Meanwhile at the shaft location, Capt. Richards, S/Sgt. Fulton and Sgt. Urquhart, aided by Achenbach and Sgt. Vital, dug briskly through several feet of soft earth. At 13.48 hours Capt.

Richards unearthed the top right hand corner of the wood-constructed shaft. Brief exmnination of the shaft indicated it was dug into the side of the gu11ey to a depth of about thirty feet. It was six feet high and five feet wide. The entrance consisted of two reinforced wooden doors about eight inches apart. AchE!lnbach warned Capt. Richards that the shaft was intricately mined and booby-trapped with about one ton of dynamite wired to detonators attached to bolts and boards of doors and also to the outside boards and to the boxes inside.

Achenbach suggested that the safest way of extracting the boxes was to cut a way through the side . of the shaft rather than through the entrance doors. The air compressor truck was hauled to a clearing on the lip of the gulley about 1.50 yards above the shaft location, to aid in possible operations.

In the meantime woodcutters in the area had apparently notified Czech military officials in Stechovice and a Czech captain and lieutenant rode up on horseback. Capt. Richards went to meet them,

showed his identification and his frontier permit, but declined to answer further questions. Language difficulties aided Capt. Richards in his non-committal attitude, after which the Czechs rode away.

Capt. Richards and his two engineer sergeants, realizing the need for haste if the operation were to be completed as ordered, decided to open the shaft by the most convenient method, i.e., by the front entrance. Earth was cleared away from two or three feet of the top of the shaft.

After giving the matter most thorough consideration, and aided by Achenbach’s recollection of the wiring arrangements, Capt. Richards, at greatest danger to himself and his party, ripped off one plank from the top of the shaft near the entrance doors. (It turned out later that this board was the only one which could have been ripped off without setting off all the charges.)

Through the hole thus obtained Capt. Richards was able to clear space for his hand to reach down behind the entrance doors. From then until darkness, Capt. Richards, lying across the top of the shaft, reached his hands into the shaft and cut away several dozen lengths of primer cord which were attached to the charges. It was impossible to work after darkness fell and the party retired from the scene until dawn the next day.

At 0645 hours 12 February 1946 Capt. Richards and his engineer party returned to work. Earth in front of the entrance doors was cleared away by all hands and a drainage system improvised to drain away an accumulation of water inside the shaft.

At 10.15 hours capt. Richards estimated that he had cut all the primer cord attached to the entrance doors. A cable reaching down from the winch on the air compressor truck was attached to the door, and after everyone had taken such cover as was deemed advisable, the winch began to turn. The doors were torn off without undue incident. The shaft was revealed to be packed with large crates apparently containing documents. A larger problem, however, came to light. The crates were themselves wired and teller mines were wedged on three sides. These teller mines were equipped with blasting caps which could be set off at the slightest movement. In addition to these mines there were blocks of TNT, several crater charges, and about twelve five-gallon cans of highly inflammable oil, the whole arrangement apparently designed to destroy thoroughly the documents in case of discovery.

After four or five hundred pounds of TNT, several cans of oil, and some twelve teller mines had been removed from the entrance area of the shaft, the first box was removed and carried to a truck one hundred yards down the bed of the brook. This box was damaged in the operation and loose documents appeared to be part of Czech government archives. Thereafter two more slightly damaged boxes were removed and showed that they contained Gestapo files for the Reichprotektorat of Czechoslovakia, all marked top secret.

Lt. Owen and Capt. Richards decided to proceed with the removal of all the boxes at the fastest possible pace and to transport them to Frankfurt, according to orders, without delay. The entire party was put to work on arrangements for hauling the boxes by winch up the steep, wooded incline to two six by six trucks which had been driven to the area of the air compressor truck on the lip of the gulley.

Capt. Richards, S/Sgt. Fulton and Sgt. Urquhart worked without restraint in neutralizing the charges and removing the teller mines and other explosives. Working in close collaboration with them outside the shaft were Achenbach, Sgt. Vital, Pvt. Ecker, Pvt. Catuosco and Pvt. Jenkins. The most intricate and dangerous work was done by Capt. Richards, S/Sgt. Fulton and Sgt. Urquhart in removing the mines and cutting away additional lengths of primer cord. Each box presented a separate problem as the mines were so wedged in that (the Germans intended) the mere moving of any box would set off the explosives. All in all, 1400 pounds of TNT, twenty-nine teller mines, and about fifteen cans of oil were removed, in addition to crater charges and other paraphernalia designed for demolitions.

By 1700 hours all the boxes--32 in all--had been removed from the shaft and were lying in a

a clearing at an intermediate point between the shaft and the high ground where the trucks

a clearing at an intermediate point between the shaft and the high ground where the trucks were parked. The task of winching the boxes to the top was then undertaken by all hands, officers and enlisted men, aided by some eight Czech civilians who had been attracted by the array of equipment, and perhaps by the plentiful cigarettes available in return for physical labor. The work of winching the boxes was carried through the afternoon into darknkness and was completed in a swirling snowstorm. At 2045 hours the boxes were packed away in the trucks. While this final phase of the operation was being completed, Lt. Owen and Lt. Silberbauer drove at top speed to Prague to consult the Military Attache of the U.S. Embassy, inform him of the progress of the work, and apprise him of our intention of taking off immediately for Nuremberg. The Military Attache concurred in this decision.

Capt. Richards, Sgt. Fulton and Sgt. Urquhart were utterly exhausted by 14 hours of unrelenting labor. In addition to their exhaustion they were in danger of becoming ill by reason of having worked in several feet of water in the shaft in near-freezing temperature. It was decided that these three men would return to Prague for the double purpose of recovering their strength by a good nighfs sleep and to confuse any possible plans for interception of the convoy between the shaft location and the Czech border.

The party left the area at 2100 hours. Capt. Richards and his two men left the convoy at Stechovice to dry themselves in a temporary billet before proceeding to Prague. The remainder of the party proceeded through Prague and moved along the highway to Pilsen, then along highway 14 to the frontier. The party crossed the frontier at 0400 hours 13 February 1946 after checking through the Czech border control officer on highway 14 between Rosshaupt and Waidhaus. Half a mile beypnd the frontier one of the trucks was delayed 90 minutes by tire trouble. Driving through heavy snow at night and into the morning, the party reached Nuremberg at 1200 hours 13 February. After resting in Nuremberg the party departed at 1000 hours 14 February, arriving in Frankfurt at 1630 hours, and delivering the boxes to the document center at Fechenheim at approximately the same hour.

The success of this mission is due primarily to the superior work which was perforrned by Capt.

Eichards, Sgt. Fulton and Sgt. Urquhart in connection with the neutralizing of the demolitions and the organization of the entire operation in the area of the shaft. All three men displayed extraordinary courage and skill. Their zeal and selfless devotion to the task inspired the entire party. Achenbach’s precise information and his desire to aid Allied intelligence, in-addition to his heavy labor during all phases of the operation, made him an indispensable member of the party. His illness did not deter him from working himself to a state of extreme exhaustion. Sgt. Antoine Vital of the French Army did-arduous and excellent work at the shaft far in excess of the duties to which he was assigned.

However, the operation could not have been accomplished with such speed and precision if it were not for the teamwork indulged by all members of the party. Drivers Catuosco, Ecker, and Jenkins performed physical work of an arduous nature under adverse conditions. Lieutenants Leeman and Silberbauer and War Correspondent Shapiro aided in the operation in various useful capacities beyond their assigned work. The entire party operated under conditions of danger and hardship throughout the phase in the area of the shaft.

personal: correspondence Neurath-Hacha, 1943 * complaints by ministerial dirigent Danco * dismissal of V. Burgsdorf from Staatsministerium * silk stockings sold by one high official to another * inventory of K.H. Frank's vacation villa * letter by Fr.ank to Lammers (Chef der Reichskanzlei) stating conflicts of competence between various administrative agencies, June 43 * Fuhrer's directives for unification of Bohemian-Moravian administration * Fuhrer's directives for economic control of Bohemia * meetings between Frank and Hitler, meetings of Bormann, Lammers, Frank * meeting between Frank and Himmler folders of Frank's personal correspondence * Frank - Dr. Hans Plaschek, SS Hauptsturmfiihrer correspondence February 21, 1946 : Karl Hermann Frank's "BLUE FOLDERS" * Frank's four-weeks field courses and its consequences, 1940 * photo copies of two documents signed by Dr. Frank and dr. Jury, emphasizing improved relations between State and Party * letters to Lammers * apology by Czech minister Jezek for failure to show proper respect toward Frank * notes on political history of Bohemia * confidential report of Frank's meeting with Hitler after the assassination of Heydrich,, 28 May 1942 * letter by Frank to H1tler, recommending harsh methods to stimulate Czech production output * correspondence on NSDAP activities in Bohemia * Frank-Himmler correspondence, 1940 * draft of newspaper article on Europe's political set-up * translation of Danish article on Frank, 1942. * correspondence Goring-Heydrich, regarding Czech engineer Vambersley, 1942 * exchange of X-mas greetings between Mrs. Bodenschatz, Louisville, Kentucky and Karl Hermann Frank, January 1941 * Laval's conference with Reichsstatthalter and, Gauleiter Sauckel, 15 May 42 * secret Memo from Frank to Heydrich on future destiny of the Protectorate (1940) war economy: use of youth in total war. Students collecting harvests, such as silk worm breeding, malt, agriculture, gardens * economic report on South Eastern states - suggestions on price control, i.e., Germany pay for products taken from them.If this can't be done to make these South Eastern States realize, they owe Germany these products for being set up as independent states * SD file on slave laborers and POW used in Bohemia and Moravia, 1 April 1940 * report on agricultural matters,1944 * plans for agrarian reform * papers of Witkowitzer Bergbau * report on administration in Bohemia and Moravia by Hans Plaschek * offer of SS Hauptsturmfuhrer to employ SS-veterans * proposed "prominentenliste" by Ministry of Labor * promotion of officials in lower income brackets, 1942 * reasons for ineligibility of a certain "Oberregierungsrat" to Reichministerium * statistics of gas quotas for Prague offices * comparative index of living cost * List of modern Czech school buildings, 6 Aug 43 * register of Bohemian counties, and Aldermen. Maps * overall report on available and required manpower, July 43 * short summary of Skoda and Brunner Armaments production propaganda: translation of Atlantic Charta, German, 12 Aug 41 * radio speeches by Dr. Hacha, Moravec, K.H.Frank or given on other occasions. SD reports on conversations and opinion among the populace about speeches made by leading Nazis military situation: summary of talks concerning commitments of the "Regierung truppe" on the Eastern Front *June 44, report on commitment of Regierungstruppe in Italy. Telegrams and tactical reports of progress of Regierungstruppe; correspondence and further orders for Regierungstruppe committed in Italy * Speech by SS Sturmbannftihrer Wolf, 1944, on occasion of 5TH anniversary of Protectorate * report on activities of the curator for Czech education * confidential news flash on Roosevelt's message to Hitler and Musollini, May 1939 * German translation of "Integration and Disintegration", article published in "Nineteen Century", 1943 * speech by Hitler to officers of a Grenadierdivision, 1944 * NSDAP propaganda in Bohemia .and Moravia; 1943 * meeting in Prague of SSJunkerschule Bad Tolz. Junkers were recruited from all European nations. Main topic of the jamboree: "The new order in Europe" * anti-semitic pamphlet distributed in Czechoslovakia, 1934 * article commemorating 4th anniversary of Nazi occupation resistance: detailed situation report on workers, incidents, underground movements, counter measures taken from March 42 - Sept 44 * file on Czech paratrooper agents dropped off by RAF plane; connection with the Czech underground in 1943; Benes govt. in London Involved, reprisals * drawings by Jan Stransky describing Nazi horrors 1943 * "Naroda Obrana", Czech underground organization discovered. 21 defendants; correspondence about their fate; trials took place April 1940 * Fuhrer report on reprisals taken for murder of Heydrich; 3188 arrested, sentenced and shot * list of Swatoborchitz concentration camp inmates, incl. names, birthday, birthplace, occupation, residence * report on execution of a SS-man on SS orders * trial of Czech Prime Minister Elias, revealing ruthless and callous legal machination of Heydrich and Frank * orders for brutal and ruthless retaliation against attacks by German nationals; Hitler's order to increase the number of hostages to be shot upon slightest provocation * record of Hitler's outburst in Prague on occasion of anti-German demonstration of Czech university students, 1940 * Hitler's opinion of German court trying a Czech underground fighter * BBC broadcast in Czech, 1943 intelligence : Neurath's interrogation by SD * files on German nobility in Bohemia and Moravia.(remarks on personalities who returned from other countries also from US) * SD report on radio communication between the Czech government in exile and underground movement, 1943 * directives for security measures to protect Nazi high officials during receptions, mass meetings, ceremonies, etc. * file on concentration camps to be used for Czech prisoners * Benes 1943 plans for post-war Czechoslovakia. apparently aimed at Czech resistance fighters * Benes' speeches 路over BBC. SD reports on contacts between Czech government in exile and resistance * SD files containing copy of memorandum prepared by Benes regarding plans for post-war Czechoslovakia, 1940 * minutes of 1944 conference attended by Hitler, Frank, Hewel and Rei.ch foreign minister Ribpentrop dealing with Anglo-German agreement on Skoda works. Draft of a plan. by which. the Germans agree to a reduction in armament output, and the English will refrain from bombing the Skoda works (to use plants in a potential Anglo-Russian conflict) * folder intended for immediate exploitation by the US State Dpt.. Swedish officials and the British legation in Stockholm are involved. The file also contains SD reports on the various agents in this deal * Hitler's directives to Neurath, 10 Dec 39 * political situation in occupied teritorries, 1943 * three folders containing details on the events that took place after the attempt on Hitler's life on 20 July 1944 * letter on Communist network in Eastern Europe (1932) * letter from a Czech general from the War Dept. to Dr. Benes, on France's stand to Nazi-endangered Austria. Report on Hitler's trip to Vienna, change of his policy toward catholics. (1932) * top secret directive dealing with registration of all infants for the purpose of eliminating those who.might later become insane

* spying on churches * information on a German spy in Turkey whose function is unknown to Turkish authorities * top secret directive dealing with registration of all infants for the purpose of eliminating those who might later become insane asylum inmates * top secret directive regarding disposition of expropriated Jewish properties * top secret directive about information on the crash of American bomber in Bohemia * circular note to all German occupied territories about "Societe Generale de Surveillance" * confidential report on Stalin's health (1929) * important dossier on VOSKA. Czech agent who played important part in liberation of Czechs in 1918 administration: T/O of Bohemian-Moravian police, 1 Dec. 1943 * file on SS Standartenftihrer Voos, his dereliction of duty * principles of German policy in Bohemia, 1943 * political situation report, Nov. 43 * rejection of Ministerialrat Kleinschmidt's pension * pensioning and reinstating of higher SS and police leaders * list of Department heads for invitation purposes * NSDAP convention, Frauenberg June 1943.

Proposed opening of "KURATORIUM" (School for younger children) * mimeographed. forms pertaining to Bohemian police T/O * OCS of police on various Bohemian cities * speeches of "Beichshauptsteilenleiter" Utzenberger * alarm procedure of "Ordnungspolizei", 1943 * minutes of conferences about political re-organization of Protectorate", 1941 * problems of Bohemian constitution in XIX. Century * top Secret Hitler's decision on Czech civil rights and duties, 3 Oct 42 * Party policy in "Protectorate", dealing with quarrels between Frank and Dr. Jury; Gauleiter 1943 * report on Dr. Jaroslav Kose, vice-president of Czech Export Institute military: guard regulations; orders for stationary troops; P-fond "Stand Kasse"; expense accounts * RAD in Bohemia and Moravia, Feb 1940 * correspondence concerning SS hospital * .request of Czech. General Rychtromoc to form a Czech Army for the purpose of fighting Russia, 1944 * a file marked "State Secret" contains field-postnumbers of all police units (incl. SS). Most recent amendment dated 19 March 1945 * "Panzerprogram": Jagdpanzer 38 T. Mentions new model to be constructed and shown to Hitler on 20 April 1945. Contains list of ammunition manufactured by Skoda in Jan 1945 * report on the relations between Reichswehr and Nazis. by a well-known German author Otto Lehmann-Russbuldt, leader of the "International路 League of Human Rights" rumor of war: Bern account of the crucial pre-war days (Munich Conference). Includes summary o internal situation 1936-38, touches on bombing experiments carried out with Czech, French and Russian bombs; the activities of ambassador Pergler and ends with the Benes' abdication. This 60-page document seems to have been composed during Bern imprisonment. It is addressed to K.H.Frank and it is dated 19 Oct. 1943 * minutes of the last meeting of the cabinet members under Benes on 30 Sept.

1938. Apparently confiscated by the Germans in 1939 and forwarded to Himmler. Contains interesting remarks by Benes about Great Britain and France, such as "The British and French are going with the Germans out of fear of communism" * two memorandums attached by Mr. Forster (well known pacifist) to his confidential letter to Dr. Ruckl, a Czech diplomat.

1) by Oberst von Schleicher, showing the trend towards war in Germany since Streseman' s death 2) "Hitler's Private Army" (both documents in German) * Soviet propaganda in Czechoslovakia (Jan 1938), from files of Reichsprotektor Neurath * Eden's visit to Prague, Britain's policy towards Austria. Preparations for a coup d' etat in Austria, 1933 * detailed report on Dollfuss' assassination (German) * domestic situation in Austria, 1935. Annotation in pencil: "The danger is growing" * Boncour's report to Benes' rep about Boncour's conference with Dollfuss. (1933) * personal note from Dr. Benes to M. Paul Boncours on the "Pact of Four" (1933) * information on the conference Goring-Mussolini-Jouvenel-Graham regarding "Pact of Four". (1933) * correspondence between Mr. Forster and Dr. RuckI concerning the political situation in Germany, 1931 * confidential report by Dr. RuckI, special envoy to the Vatican, to Benes about his conversations with the Pope Pius XI. (also concerning Habsburgs), and with his State Secretary, Cardinal Pacelli and other dignitaries * Benes' conference with King Alexander on May 17, 1932 * expose on the situation of the Brunning kabinet * preparations of German-Polish combined attack against Czechoslovakia. (1935) * Count Be:thlen's secret military pact (along with the official friendship pact) with Mlussolini.(1927) * interesting report on Count路 Bethlen * Schusschnigg's visit to Paris and London. Conditions in Germany. Conference. with Ambassador Messersmith * report to Benes on the domestic situation in Germany as of 1931 by F. W. Forster, noted. German pacifist. * report on domestic situation in France, 1935 * excerpt from Manin's expose on Carol II. return to Rumania (1934) * information on air communication Prague-Moscow (1935) * Czechoslovak representative in Moscow on Russian situation (1929) * report of the Czech embassy in.Moscow on the pact among SSSR, Poland. and. Rumania (1929) * secret instructions to Soviet trade delegations abroad (1927) * translation of the report by the German embassy in Moscow on economic conditions in Russia (1927), sent to Dr. Benes * significant report by Russian ambassador Maklakeff in Paris on conditions in Soviet Russia (1927) * Britain's opposition to the Geneva protocol * interesting characteristics of the Soviet delegation members to the Geneva conference 1922: Lenin, Cicerin, Krasin, Litvinov, and others * Benes' letter to T.G. Masaryk about Churchil's initiative in 1919 * report on Polish revolution (1926, Pilsudski) and British support * interesting characteristics of Marshal Pilsudski by British ambassador * confidential personal report from the Washington Czechoslovak ambassador to Dr. Benes, about British-American relations, (1929) and their bearing on world policy; incl. Japan * telef'onogram. calling a noted Prague surgeon to Mussolini proves that he has suffered fit of epilepsy (1926) * confidential report on the organization of' the "Feldjagercorps", (1931) * draft of a letter by Benes to the King of' Yugosl.avia * points set forward by Sir Aust.em Chamberlain on the proposed Russo-German Convention, 1926 * proposition to Poland (in Benes' handwriting), Dec 1934 * Forster's letter to Benes on cooperation of the Big Powers towards consolidation of German Government (1926) * expose by Forster on German propaganda and its financial resources (1931) * information about activities of Ukrainian Emigration in Germany (1930) * letter on German monarchist movement and German Crown Prince (1927) * Polish stand towards Franco-Soviet lines * American view about disarmament. Herriot's trip to Washington * discussion of various matters including conversations with Grew and Castle.

Reverberations of Franco-Soviet pact in Poland, 1935 * diplomatic telegram on Czech loan in USA (1925) * Dr. Benes' resume on the conference.of the "Small Entente", 1932 * memorandum on Dr. Benes conversations with King Alexander, Yugoslav, Rumanian, French, and Polish statesmen * report on President Hoover's trip to South .America, 1928 * conference Benes-Bethlen (Hungary) in Geneva, 1923 * offer by US banker to Benes, 1923 * personal manuscript by dr.

Benes setting forward the political mission of the "Little Entente" (Czech and French)

2 Kaiseroda Mine Treasure April 6, 1946, West Durynia, Germany

2,000 paintings by world masters such as Van Dyke, Raphael, Rembrandt and Renoir; hundreds of boxes and travel bags filled with gold dental works, glasses, and rings from the Nazi concentration camps victims were discovered in an abandoned salt mine by two patrolling American G.Is. The Kaiseroda salt mine in Th ringen was also used for the safekeeping of money and gold from the Reichs bank. It was brought there after the bank had been severely damaged in the Allied bombing in February 1945. In the tunnels were stacked tons of gold bars, and thousands of bags with currency.

When Hitler gave the order for the evacuation on March 8, 1945, the art treasures from the Berlin Zoo towers and the Reich bank were also brought to the Werra district. F.K. Thone, who had taken earlier loads to Grasleben, headed the operation. Paul Ortwin Rave of the Nationalgalerie accompanied the first convoy, containing 45 cases of paintings from the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, to Th ringen. Located southwest of Erfurt, it was assumed that it would end up in the American occupation zone after the war. The convoy stopped first at Hattorf, a potash mine near Philipsthal.

Since the mine was already filled up with the collections of the Prussian state library, the keepers refused to take the paintings in.

The convoy then moved to the Ransbach shaft, only a mile away, reserved originally for SS archives.

But this mine was found too damp for the storage and thus the convoy ended at the Kaiseroda mine near Merkers. Seven more convoys followed, the last one arriving on March 30, 1945.

3 Emil Heinrich Christoph Klein (1898-1973)

E.H.C. Klein, a veteran of Hitler’s Russian campaign, was appointed a commander of the forming SS-Weapons Engineering School in Stechovice in 1943. After the war, in 1946, he was handed by Americans to Czechoslovakia to stand a trial for war crimes. In 1947, he was sentenced by a Special Peoples’ Court in Prague to twelve years in prison. After appealing this verdict, his sentence was extended to twenty years. In 1964 he was released to West Germany where he died on December 21, 1973.

Klein’s name is closely connected to the mystery of the so called "Stechovice Treasure" supposedly comprising of Nazi archives, blue prints of advanced technology and art treasures deposited in the vast underground network of corridors. During twenty years of his captivity in communist Czechoslovakia, he had been continually interrogated, physically and mentally abused. Helmut Gaensel, one of the two current Stechovice treasure hunters, was recruited by the Czech secret police to enter the prison in Valdice where Klein was being held, befriend him and dupe him into revealing whereabouts of the hidden treasure. Near the end of his imprisonment, Klein reportedly irritated his tormentors by reciting quotes from Goethe’s Faust that may hold a clue to solving mystery of the Stechovice vast network of underground tunnels.

4 “Operation Neptune”

August, 1964, Czechoslovakia

15 steel boxes containing Germany’s High Command plans for the WWII undercover operations were discovered by Czech scuba divers at the bottom of the Black Lake, near the German border. Only ten years later, the truth about this find that gained a world-wide media attention and caused a political crisis in Bonn became known.

Known as Operation Neptune, the plan was an elaborate ruse. Ladislav Bittman, then an agent of the Czechoslovakian secret police, collaborated with KGB to have several chests full of fabricated documents listing the names of alleged Nazi spies dropped to the bottom of the lake. Then he and a group of divers dove into the lake and "discovered" them.

The discovery of the documents was splashed all over Europe, and the mission successfully weakened Western Germany’s ties with its neighbors and whipped up anti-Nazi sentiment.

Underlying Bittman’s success, however, was disillusionment with the Communist Party that began in 1956 when Soviet forces brutally crushed the Hungarian Revolution. Slowly, he said, he began " seeing the world through different glasses."

The final blow to Bittman’s faith in communism came in 1968 during the "Prague Spring," a brief period of Socialist reform in Czechoslovakia that was quickly repressed by the Soviets. Working in Austria as a press attachØ and public relations officer, Bittman used his influence to protest the repression. Bittman fled Austria for West Germany, where he asked American officials for political asylum. Soon, he was on a plane for Washington, D.C., to start a life in a nation that he had been taught to hate.

5 "The Bridge in Remagen" August, 1968, Stechovice, Czechoslovakia

The ferocious German defense of a strategic bridge over the river Rhine became the subject of a major feature film produced by David Volper and starring George Segal, Robert Waughn and Ben Gazzara. Unable to obtain permission from the West German authorities to stop the river traffic on the busy Rhine River, Wolper had done the next best thing. He obtained the necessary permission from the authorities along the Vltava River and found a bridge at the town of Davle, near Prague, that seemed ideal for the purpose.

He then set about remaking it into a replica of the bridge that had been at Remagen. Art director Al Sweeney and Hank Wynands helped construct the very costly plaster towers on both sides of the bridge, the plaster church on the hill, and the $150,000 tunnel bored into the hillside.

The fact that the tunnel was built at great expense for a film scene running for only 60 seconds, lead many to speculate, that the film production served only as a disguise for an undercover operation.

6 Richard Mine

May, 1985, Czechoslovakia

The decision to turn the vast underground of the old limestone mine into a manufacturing plant was issued by Adolf Hitler on March 3, 1944. A total of 14.000 concentration camp prisoners participated on its construction, almost 3.500 died during the process. When finished, the plant was operating for only fourteen months. A company under a code name Elsabe A.G. (a branch of the Auto Union A.G. from Chemnitz) was producing in Richard I. parts for Maybach HL 230 engines used for the elite German tanks "Tiger," "Panther" and the supertank "King Tiger." The Czech TV-1 crew made a risky but unsuccessful attempt in 1985 to break into the mine’s left wing, which used to be the plant’s nerve center.

7 The Golden Reliquary of Saint-Maur

November 5, 1985, Becov Castle, Czechoslovakia

In 1985, a British attorney approached the Czechoslovakian Embassy in London with an unusual proposition. He offered to pay the communist government USD 250.000 in exchange for a free exit passage of an art object concealed by its aristocratic owners before their escape from Czechoslovakia at the end of WWII. He argued that the Czech authorities were not even aware of its presence in the country and therefore it was of no use to them.

During a series of meetings held in Prague over a nine months period, the Czech police, based on the attorney’s passing remarks, pieced together at least a part of the puzzle and immediately began the search. The object was supposed to have a size of a conference table and it was buried within a radius of 150 kilometers from Nuremberg. The search was eventually narrowed down to several aristocratic chateaus and castles in the western part of the country.

While the Czech Foreign Ministry was taking its time preparing a Deal Memorandum, a police team in a close cooperation with the appraisers and art historians came to a conclusion that the object in question may very well be one of the most important Czech antiquities ever - the golden reliquary of Saint-Maur, Christianity first canonized black. It vanished along with the aristocratic family of Beauforts, the Nazi sympathizers from their Becov castle in 1945. During the WWII, Heinrich and Friedrich Beaufort were active members of the NSDAP and of the SS and they both would had faced treason charges in postwar Czechoslovakia.

When the agreement was almost prepared for signing, the police discovered the priceless golden relic in a 1,5m deep hideout under the floor of the "Saint Peter’s" chapel in the Beaufort’s castle.

About 100 bottles of the French cognac and wine were found along with it. The chest, nearly 140 cm long, 42 cm wide and almost 65 cm high was richly decorated with gilded silver and gilded copper creating figural, relief and filigree elements. The filigrees were set with roughly 300 precious stones.

Due to its forty-years-long stay under ground it suffered a severe damage. Its bottom had rotted, the decorations had warped and the golden parts had turned black. What hadn’t been destroyed by the elements was ruined due to a communist neglect. After its discovery, the box was placed into a bank vault while ownership disputes and bureaucratic procedures took over.

It arrived at the restoration workshop in 1991. The entire reliquary had to be taken apart due to the deformation of the wooden core. For the next three years restorers studied composition of the materials used by the medieval craftsmen and conducted a technological analysis to determine the best restoration technique to use. They built first two trial models before starting a work on the original. 500 specimens of the reliquary’s decorations were created from more than 3,000 individual pieces. From the very beginning the restoration process was shrouded by a veil of secrecy - the Czech Ministry of Culture refusing to reveal the reliquary’s whereabouts or even restorers’ names.

The restoration cost reached approx. USD 500.000. On May 4th, 2002 the fully restored Romanesque jewel was finally returned to Becov Castle and it has been opened to the public since.

Paradoxically, it was thanks to the Beauforts that the reliquary, originally used as a casket for human remains, found its way to Becov. It was made in the first third of the 13th century by a goldsmith workshop on the German-French border to the order of a Benedictine abbey. Its dignitaries wanted to place the remains of St. Maul, St. Timothy and St. John the Baptist, in a truly representative casket. In 1798, the monastery was dissolved and its property was plundered or destroyed. The reliquary of Saint-Maul survived hidden in a sanctuary of a local church. Duke AlfrØd de Beaufort discovered it there and in 1838 bought it and had it repaired. After the Brussels exhibition in 1888, the Beauforts brought the reliquary to their Czech estate in Becov where it was exhibited in a chapel.

After the formation of Czechoslovakia in 1914, the Beauforts ensured that the reliquary disappeared from a public view, fearing its confiscation by the state.

8 The Russian Icons in the Konopiste Castle September 1986, Czechoslovakia

The Duke Frantisek Ferdinand d’Este bought the castle founded in the 13th century from the Lobkowitzs in 1887. He rebuilt Konopiste into a magnificent residence of the future emperor. The rooms were furnished by the museum collections which Frantisek Ferdinand inherited from the Duke of Modena.

During WWII, the castle was turned into the Gestapo regional headquarters. It apparently also became a destination point for some of the German war loot from the Soviet Ukraine. Following the war, unique medieval manuscripts were found in the woods surrounding the castle. They were traced to the Library of Old Russia in Kiev. That raised hopes that the castle itself may be hiding more of plundered art or even Gestapo’s secret archives and it was thoroughly but unsuccessfully searched in the early 1960’s by the Czech communist security forces.

9 Goring's Art Collection June, 1990, Carinhall, Germany

A Swedish scuba diving team suspecting that a part of Marshall Goring’s considerable art collection was dropped by the Nazis into Dollnsee Lake near Goring’s former country home in Carinhall discovered fifteen bronze Roman statues at the lake’s bottom.

Goring’s art collection was hidden in several locations. It was simply too vast to have it all transported to a final cache. Some of it was buried at Carinhall, Goring’s palatial estate and hunting lodge, when the Russians advance threatened to overrun the area. The remainder was transported by train to Veldenstein, Goring’s castle.

As the Allies approached Veldenstein on April 7, 1945 Goring once again ordered the treasured to be moved by rail to Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s retreat in the Bavarian Alps and the center of the redoubt area. There Goring was able to commandeer four trains.

The ease with which Goring was able to find four trains available to him in the final days of the war was largely due to the incredible and surreal situation surrounding the redoubt area. During the final days of the war, 14,000 freight cars arrived in the area. Many were loaded with supplies and equipment for the Nazis final stand in the Alps. Others were simply loaded with treasures collected by top officials. Wounded soldiers lucky enough to find a horse and cart filled the roads, while other wounded soldiers laid at the roadside, unable to find transportation to a hospital, dying an agonizing death in the mud and snow.

10 The Lost Coffins

July 23, 1990, Zakupy, Czech Republic

In 1985, the Interior Ministry’s special task force in one of their last operations before the fall of the communist rule in Czechoslovakia discovered the long lost 18th century richly decorated coffins of the Italian Archduchess Maria Francesca de Tuscany and her husband stashed away in an unmarked sanctuary crypt in Zakupy gothic church.

In 1990, with a special permission from the Litomerice diocese, the two agents who participated in the original 1985 operation were allowed to bring my television crew back to Zakupy to perform a step-by-step reenactment of the events leading to the coffins’ discovery. After the expedition, we filed a detail report and handed copies of all photo documentation to the Czech Ministry of Culture and to the Litomerice diocese.

In 2005, twenty years from the day of their recovery, the coffins - a precious example of the unique Czech baroque artisanship are unfortunately still rotting in their watery grave in Zakupy church, so far with no hope to be restored or at least moved in foreseeable future.

12 Goldberg Treasures

November 5, 1992, Czech Republic

The possible existence of hidden Nazi war loot has inspired the imagination of several amateur dreamers and schemers. One such man, Mr. J.T., led our TV crew to a site known as "Gold Mountain." He said he first discovered a large underground bunker at the foot of the hill in 1970.

Inside, he found several crates filled with gold and silver jewelry. He didn’t act upon the find, fearing punishment from the communist authorities. Years later, when he brought us near the location, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by heavy artillery fire. Unbeknownst to us, the adjoining field was turned into a shooting range. The exploding shells created huge avalanches, and over the years had covered J.T.’s bunker with tons of dirt and rocks. We were stopped cold. Until our exploration of the bunker site resumes, J.T. plans to keep busy drafting designs for an anticipated opening of a youth recreation center, which he intends to support with his share of the buried treasure.

11 Votice

October 1992-, Czech Republic

In 1953 the East German spy organization STASI compiled a confidential report based on the interrogation of captured Nazi officers who took part in concealment operations in Czechoslovakia at the end of WWII. The report listed a number of shelters used by the Nazis to hide their war loot. It was passed on to the Czech intelligence for implementation. High on the STASI list was a tunnel located at a hillside near the city of Votice (approx. 60km south of Prague.)

In 1943 Votice became a part of the SS Weapons training grounds extending over an area of several hundred square kilometers. Ten thousand people were evacuated and several concentration camps were established there to provide slave labor for a construction of military installations that included underground storage structures. Some of the camps were reserved for Jews, other for important international political prisoners from France, Holland and Soviet Union, one for the SS renegades and deserters. Executions were performed each Friday, often in a presence of Hitler’s Protectorate Deputy K.H. Frank.

As the German military situation got critical and the Allies started to close in, Votice located on the main escape route to the Austrian border had become in February-May 1945 an important strategic point. The German cargo trains from Prague and from as far as Poland and Ukraine had been arriving at the small station around the clock. On April 29, Hitler’s master spy Otto Skorzeny was seen there, personally supervising one of the transports. Since the US Air Force planes were controlling the railroad south of the city, the cargo was being reloaded from trains on trucks. With the highway flooded with retreating German troops, the trucks had a little chance of getting too far. Many were left abandoned at a roadside, a few managed to deliver their cargo into several pre-selected deposits in the hills surrounding the city. On May 1, 1945 General-Major Alfred Karasch, the commander of the SS Weapons training grounds ordered a last minute execution of eight captured American pilots. A week later he escaped from his Konopiste Castle headquarters and surrendered to the Allies a couple days later.

Mr. M.C., a former member of the communist Interior Ministry’s search unit offered to show us the spot described in the STASI report. He knew the Votice area well from a couple of his previous visits as the Ministry agent. Much to his dismay, his superiors didn’t want to loose time with a thorough survey of the location and the search for the tunnel was soon abandoned. Upon the agent’s recommendation, we rented a secluded villa lost in the woods and made it our temporary ’headquarters’. Built in the mid-1930 by a Czech industrialist for his mistress, it was richly decorated with antique furniture and featured an impressive modern art collection.

When Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, the villa and the beautiful mistress caught the attention of the Nazi hierarchy and the busy social life had continued there with their participation throughout the war. The young woman saved her life by escaping to the West in May 1945. After the war, the communist government wasted no time and the attractive property was quickly confiscated. The government used the place for interrogations of the arrested opposition leaders facing conspiracy charges in one of the Stalinist show trials in 1951. Until the fall of communism in 1989, it had served as a ’home away from home’ for an assortment of important political refugees, international terrorists and foreign dignitaries from friendly nations.

Next day, we managed to secure an exploration permit from the Votice City Hall and our group walked up a few hundred meters on the hill rising next to the main highway. The group was headed by the former agent and consisted of the National Geo photographer, the explosive expert and Semtex inventor, globetrotting female journalist just back from Chechnya war, a cameraman and a geophysical engineer. An old area resident confirmed the agent’s information that the small inconspicuous platform we found there had in the pre-WWII days a large entrance into a tunnel. The man described venturing some twenty meters inside with his friend before getting scared and running away.

As we cleared several square meters large area from bushes, we took turns in digging and

excavating what the radar identified as a three meters deep layer of soil. That much was apparently separating us from what the geo expert identified as a shallow space - possibly the tunnel entrance. In the excavated soil we started finding signs of past construction activity - pieces of brick and concrete, dry mortar and burned branches. However, on the third day, we encountered an insurmountable obstacle - the huge concrete block blasted in a half and blocking off the tunnel entryway.

The following spring, we contracted a geophysical firm to determine the size and the length of the underground structure. It appeared that the tunnel was driven into the hillside when the area became a busy silver mining spot in the 19th century. It was approx. two hundred meters long and since then it was easily accessible even by a fully loaded vehicle. The possibility that it might have been used by the Germans as a storage space at the end of WW II is plausible.

13 The Missing Chamber

October 28, 1993, Vrchlabi Castle, Czech Republic

It had taken the Vrchlabi City Hall’s employees almost fifty years to notice, that several large windows on the building’s front wall were blind and that they didn’t connect to any of the rooms inside. Checking the building’s architectural plans drafted by the German Army engineers during a partial reconstruction in 1942, they discovered that an unaccounted space of approx. 200 m2 exists on their building’s first floor. Since the rectangular-shaped area was marked on the plans as the ’Archive,’ a suspicion arose that the explosives might had been used to protect it.

Our search team was called in to investigate. Working around the clock and depending on the judgment by our explosive expert Mr. Z.H., we managed to jackhammer a passageway through the medieval castle’s thick wall and into an empty large space inside. Three small wooden boxes were sitting on the floor connected together by a thin electrical wire posing a silent threat. Although the makeshift detonators placed inside were inactive, we were leaving the castle in Vrchlabi with a feeling of a bittersweet victory. The provocative question of whether the space was actually housing the secret archives removed by the castle’s first post-war tenants from the KGB or if the Germans simply ran out of time - and never used the space for storage remained unfortunately unanswered.

14 The Stechovice Treasure Race August, 1994-, Czech Republic

After more than two years of delays, the Stechovice municipality finally issued excavation permits to Helmut Gaensel and Josef Muzik. The first activities by both expeditions began immediately at several Stechovice sites.

WW2 historians speculate that the vast network of subterranean vaults built by the Nazis during a period between 1943-1945 main contain blue prints of German high-tech weapons - including nuclear arms, hundreds of kilograms of gold stolen from Jewish prisoners - or even details of numbered bank accounts worth billions of dollars in ill-gotten gold.

What is known for sure is that during the 1938-45 German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Nazis had turned the Stechovice region into a SS weapons training ground and had established an army engineering school there. Nowadays, only a few of the resort’s yearly summer visitors realize that they walk on top of a vast labyrinth of tunnels constructed by the Nazi engineers.

Following the fall of the Iron Curtain and through the 1990’s at least five different groups of explorers have set up their military-style camps in the hills overlooking Stechovice Lake ready to claim what the Germans and then the Americans had left behind. Although they managed to unearth several bunkers and a mass grave containing bodies of both prisoners and guards executed after completing their work, the missing crates have not yet been found. By 2001, talk of any imminent discoveries seemed to have quieted down.

Due to endless bureaucratic red tape and the soaring costs of the search, the privately organized expeditions were one-by-one forced to be suspended or abandoned.

Paradoxically, the man long considered the underdog by his competitors became the last lonely runner in the Stechovice ’treasure hunt’. Josef Muzik, a small wiry Czech came to town in 1991 with a metal detector and a few friends in high places. He persevered by surrounding himself with a group of dedicated volunteers and by keeping the costs of his undertaking to a bare minimum. Over the years, he has methodically explored a 240 square-kilometer area - narrowing the search to just a few specific spots. His survivalist instincts and dedication have led him to some interesting finds. After more than two years of delays, the Stechovice municipality finally issued excavation permits to Helmut Gaensel and Josef Muzik.

The first activities by both expeditions began immediately at several Stechovice sites.

Helmut Gaensel

Josef Muzik

15 "By Right of Victors" 1995, Moscow, Russia

The Russian TV director Boris Karadjev had produced a fascinating documentary - a step-by-step account of the Red Army’s theft of the priceless Priam’s Troy Gold Collection from Berlin in 1945. By gaining access to the film footage from the KGB archives and by interviewing several of the participating former Red Army officers, Karadjev was able to recreate the entire, thousands-of-miles-long journey of this treasure from the Berlin ZOO tower Flakturm to the cellars of abandoned Russian castles, government buildings and warehouses.

The treasure was kept in a total secrecy until 1992, when President Yeltsin and Chancellor Kohl had signed Cultural Agreement, reaffirming the Good Neighborliness Treaty that Kohl and Soviet President Gorbachev signed two years earlier. By 1992, both sides knew that large quantities of artwork had been taken from Germany and was hidden in Russia.

This in spite of the provisions of the Hague Convention of 1907, argued Germans according to which works of art and science on occupied territory are protected against confiscation. Russians on the other hand came up with a legal opinion prepared in 1994 by the Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Science, claimed that the Allied Control Council that ruled defeated Germany had recognized the compensation principle of restitution - the right of countries looted by the Nazis to take German property as compensation.

In 1994 a small German delegation travelled to Moscow and was shown for the first time the stolen Troy Collection. In 1995, the showing of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist exhibit had been held in Moscow Hermitage, fifty years since it got stored in the museum s special depository. Not to be outdone by the Hermitage, the Pushpin Museum quickly organized an exhibition of sixty-three trophy paintings and drawings that same year. It was called Twice saved: Masterpieces of European Art of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries Removed to the Territory of the Soviet Union from Germany as a consequence of the Second War War. A group of paintings from the collection of the great Hungarian Jewish famillies rounded out the show. The works of Corot, Manet and Degas from the Hatvany collection, and canvases that had belonged to Herzogs, had been seen in public more recently than the other pictures because they had been put on exhibition by Adolf Eichmann. In a notorious deal, he agreed to exchange the freedom of 1200 Jewish families for gold, silver, cash, and paintings. Eichmann was so proud of his loot that he staged an exhibition in his residence, the Hotel Majestic. The paintings were later send to Germany, where they were found by the Soviet trophy brigades. Finally these pathetic remnants of the Hungarian Jewish culture the Nazis had destroyed came to Moscow as compensation for the losses the Nazis inflicted on the Russians.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Archives, doc. materials, personal testimonials

Hybl Zbynek, Explosive Expert; Cermak Mila, Real Estate Exec.; Muzik Josef, Treasure Hunter; Gaensel Helmut, Mining Prospector; Klima Josef, TV Anchorman, NOVA TV; Wolf Marcus, ex-Head of Foreign Intelligence, GDR; Guillermin John, Film Director: "Bridge in Remagen," Malibu, CA; Evertz Frank Reginald, Journalist; Blekta Premyslav, Treasure Hunter; Kajer Vaclav, Cab Driver; Wiesenthal Simon, Director, Dokumentationszentrum, Vienna; Blazek Frantisek, Historian, Votice; Vercak Jiri, TV Director; Production Support & Assistance

Rogers Michael, Producer, North American Pictures; Cingovatov Jurij Lvovic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia; Krejci Jan, Mayor, Vrchlabi; Pavlikova Jana, Adv. Executive, Propaganda; Lichtag Steve, Producer/Director, “Comfact”; Semerda Richard, Manager, “Czeckitout”; De Moei Dick, Photographer, “Penthouse”; Katek Janet, US State Dept.; Cerovsky Milos, ex-Prosecutor General, CSSR; Macek Jaroslav, Chancellor, Litomerice archdiocese; Kavan Richard, Matejka Jan, priests, Zakupy; Stehlikova Daniela, Art Historian, UMPRUM; Branny Antonin, Mayor; Hradistko; Dvorsky Miroslav, ex-Director, Criminal Police, CSSR; Bek Eduard, Explorer; Petschek Viktor, Entrepreneur, NYC; Ford Arch, Treasure Hunter in the Phillipines; Wimmer Roman, Political Lobbyist, Mount Top; Djakovic Pedjo, Painter; Pesek Petr, Hotel Manager; Bajerlova Jaroslava, Ministry of Culture, CR; Marecek Vaclav, Attorney; US National Archives, College Park, Maryland; Vokac Petr, Author/Journalist; Lucan Jan, Custodian, Vrchlabi Castle; Koch Chris, Producer, Koch TV, Washington, D.C.; Paturi Felix, Author, ZDF/Bertelsmann Publish.; Jonakova Slavka, Entrepreneur; Brno; Knodl Jindrich, Adv. Executive; Kulich David, TV Producer; Ebrahim Margaret, Producer, CBS News, N.Y.; deBonville Floris, Director, Gamma Photo, Paris; Shigenobu Yutaka, Producer, TV Man Union, Tokyo; Utley Garrick, Anchorman, Turner Broadcasting, Atlanta; SteenOlsen Peter, TV Producer, L.A.; Benz Garry, TV Producer, Benz Ent., L.A.; Ransom Scott, Director/Cameraman, ESPN, Col.; Erben Peter, TV Producer; Nova TV; Lacko Ludovit, Aircraft Designer, Larus; Stary Vaclav, Geologist, GEOTREND Technical & Logistical Support

Bohm Jindrich, Kovar Ivan, Subert Rastislav, Noha Zdenek, Technical Divers; Duchoslav Zdenek, Archeologist, Zebra Earth Science; Stary Vaclav, Geologist, GEOTREND; Patterson Jeffrey, Geologist, The University of Calgary; Finger Tomas, Mang. Director, Ceska Integracni; Karabina Frantisek, Ecologist, Prague City Hall; Zegklitz Jaroslav, Archeologist; Institut of Archeology CR; Bilicky Josef, Explosive Expert; Hanus Frantisek, Geologist, Prague City Hall; Robbart John, Investment Banker, NYC; Hajducikova Dagmar, Ministry of Culture, CR Camera/Photography

Francolon Jean-Claude, Photographer, Gamma Photo, Leeman V.J., Photographer, NANA; Karadjev Boris, Producer/Director, TV Kultura, Moscow; Becker Alan, Photographer, World Photo Bank; Tuma Frantisek, Cameraman; Grissel Bengt, Explorer; Lutansky Stepan, Photographer, Dobry Vecer; Gabor Miro, Cameraman,, Nova TV; Tichy Zdenek, Cameraman; Obzinova Jitka, Photographer Quotes from

"Hitler und die Bombe" by Thomas Mehner; Stechovicka Past by Jaromir Slusny, PhDr (Ondrej Martin), Beautiful Loot by Konstantin Akinsha and Grigorij Kozlov

Media Coverage

"Prague Post," Levy Alan; "Helsinki Times," Laukka Petri; "Thesau Magazine," Touge Pierre Allan; "Prognosis," Mabe H. Morgan; "Prague Pill," Jayne Micah; "Radio Metropolis," MichaelĂ­s Deborah; "National Geographic," Kobersteen J. Kent; "Life Magazine," Howe Peter; "Frontline," Campbell Marrin; "Primetime Live," ABC News, Rosen Ira; "Tribune Entertainment," Cooper Shelly, "Reflex Magazine," Klima Josef; "NOVA-TV", Klima Josef; "CT-1"; "Bayerischer Rundfunk," Kellhammer Angelika; "Newsweek," Krosnar Katka; "BBC Europe," Shukman David; "Koktejl Magazine," Slama Milan; "TIME Magazine Europe," Labi Aisha; "Suddeutsche Zeitung", Katzenberg Paul; "The Economist," Konviser I. Bruce; ARD Doners

Landau Robert, Principal, ISP; Koch Chris, Director, Koch TV; Glasier Joshua, Developer; Sammy Tom, Real Estate Exec., Spectrum; Klapa Milan, Chief Ingeneer-Lipno; Propaganda Agency; Duchoslav Zdenek, Archeologist; Bakker Frans, Financial Dir., Philipps Comp.; Rubens Ogan, Developer, Africa-Israel; Macek Otto, Art Director

C 1990 Jaro Sveceny The material contained herein are protected by copyright laws of America. No portions or excerpts can be used without an explicit approval by the copyright holder.