Good morning! May 1945, just outside the city of Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps. French soldiers stared at the massive steel door beneath Adolf Hitler’s private fortress and engineering marvel, Eagle’s Nest. What they thought was a simple barrier between Allied troops and the treasures Hitler had stolen throughout the war had become an albatross. The troops tried various solutions to tear it down. The door wouldn't budge. Sledgehammers proved no more effective than lockpicks.

They finally resorted to explosives.

The blast shook the entire mountain. When the smoke and dust cleared, the door had barely moved. But the slit was large enough for a young French soldier to squeeze through.

Inside the massive cave, the army sergeant found well over half a million bottles of the finest French wines ever made, some from the previous century, along with rare ports and cognacs. What makes this moment in history all the more incredible—Hitler didn’t even like wine. He'd stolen, and then locked away, France’s greatest treasures out of spite and greed.

My book, The Widows of Champagne, covers this small piece of WWII history. https://amzn.to/3lUTjPk