Monetary Men: The Allies’ Struggle to Recover and Restore Nazi Gold, Silver, and Diamonds

by Kenneth D. Alford

This book is a must for anyone with an interest in missing caches of gold and the financial aspects of military history. In the closing days of World War II, the U.S. Government took into custody 370 tons of gold from Nazi Germany, but the gold, silver, and currency still missing is even greater. The author traces the recovery of more than 500 of these large caches by the Allies and then their mysterious disbursement. Among their finds, the Monetary Men of the U.S. Army uncovered 288 tons of gold, with hordes of silver, diamonds, and precious jewels in a salt mine in Merkers, Germany. They took in Holocaust valuables from Dachau and Buchenwald, Ustasha Croatian Gold, and Italian Fascist gold. An appendix contains a timeline and summaries of all the shipments recovered by the U.S., as well as a financial spreadsheet detailing the 370 tons of gold recovered and its final distribution.

Genres: History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 2015

Reviews

[Terri Wangard · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the Germans invaded their neighboring countries, they quickly relieved the national banks of their gold reserves for the Reichsbank in Berlin. When the fortunes of war turned against them, the booty in Berlin was hidden elsewhere. Much of it was found in Merkers Mine. The mine and its enormous hoard were portrayed in The Monuments Men: gold, silver, platinum, jewelry, artwork, enough to boggle the mind.

It became the job of the monetary men to recover tons of gold, silver, and diamonds.
The U.S. Army transported the monetary hoard to a Reichsbank building in Frankfurt requisitioned to serve as the Foreign Exchange Depository. The U.S. Army put together a task force that, upon learning of stashes in southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, traveled around to secure the gold and valuables. Some was found in bank vaults. Other caches were buried or hidden in cellars.
The team worked around the clock to find the gold in towns that would become part of the Russian Zone of Occupation. After several weeks and thousands of miles of travel and exhaustive searches, the task force recovered a large portion of German plunder that would not fall into the hands of advancing Russians or fleeing Nazis.

In 1947, the Tripartite Gold Commission (the United States, England, and France) sent questionnaires to potential claimant countries to help it determine who was entitled to the collected gold. The Commission denied several claims. In 1997, claimant countries agreed to forgo their claims on the remaining sixty million dollars worth of gold still held by the commission and donate it as compensation for victims of Nazi persecution.

The Monetary Men: The Allies’ Struggle to Recover and Restore Nazi Gold, Silver & Diamonds, suffers from bad punctuation and spelling. A good editing was sorely needed.

It also leaves several questions. Why were vaults filled with boxes of alarm clocks, most of them inexpensive, found in Merkers Mine?

Four coffins were found in Bernterode Mine, belonging to Field Marshall and Mrs. Von Hindenburg, Frederick Wilhelm I, and Frederick the Great, idolized by Hitler. The army had trouble getting them buried. The British didn’t want the Hindenburgs buried on their estate in the British Zone, and the Germans blamed the field marshall for their misfortunes as much as Hitler. Where had they all been buried originally and why couldn’t they be reinterred there?

Detailed listings of all the shipments of gold and other valuables received at the Foreign Exchange Depository include where the shipment was found, how much is in it, and who delivered it to Frankfurt. It does get a bit tedious.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review also posted at The Book of Bogan
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I have decided to make a rule for myself when reviewing non-fiction books about war - if the author manages to make war boring, then I take at least 1 star off. I am kind of a war nut, in terms of how voraciously I read war-related books, and I don't think I'm that hard to keep entertained.

Monetary Men suffers from several major problems. Firstly, it is being released soon after a movie called The Monuments Men, which is based on an equally excellent book. The Monuments Men covers some of the same ground as Monetary Men, and obviously the books share similar titles. I must admit that was what caught my notice first.

The second problem is that it reads as though it was written by an accountant. Which again, is not in and of itself bad, but it makes it a weighty tome which is largely filled with recounts of the numbers, and values of the gold, and other forms of currency which were stolen and recaptured from from various countries and locations around the world. I get that - if that was the purpose - there may be a market out there for this kind of information, but it hardly makes for entertaining reading.

The third, and probably ultimately the least forgiveable problem with the book lies in the title itself. The phrase "Monetary Men" implies that it would be telling the tales of the men who were out there doing the hunting down of stolen Nazi gold. Instead, more accurately, it is the story of the Tripartite Gold Commission. Unlike the Monuments Men, which took the time to highlight the personalities who were involved in the operations, I came away from Monetary Men with the impression that.

- Nameless Nazis stole the gold
- Nameless Allies recovered the gold
- Nameless Allies were largely reluctant to give it back

*sigh*

At the end of the day the subject matter was just not that interesting, and was not presented in a particularly interesting way. I felt that it had been anonymised to the point where it had ceased to be about the actual eponymous 'Monetary Men'.

It clearly has a use as reference material, or for light reading for accountants, but I would judge it to be outside the interests of the casual reader.

[Travis Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the box office success of Monuments Men, many people got an interest in history and those trying to preserve it. Monitary Men continues that trend, giving you a thorough read on following the money through World War II. Sometimes we never really realize what is going on behind the scenes of war, we are only shown the savage attacks, explosions and death. Monetary Men is a needed balance to show the strategic, non military actions that were going on during the 1930s and 40s.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book quite interesting. WWII era history is always an era that I have found interesting. This book talked, as it states, about the attempts to get the riches the Nazis took. It did get a bit dry in places, but I was able to forge on and in the end I thought it was worth it.

**I received a copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a review**

[Eileen Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well documented account of the ongoing recovery of gold, silver, works of art etc., looted by the Nazis during the second world war.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Schiffer Publishing via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.