Chapter 29

Park City, Utah, 1952

 

 

Lucy and I had been invited to Ralph’s and his wife’s chalet, nestled on the side of a mountain in an upscale ski area. It resembled nothing if not the Obersalzburg, but a smaller less spectacular version.

It was Christmas again. I hadn’t seen Ralph for several months. I had told Lucy we were partners in the curling stone business. I had to tell her something to justify my new income and to account for not taking the recently offered drill-bit job. So this was supposed to be a business trip, as much as it was a chance to get away for awhile.

We were happy in Louisiana, far from the cold weather of most of the nation. It was all right with me if we never left. But she saw it as a chance to see a new part of the country. And I needed to talk to Ralph. My new book was almost finished, and I wanted to talk over some things with him.

He picked us up at the Salt Lake airport, and we headed for the mountain country east of where his parents lived. It struck me immediately how glaciers had whittled away at the canyons, just as they had on the Obersalzburg. It was as though Mother Nature had been practicing here, before she went to work in earnest in Austria.

His so-called chalet was custom built. I couldn’t help but notice how much it resembled the old Berghof, complete with the bay window and view. What this means if anything, I can’t say. I had observed, though, that spending years so close to the SS had affected him more than he let on. This might be one of those subliminal indicators.

We were sitting in his living room in front of an imported Austrian ceramic stove, looking out the window at the local panorama. I started the conversation by asking him a question. There was something on my mind that I had been wondering about.

“Ralph, was the SS involved in some kind of a ceremony the night we were hiding among the boxes in the back room of the Zum Turken?”

“Yes, they were,” he replied, without hesitation. “It preceded the party and lasted about an hour. The spear was there, too; the box was being used as a dais or altar.”

What went on at this ceremony?”

“At one point, Steinmann was formerly inducted as keeper. There were also a dozen or so high-ranking officers who were being raised in the order. And there were ordinations performed on a few who had not had the chance to attend one of these secret blood rites before.”

“What went on, exactly?” I asked him. But he was reluctant to tell me more, even after this long a period. I pressed him to answer:

“I am not too proud of my participation,” he said. “In fact, I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it. I now believe it was Satan inspired. I will tell you this, in addition to what I have already told you, it was a kind of court of honor with religious overtones resembling a mass and a Freemason ceremony. Alistair Crowley and Doctor Eckhard had contrived it before he died. Of course it had Hitler and Himmler’s input as well.

“This was not the first one I participated in. I have thought a lot about it since, and I realize I went too far. I should have avoided attending the first one at all costs; but being German, I was caught up early in the nationalism of the thing and I couldn’t let go. I know this is no excuse, but I could not help myself. I began losing sight of my fundamental Christian beliefs soon after I arrived. And I started to look upon Hitler as someone who had been designated by God to change the world. Now, I think of both Hitler and the spear as being demon possessed.”

“Ralph.” I said his name and then stared into his eyes for the longest time. He knew something was wrong. He knew I was going to ask him something he had been holding back since we first met. I knew it. I could tell by the almost embarrassed look on his face. And I was right.

“You’re a commissioned officer in the SS, aren’t you?” He waited before he answered.

“I was, yes.”

“You mean you are. It’s for life. You took a blood oath for life.”

“I did. But that is another thing I am not proud of. And I prefer not to talk about it”

“I didn’t mean to imply you were. But I have to know. And I also want you to tell me if you were when you worked for Oddlie and the OSS.” He could see I was most serious, and I suppose he thought for a moment that if he didn’t tell me he might be in trouble. He needn’t have worried on that score. I wasn’t going to say anything to the authorities; but he had no way of knowing, so he answered me. Now, the more I think about it the more I feel he wanted to tell somebody he trusted. And he may have wanted to do so for a long time.

“By the SS you mean the Waffen. You knew I was Gestapo, which was a branch of the SS; I told you that early on. I told you, when my leg was still mending, I was forced to join something if I intended working on the Obersalzburg. But I was not part of the Waffen, the elite of the corps. But to answer your question: I was given a commission in the Waffen during that last ceremony.”

“Was it because you wanted it. It certainly wasn’t necessary at that late date because of your job–or was it?”

“Both. It would have looked suspicious if I had rejected the offer after I had voiced my desire many times over the years. But then, I also wanted to join. It was my own idea. It was, however, more of an honorary thing; it was bestowed on me as a kind of payoff for services rendered. You see the Waffen SS looked down their noses at the Gestapo. The Commandant, who was a friend of mine, did not want me going to Argentina with them unless I was a full-blooded member. So he tendered me a commission.

“Why is this so important to you now?” Ralph asked me. I was hesitant to answer him. I avoided his question by changing the subject.

“Did you ever give the gold to Weisenthal?”

He stood up and asked me to follow him. We went down a staircase into what is best described as a wine cellar. I knew Ralph didn’t drink, so I figured the casks were fake or held something else besides wine. They weren’t empty. The first row held some kind of liquid. He poured me a small glass. It tasted something like cider, the kind we used to drink around Halloween. Then he removed the back of one of the casks stacked on the second tier. It was full of miniature gold ingots, the kind they had smuggled from Siegsdorf to the United States.

“So,” I said, “you didn’t give it all to Weisenthal then?”

“I have not given any of it to him,” he replied.

“You know I have always considered it to be the property of the United States. But I have also been leery of it ever finding its way into our Treasury. I have never believed the Commission had a legal right to any of it. And certainly, I never believed Germany was the rightful owner.

“But to answer your question: I have been afraid to give it to Wiesenthal for fear he would tell the Commission, which is still stumbling along trying to make up their minds what to do with what they have. If Wiesenthal ever did tell the Commission, then it is jail for me. And worse yet, if the Jews ever find out I am SS. I could never discover if my name, Rolph Wahlmuller, was officially added to the membership list. But I think it was. Wiesenthal has the complete list, and he would turn me in if he found out, no matter how much gold I gave him. I just do not know, so I have hesitated. I just have never made a move to do anything with it.

“By the way, does your wife know we are not partners in the curling stone business? Now tell me: How do you manage to live so well without my help? I am satisfied you were not able to keep any of the diamonds, and you have not published your book. So how are you getting along?”

I don’t know exactly why I didn’t tell him about the coins and how I had one of them appraised by a bank in Switzerland. They estimated it would auction for at least three-quarters of a million. And maybe half again as much in a few years. They kept the coin and gave me a letter of credit for half of what they figured it was worth, against a ten-percent interest when I decided to sell.

I guess the reason I kept the coins to myself was because I had lost a fortune twice and I was gun-shy. I didn’t feel secure even telling Ralph. There was nothing to gain, and there might be everything to lose if I did.

But I had to tell him something, so I said: “I had quite a bit of cash from the sale of the second diamond. But I’m running low. Lucy thinks you’ve been giving me money, for what she doesn’t know. She’s getting suspicious. I don’t do anything for our company, and she suspects I never have.”

“That is what I thought,” he said. “I want you to start on the payroll like the rest of us and so does Lother. If it had not been for you, I would never have met Lothar Horner. And without the two of you, none of this would have been possible. And something else: if it had not been for you, the Reinicke brothers, Muller, and Steinmann would have finally gotten around to me. And another thing: if you had not helped me get away, I might have ended up in Argentina or the Konigssee. So, if I offer you part of the money we are earning legitimately, do not feel as though it is some kind of gift.

“Mike, I have something to tell you, a confession really. But do not give me credit for telling you, because you would have figured it out eventually. Maybe you have already. Maybe that is why you have been quizzing me about my membership in the Waffen. I find it hard to believe all you are interested in is information for your book.

“You have to wonder why Steinmann made you the keeper of the spear. You have to know the story I told you about your being the only commissioned officer present was a lie. You have to know I was not telling you the truth. Because I have just now told you I had been tendered a commission at the ceremony. True, it was unearned and honorary, but a commission none the less. Commissions and warrants down through history have been granted and bestowed on millions of people by kings and potentates of all descriptions. The only thing necessary to make it legal is whether the giver has the authority. The authority is the thing. As I told you, the Commandant had the authority bestowed on him by Adolph Hitler. So whether or not I was a combat soldier does not matter. I was made an officer and given all the rights and privileges of a commission.”

“Are you trying to tell me that Steinmann never made me the keeper?” I asked him, surprised at what he had just said.

“Right, that is what I am saying. He gave me and not you the responsibility for the spear. I know you do not believe any part of the history of the thing, but I have to tell you anyway. My conscience has been bothering me for a long time about it and my participation in the Hitler worshipping I was part of for so long. It would not have been so bad if I had been standing on the outside looking in. But I was a teacher….”

“Were you a Tyler?”

“I was more than that. I was the grand master of the lodge, even the Blue Lodge if you want to couch it in Freemasonry terms. At the time, I was Gestapo and the most important official at many of the ceremonies held on the Obersalzburg over the years. By the way, I should point out that military rank did not count for advancement in the order.

“I could not help myself. I was a believer. I know you are not, but I was. I believed it all. I believed that Adolph Hitler had been sent by the Lord to straighten out a sick world. I changed my mind after I realized he was responsible for millions of needless deaths and untold suffering. But by then it was too late.

“I know you think it is all nonsense, this talk about Hitler being the Messiah instead of Jesus Christ. And the talk of Satan and Norse myths and vrile-energy and all the rest. But let me tell you it is not. There is a Satan, and Hitler was his disciple. Even before he invaded Russia, even before he was Chancellor, friends of his described him as being demon possessed. ‘And by their works ye’ shall know them,’ the Bible says. And anybody who willfully takes the lives of millions of innocent people and who raises up an army the likes of the SS, who committed such atrocities as they did, has to be in league with Satan. I know it now but did not realize it at the time. And though I did not participate in any of it personally, my egregious sin was in my contribution. And if I had been put to the test–if I had been placed in a position of choosing sides–I might at one time have chosen Germany over America. In a manner of speaking, I did; most of the intelligence I passed to Oddlie was either watered down or not important. But he thought I was doing a good job. For instance, I never made an attempt to tell him when Hitler visited the Obersalzburg. Hitler would have been in a vulnerable position many times had I reported this information to the OSS. They might have made an attempt on his life or to take him captive if I had. The Allies might even have bombed the place while he was there. But I just could not do it. And for that I am truly sorry; the War might have ended years earlier with the attendant savings in lives if l had.”

Ralph was certain I was an atheist or an agnostic, a non- believer of some sort. But if I started out to be an agnostic, I later changed my mind. His story was true. And the more I learned about the spear, the more certain I was that it was capable of influencing world events and the lives of those who possessed it. True, my fear of the unknowns who had killed Carl and Eric was the root cause of my depression, I won’t argue with that. But my believing that a tool of Satan had been controlling my life from the time I heard about the spear had certainly been a contributor.

 

I went back to the museum in Vienna once after the War and listened to another docent talking about the spear. I suspect his revised story now is much more detailed than the one Hitler was privy to. I would like to tell you that what I heard him say didn’t bother me, but it did. I would like to tell you about how I thought it was just another Urban Legend of the occult like the Angel of Mons or some of the other stories extant, but I can’t.

And as I stood there gazing at the spearhead, listening to the guide’s speech, I had a funny feeling come over me. Nothing like the trance reported by Hitler, but a feeling just the same. And I wondered how it really had affected my life. Was it really responsible for the loss of my first two fortunes and the death of my two friends? Was I once the keeper, and did this keeper thing have anything to do with acquiring riches or the death of Eric and Carl. Did Ralph tell me the SS story about him being commissioned just to make me feel better? He knew I was suffering from guilt and fear of the spear, and had been for years. Did he tell me he, Ralph, really was the keeper just to make me believe I had never been in the picture? Maybe so. But I’ll tell you this: Ralph Wahl was really a straight shooter and a compassionate man. It would’ve been just like him to tell me a cock-and-bull story about him really being the keeper just to allay my fear of what was going to eventually happen to me. And it goes without saying: I have a hard time reconciling him being an SS officer in either branch of the SS with the man I knew he really was.

I know many of you reading this believe it’s all made up–a book of fiction. None of this ever happened. If you’re one of those who believes there’s no such person as Satan, I ask you to ponder how millions of supposedly honest and moral young men–as the SS started out to be–were changed into monsters by the influence of one man. And consider, if you will, how all this could have come about if there were no Satan. And if you’re still a non-believer, and if you think I made up this story from whole cloth, if you think there is no such thing as a spear of Longinus, go over to Vienna and see for yourself. Stand by the spear, as Hitler did, and think about the dozens of men who have been keepers. And while standing next to it, go ahead and gaze on it and contemplate what happened to them. And while you’re there, attempt to rationally explain the holocaust to yourself without dwelling on Satan.

And one more thing: the holocaust descended on the world twice in the recent past, once in 1914 and again in 1933. And if Satan and this spear had anything to do with it, why couldn’t it happen again? But I warn you in advance, just as Ralph warned me: don’t look too closely into the history of Longinus and the spear, lest occult forces inhabit your mind, as they did with Hitler and his minions. And you may come to believe there are vrile-like forces in the universe that predestines your superiority, just as Hitler and his SS did. And you should be aware of concluding that some humans are superior to others, and that they are entitled to privileges in this world society of ours because of some birthright. There lies the real sin. There lurks Satan and his minions–among those who are believers in racial, religious, or intellectual superiority, and among those who believe the rest of us owe them some kind of allegiance.

 

 

 

AFTERWARD

 

 

Ralph finally moved permanently to his home on the ski slopes of Utah. But he never lived to a ripe old age. He died young, very young, of one of the bad diseases. He suffered for a long time. When I arrived, just before he passed away, he told me it was because of the spear. He said he never spent a nickel of the gold, and because he had been one of the keepers and had taken the spear back to the museum, he was paying the price.

I have a hard time agreeing with his thinking. But there you are: the facts speak for themselves. But then you might argue that there was too much of a time lapse between the end of the War and his death many years later to be anything but coincidence. You might. But the way I see it, the misfortunes of the others who lost it, for whatever reason, were sometimes immediate and sometimes years in coming. But it always happened; and it was always superceded by a good deal of unpleasantness. It happened to every one of them in just this way down through history. If Ralph did make up that part of the story about him being the keeper, while it really was my job all along, then his death for certain was a coincidence. But if not, then my fate awaits. Not a pleasant prospect, if you ask me.

 

His wife wanted to sell their home and return to Austria. I made her an offer way above the market price. It wasn’t enough to make her suspicious of anything, yet it was enough to see her living comfortably for a long time. And with her income from Ralph’s business with Lothar, she was in good shape financially for the rest of her life.

Yes, the gold was still in the casks. And as the experts predicted, the price ceiling was removed a few years later. The last I checked, it was selling above three-hundred dollars a troy ounce. I have no idea how much the total is worth now, but it has to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Why haven’t I given it to Wiesenthal? Well, probably for the same reason Ralph didn’t. Ralph was afraid in the end such a large sum would be traced back to him, and then to me if he did. I always liked to think this was his reason–and not that he was waiting for the price to go up. Incidentally, you might well ask why I don’t give it to a Swiss bank for certificates or cash and then give that to Wiesenthal. If you read the papers, you know the Swiss bankers are embroiled in some kind of controversy over Nazi gold, real or perceived. Being pushed by Israel, the United Nations wants all Swiss gold tied to Jewish sources turned over to the Jews. Not much to the liking of the Swiss.

Where’s the gold now, you ask? I removed it from Ralph’s home, of course, and then buried it. What better way to hide gold than to bury it? But where? I’ll tell you this much; I didn’t tote it too far away. Too much trouble and too easy to get yourself discovered carrying around a lot of gold. I figure we were all very lucky we got away with it as often as we did. No need to tempt fate–or if you are now a believer–no need to tempt the spear. So, the gold hoard, the last of the Waffen SS’ ill-gotten gains, is buried someplace in Utah. Not up north in the mountains, because I don’t like the cold. But down south in a more remote part of the state.

And what about the rest of it, the Merkers hoard that we soldiers considered to be mostly ours. Strangely, it’s still being hassled over by that same commission of debaters. Germany over the years has been pushing more strongly for them to give it back. But Russia and Israel are just as determined as ever to keep it from them, while we Americans sit on the sidelines and say nothing. And so it goes, year after year. You see, if we had given all of what I called the Ravensbruck gold back to Patton, it would all have ended up in the same pot. And of this writing, none of it would have found its way back to the heirs of the rightful owners.

 

Well, my story has ended. I set about explaining the death of my two good friends, and I believe I have. And to tell you a strange tale, which I believe you’ll agree was pretty strange. What I haven’t told you is what I intend to do with the gold I buried. Whatever I decide, Lucy mustn’t find out. She’ll conclude I’ve been selling it off in small batches. But what really worries me is the spear itself. If Ralph was here to consult, I’m sure he would agree the spear has had a say in most everything that’s happened to us both, from near the close of the War to the present time. And I’m afraid it might continue on as long as I have the gold. To be absolutely honest with you, I don’t know what I do believe. But I’m leaning toward the idea that Ralph was never a commissioned officer in the SS. He might have been a member in some capacity, but he was never commissioned. His story about him being the keeper was just too slick to be believable. And if he wasn’t, then I truly was the keeper of the spear. If this is true, then this isn’t the end of the story for me. And my fate awaits me in the same way it did all the others who lost it. And I can’t get it out of my mind. And I’m starting to run scared all over again.

 

 

 

AUTHOR’S NOTE

 

 

Five years after he became Chancellor, Hitler invaded Austria and immediately confiscated the Spear of Longinus from the Hofsmuseum in Vienna. His associations with the spear are quoted from what is believed to be reliable historical sources. The general history of the spear is a matter of public record, which is only partially discussed in this book.

 

Third Army began crossing the Rhine River near the Remagen bridge on 22 March, 1945. Patton’s objective was the cities of Gotha and Leipzig, where he was to turn, in due course, to Lintz, Austria.

 

Shortly thereafter, two French women, one of them expecting, were driven by American soldiers to a field hospital a few miles to the east of Merkers, Germany. The other one showed the Americans where the Kaiseroda Potassium Mine, containing a hoard of Reichsbank and Waffen SS gold, believed to have been looted from banks and from Jews throughout Europe, was located.

 

In April, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, and Weyland, accompanied by Colonel Bernard D. Bernstein, American interpreters, and German guides descended to the two-thousand foot level of the mine to inspect the reported cache of treasure.

 

The room where the treasure was stored was one-hundred feet deep, seventy-six feet wide and twelve feet high. There were rows of over seven thousand sacks containing 8,198 bars of gold, laid out in twenty rows some three feet high. There were also fifty boxes of gold bullion and hundreds of bags of other gold items. In addition, there were over 1,300 bags of gold Reichsmarks, British gold pounds, and French gold francs. At the back of the room were eighteen bags and 189 suitcases of jewelry. The bags contained rare American twenty-dollar gold pieces, and precious stones marked Melmer. Masterpieces worth millions were found in a nearby addit to the main tunnel. No separate diamonds were mentioned on the final inventory.

 

The total value of the Merkers gold bullion alone amounted to 520 million dollars in 1945 money. The gold, appraised at the then fixed rate of thirty-five dollars per troy ounce, was turned over to an International Tripartite Commission. Gold was removed from price control in 1963, making all Nazi gold at this writing hundreds of times more valuable than it was in 1945.

 

A small contingent of Army gold hunters was formed at the request of Colonel Bernstein. Additional Waffen SS gold believed to be in the amount of eleven million dollars (1945) was recovered and turned over to the Commission.

 

In 1997, all claimant countries agreed to relinquish their share of the gold that was being held. The Commission had been trying with limited success to solve the distribution problem for decades. These countries agreed to donate the gold to a Nazi Persecution Relief Fund to help survivors of the Holocaust.

Early in September 1998, eight years before this writing, at a ceremony held in Paris, the gold commission announced that its task was finished and that it was going out of business.

 

Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton entered the town of Ordruf, gateway to the notorious Buchanwald death camp just days following their visit to the Merkers mine. They were accompanied by photographers and noted journalists, among them was Edward R. Murrow.

 

On 25, April, 1945, squadrons of the RAF, escorted by fighters from the American Tactical Air Command, bombed the Obersalzburg. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin five days later. On 5 May, tanks and infantry from the Third Division of the Seventh Army entered Berchesgaden. Hermann Goering had left just days before for the Kitzbhuel, where other soldiers of Seventh Army captured him. He committed suicide by cyanide poisoning during the subsequent Nuremberg War Crimes trial.

 

Three percent of all German gold reserves of record was never recovered.

 

 

 

 

The Ravensbruck Legacy

By Darrell Egbert