In Search Of... Season 1 # 14, Nazi Plunder

April, 19th 1945. As American forces obliterate German cities Nazi party functionaries scramble for cover, carrying with  them far more than their own worldly goods. From D-day, 6th of June to the complete collapse of military strength a brief 8 months have gone by. There's been little time for the looters to hide their ill-gotten wealth. By war's end hundreds of millions of dollars in jewels, gold and artworks were being stocked into strongboxes, to be hidden in the most unlikely places. The plunder set of one of the greatest treasure hunts in history. 
                After the war Hitler's henchmen were scurrying to save themselves. Men like Martin Bormann, architect of Nazi power for a dozen years, thought about to surrender or commit suicide as their leader had done. They had access to the plunder of Europe. They snatched treasures, some were caught, some never be seen again.

As Berlin fell, more than 500 leading Nazis disappeared from sight. Much of the plunder had been hidden in Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle of King Ludwig II. Much has been discovered in a salt-mine. Each room filled with priceless art. A German born historian, Walter Horn, worked together with American scientologists to retrieve art.

Grizzly crimes were committed by the Nazis and their reign of terror in Europe. Worst of these were the assaults of human dignity, typified by the robbing of gold from the mouths of murdered Jews. Another atrocity was the collection of huge sums of gold and diamonds from concentration camp inmates who thought they could buy back their lives. They couldn't. But they made their killers rich trying. After liberation some treasure could be recovered but lives could not.

When trying to retrieve lost art it is important to believe that beauty can endure. It must endure - if man is to abandon the ugliness of war. Perhaps, if beauty endures, the flaming destruction of the past can finally be cast aside.