Lost Nazi treasure Traditional Cache
white night: It's time enough
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During World War II German troops invaded numerous countries across Europe. As they did, they looted the banks of those countries and took the gold back to Germany. Victims of the holocaust were also stripped of their valuables. Much of this loot was used to pay for the war effort, but a large portion was still intact and in Nazi hands as the end of the was neared
In February of 1945, the President of the Reichsbank ordered that majority of the gold reserves be sent to the village of Merkers, some 200 miles south of Berlin. There it was concealed deep underground in a potassium mine. The mine was also used to store many art treasures, some belonging to German museums, others looted from conquered nations. In April, Merkers was captured by the U.S. Third Army, commanded by Lieutenant General George Patton. French civilians who had worked at the mine told the American military what was hidden there, and the hoard was soon in American hands. A tally of the treasure showed that there were 8,198 bars of gold bullion in the mine along with gold coins, silver bars, and paper money. The total value (in 1945 dollars) was estimated to be over $520 million. This constituted the bulk of the Nazi loot, but not all of it. Some of the gold and other valuables had been left in Berlin. By April of 1945, the Allies were closing in on the German capital and Nazi officials decided to move the remaining contents of the Reichsbank to Oberbayern, in southern Bavaria. There, in the mountains, the Nazis hoped to hold out and try to regroup. At least nine tons of gold were sent to Oberbayern, along with bags of foreign currency, and coins. This treasure, including 730 gold bars, was thought to be hidden around Lake Walchensee. After the end of the war, U.S.soldiers were able to find and account for $11 million of that final hoard. Over 3 million was never found, however. Some small portion of it might have been smuggled out of the country by escaping Nazi officials, but what happened to the rest of the missing gold? The disappearance of this treasure was listed by the Guiness Book of World Records as "the largest robbery in the history of the World". http://coolinterestingstuff.com/lost-treasure-nazi-gold-and-treasure
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
V pbhyq abg nssbeq n crapvy
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