Rommel's Treasure

Treasures looted by the Nazis in the conquered countries are now searched in the mountains of Austria, at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Italy.

Preserved information, overgrown with legends, that by order of Field Marshal Rommel, chests of gold, platinum, jewelry and archaeological values were loaded onto a military boat and drowned somewhere near Corsica. There are many versions of the fate of this treasure. The place of drowning the treasure and its searches in all stories are the same. Also, all versions generally cover the entire history of searches over the years, which indicate that so many people knew and know about the existence of the treasure and so many people lost their lives because of this.

First famous version

On October 3, 1942, the 8th Army of General Montgomery went on the offensive, in the battle of El Alamein the front of the German troops was broken by the British. The forces of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel retreated to Tunisia. Rommel understood that the North African campaign was lost. This was also realized by the commander of the SS Shturmbanführer Erwin Schmidt. The task of his unit included the search and seizure of valuable antiquities, works of art, gold and jewelry in the occupied territories of Africa by the fascists. According to rumors, in the Schmidt collection, there were rare exhibits from museums, ancient Egyptian artifacts, among them, were posthumous golden masks of the pharaohs.

Rommel understood that it was necessary to urgently save the treasure otherwise the Allies would take it all. From the very beginning there were several versions of the fate of this treasure. For example, there is a version involving a submarine. In the spring of 1943, the Tunisian port of Bizerte was bombed by American aircraft, not allowing any vessel to leave. Schmidt, by order of Rommel, loaded heavy boxes of treasure on camels, to deliver it to a deserted place on the North African coast. Here, allegedly, the boxes were placed on inflatable boats that went out into the open sea and met with an emerging submarine at the appointed place. Where then lost wealth is unknown.

According to one version, the cargo was delivered to Germany and hidden in abandoned mines. According to another version, the Nazis, who fled later to South America, took the treasure with them. And finally, there is an assumption that the submarine commander flooded the armored boxes in an underwater cave near the inaccessible rocky coast of South Corsica in the Bonifacio Strait. This legend, which certainly contains some truth, has become known to the American treasure hunter Stanley Grist, about whom UFO magazine wrote more than once. Grist conducted his own investigation and found out that in 1948 a French expedition was working on the southern shores of Corsica, which included a former German officer. Perhaps this man served earlier on a submarine that brought African treasures to Corsica, or in the team of Erwin Schmidt.

In 1995, Grist arrived in Corsica to try to figure out how the French tried to get the treasure. In a small fishing village near the port of Bonifacio there was an old man named Maurice who participated in that expedition as a diver. He told the American that the German was showing them the place to look for the flooded boxes. However, there were no underwater caves there, and the French soon realized that the former SS men were fooling them. The German was sent to prison in Ajaccio for interrogation, but on the way the arrested man fled. Obviously, someone helped him escape - the convoy was shot. The locals said that the Germans had been stolen by the insurgents of the Italian Cosa Nostra.

Maurice admitted that he, along with his father and brothers on a fishing boat, tried to find the treasure on their own. Divers climbed dozens of underwater caves in the Bonifacio Strait, but without precise coordinates, their actions resembled the search for a needle in a haystack, and the poor Corsicans did not have diving equipment. Maurice also said that in the early 50s he had heard from relatives in Aleria that a German and several Italians settled in a local hotel there, who every day went to sea on a boat. This information may have indicated that Rommel’s treasures were flooded not on the southern, but on the eastern coast of Corsica.

Indefatigable Stan went to Aleria. There are not so many hotels in the province, the American has bypassed them all. In one of them, called Golden Anchor, the hostess remembered that her mother, who owned the hotel before, told how foreigners settled in the rooms in 1952. They paid three times the requested price. Most of them were Sicilians, seemingly notorious thugs who always carried weapons with them. Among them was a blue-eyed blond who did not speak either French or Italian. The company every day went on a boat into the sea, allegedly for fishing. However, they never brought any seafood with them.

Locals soon realized that the visitors were looking for something at the bottom of the sea in a small cove north of Aleria. The grocer's sons decided to follow the Sicilians. The boys watched the boat from the shore with binoculars. A few days later, both were found slaughtered near the pier. An investigation began, a police commissioner arrived from Ajaccio, and foreigners were expelled from the island department of France.

Stanley found the younger brother of the dead boys. An elderly man flatly refused to recall that story, even seeing a pack of green bills. He was obviously afraid of something. Grist rummaged in the local library, looked through the newspaper headers of the 50s and came across an interesting article printed on July 22, 1953. It was reported that a resident of Aleria, a poor fisherman Ruben Monnier, was found hanged at home. Nearby was a note: “The death of a dog awaits anyone who dares to look for OUR gold.” Stan sought clarification from the librarian. Ethel Lafouillet, who had a diploma from the Sorbonne’s history faculty explained to a foreigner that, apparently, the fisherman was executed by members of an underground organization that fought for the separation of Corsica from France. Ethel also said that everyone knows about German gold on the island, and most local fishermen and divers are obsessed with finding treasures. The woman also warned Grist that in the Corsican markets are selling fake maps indicating the place where the treasures were allegedly sank.

Lafouillet also reported that at one time in the early 80s, the actions of the Corsican separatists intensified, the police found hidden weapons and explosives. They said that the terrorists found German gold and that is why they had money to buy weapons. Madame Lafouillet believed that all this speculation. She was professionally interested in the history of Rommel's treasure, studied archival documents in Corsica and in Paris, but found no evidence that the boxes of gold were flooded off the coast of the island, she thought that this was just a local legend. Also, according to Ethel and other French historians, the value of the property looted in Africa was not so great and, most likely Rommel managed to take his wealth to Germany. As you know, in 1944, Rommel was forced to commit suicide by taking poison, suspecting him of the assassination attempt on Hitler. Marshal's relatives emigrated to South America, so probably African gold should be sought there, as Ethel believed. Grist believed the Frenchwoman and decided that it was hardly worth continuing the search. The day before he left, Stan suddenly found a note under the door of the hotel room, scratched with a clumsy hand on a crumpled piece of paper: “Get out of here, dirty Yankee. This is OUR gold.”

Second famous version

In the spring of 1943, the Führer transferred Rommel to Italy, where several containers with stolen goods were sent to him. At first, the cargo safely traveled the sea route from Tunisia to Corsica, but the containers did not lead to further sea travel: American aircraft bombed German ships, and the SS guards who were guarding valuable baggage had to urgently decide what to do with it. Obershturmbanführer SS, Schmidt, who, by the way, did not submit to Erwin Rommel, but Himmler, unable to coordinate his actions with the boss, decided to hide most of the treasures in the sea near the Corsican shores at his own peril and risk. Impenetrable values have gone to the bottom - 6 containers with gold and precious stones. The other part of the loot, mainly paintings and banknotes, which were clearly contraindicated in “water procedures”, could still be delivered to the mainland and hidden in two hiding places: in Austria near Salzburg, and in Italy in the vicinity of Viareggio.

After a year and a half, Rommel was forced to commit suicide - that was the last order of the Fuhrer for him. A few more months passed, and the infamous end overtook Himmler, one of the most disreputable Hitlerite henchmen. So, there were no two co-owners of the treasures, but Schmidt survived, the same Obershurtmbahnführer, who knew better than anyone else where to find treasures. True, he no longer had his magnificent title, but was considered to be an ordinary prisoner of the Dachau camp, where the Americans kept former SS men and other war criminals in their zone. Among the prisoners was a certain Fleig, who looked a little like Schmidt.

This resemblance harnessed the sly Schmidt to suggest Fleig to exchange documents: the track record of the first one included massacres of civilians, and the gallows could expect it, while the sins of the other were immeasurably smaller, and he could count on a relatively quick release. For this, the keeper of the secret of the treasure promised to give Flaig maps, where the exact places of the hidden valuables were marked. What Schmidt told him to explain the reason for the proposed deal is unknown, but Fleig, who did not know his biography, gave his consent and received the maps. He did not have time to hand over the documents to the former Obershurtmbanführer, as he was suddenly taken away from the camp to bring to justice and fair retribution.

This resemblance harnessed the sly Schmidt to suggest Fleig to exchange documents: the track record of the first one included massacres of civilians, and the gallows could expect it, while the sins of the other were immeasurably smaller, and he could count on a relatively quick release. For this, the keeper of the secret of the treasure promised to give Fleig maps, where the exact places of the hidden valuables were marked. What Schmidt told him to explain the reason for the proposed deal is unknown, but Fleig, who did not know his biography, gave his consent and received the maps. He did not have time to hand over the documents to the former Obershurtmbanführer, as he was suddenly taken away from the camp to bring to justice and fair retribution.

So the new owner of the hidden treasures appeared, but Fleig did not know how soon he would manage to go in search of them. To speed up the release, he decided to share with the camp authorities the secret Austrian and Italian parts of the treasure, and leave himself hope to find sometime Corsican gold.

The camp authorities managed to make contact with the American Captain Breitenbach. He informed his leadership, received a go-ahead, took maps from Fleig and hurried to Austria. The cards did not lie: in the mountains near Salzburg, he found an old, abandoned barn, and in it there was a cache of paintings by famous masters of the brush. Then the Captain crossed the Italian border, followed in Viareggio, and there, in strict accordance with the directions on the map, found another cache in which the paper money was leaked. All the finds were handed over to the military authorities, and Fleig found the freedom promised to him.

In the summer of 1948, he arrived on the island and immediately set to work. But he was bitterly disappointed: for several weeks and thousands of dives in the sea in the place indicated on the map did not bring any results. And this is not surprising: after all, a point on the map, even on a large scale, is hundreds of meters on the surface of the sea. Despairing Fleig turned the search, left Corsica and ... dived again - now into the unknown.

He emerged again only 30 years later, and we will come back to this, but for now, let us tell about those mysterious events related to the Corsican treasure that occurred here in the first years after Fleig disappeared. His underwater searches did not go unnoticed, and some intended to continue them. In 1952, the local diver Elle and the lawyer Kanchellieri chartered the yacht to go on it to the place where Fleig “trained” in diving and follow his example. But their intentions, apparently, did not fit into someone's plans: at the exit from the port water area, a much more solid ship “accidentally” crashed into their yacht, for some reason it was off course, and the seekers of underwater treasures barely escaped. Then, just a few months later, Elle died under unexplained circumstances during diving work, and sometime later the Kanchellieri’s car suddenly lost control and rammed the brick wall at full speed; he immediately died.

Now it is the turn to recall Fleig, who had been living in one of the German towns all this time, forgetting about the hidden treasure. But as it turned out, he did not lose hope, and now, years later, he reappeared in the foreground. However, Fleig chose not to leave the Rhine shores of Corsica, and to the shores of complete surprise Corsica sent his lawyer Feller, supplying him with the same map that he once inherited from Schmidt.

The lawyer gathered a small group of experts and lovers of underwater hunting for treasure, and the search work began. They were kept secret, but as it turned out soon, not for everyone. Feller received a short note: “Mr. lawyer! I do not advise you to interfere in the story of Rommel's treasure. Few killed? This gold is OUR. Don't put your nose on Corsica. Your friends”. Who are these "friends" - the survivors of the SS or the Corsican mafia? It was unclear, but the work, although full of risk, did not want to be curtailed.

The yacht Sea Diver, on which the seekers of the underwater treasure were, sailed the “gold-bearing” territory of the sea from early morning until evening. Special magnetometer clearly responded to the slightest changes in the magnetic field. From time to time, signals from the seabed spoke of the presence of metal there. It was necessary to check all the promising areas - again and again scuba divers plunged into the depths. The collection was rich: old anchors, coils of rope, other iron objects. But there was no gold.

But once the magnetometer needle danced like a dancer. It had never experienced such arousal, and there could be no doubt that there was a large accumulation of metal under the water. A scuba diver dived to the bottom, rummaging around the entire suspicious zone but alas, there is only sand and sand around. Most likely, there is indeed metal, but it is securely covered with a sand blanket, which is not so easy to lift. To do this, first of all, a bottom metal detector, which was not on the yacht, is needed. The Sea Diver left his workplace and headed for the port. For various reasons, members of the expedition did not return here.

Third most popular and latest version

In 2007, just a week after the failure of a team of German divers in search of the legendary treasure of Rommel, sunk at the bottom of the Mediterranean, the British television script writer and naturalistic treasure hunter Terry Hodgkinson said that he was able to identify the exact location of “Rommel's Treasure”, which consists of 6 boxes or containers.

Hodgkinson spent 15 years on locating the treasure. Now he plans to join the team of archaeologists who have already conducted searches for these treasures. 6 steel chests with gold bars and other jewels, weighing 200kg, according to Hodgkinson, are at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, a few kilometers from Bastia, a port city in Corsica. According to Israeli sources, all these riches, according to this version, were stolen from the Jewish commune in Tunis during World War II.

It was previously believed that the German Marshal Erwin Rommel hid these treasures off the coast of the island, but Hodgkinson compared certain facts and put forward a new hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, it was not Schmidt who was engaged in these treasures, but Walter Rauff, an SS man, who was actively involved in the development of gas chambers. After the victory of the British and Americans in North Africa and the Middle East, he was forced to move to Corsica. Based on these data, Hodgkinson concluded that it was Rauff who hid the treasures, planning to return for them at the end of the war.

Now that the location of the treasure has been established, it remains only to get it from the bottom of the sea, but this requires special equipment and facilities. The main problem was the search for sponsors who will pay for further work. Under French law, treasures will be divided between the state and those who have found treasure, but in any case, the authorities will try to establish and find the relatives of those people who originally owned the treasure.

"We are sure of the location, but in order to raise the treasure, we need the most modern equipment, since the safes that were once welded to each other now surely lie separately and have gone deep into the sand", Hodgkinson, the treasure hunter, told the Daily Telegraph in London. It’s impossible to raise the treasure to the surface manually because these are 6 steel safes with 200kg of gold bullion and many other jewels, besides, safes were welded together, and for more than 60 years they probably went deep into the sand and possibly disconnected from each other. There are also facts that local fishermen in those areas sometimes fished gold objects, which indicates the following hypothesis: "Rommel's treasure" exists and perhaps the time has taken its toll by disconnecting the boxes from each other and opening them. According to Hodgkinson, the only way to get to gold is to "suck ou" the bottom soil, but it is very expensive and time-consuming. Who will finance the project is unclear.

At the moment, only France is legally searching for the "Rommel’s Treasure", the UN has already abandoned this idea. Thus, the French coastguard carefully protects the area. In February 2007, the French maritime police stopped a team of German television reporters trying to find the treasure without permission from the French authorities.

Since 1948, numerous expeditions were organized by the French, Swiss, Americans, Germans, Italians, but no one was lucky. Moreover, there was a very mysterious death of divers. Some experts made other interesting conclusions: taking into account that Rommel was an excellent bluff master, for which he received the nickname The Desert Fox, "Rommel's Treasure" should be sought in the sands of the Sahara.