http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/06/04/stifgneur02003.html June 4 2000 EUROPE Plumbing the depths: papers giving details of the Odessa system that helped Eichmann to flee Germany were found in Lake Toplitz in 1959 Titanic team to search lake for Nazi treasure Nick Fielding and Shraga Elam DIVERS are launching an expedition to trawl an Austrian lake for boxes of Nazi gold, documents and forged British banknotes designed to aid the escape of Nazi agents to South America at the end of the second world war. As the allies closed in, retreating SS officers dumped dozens of containers into Lake Toplitz, high in the Alps, with the intention of recovering them later. Tomorrow the Simon Wiesenthal Nazi-hunting centre in Los Angeles and the Maryland-based Oceaneering company - the team that located the wreck of the Titanic - will plumb Toplitz in a 10-week dive. The haul is believed to contain top-secret Nazi documents detailing how assets from the Third Reich were deposited in Swiss bank accounts, as well as art objects, gold and the records of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. Documents detailing the assistance of the Vatican in transferring funds to South America, and some gold, are also believed to be concealed there. Because of Lake Toplitz's high salt content and low temperature, they stand a good chance of still being preserved even after 55 years. Toplitz should also yield up the secrets of Operation Bernhard, the huge counterfeiting operation started by the SS and backed by Hitler, which aimed to produce billions in fake pounds and then use the Luftwaffe to drop the currency over Britain. Heinz Riegel, now 80 and living in Oldenburg, northern Germany, is the only living member of the Lake Toplitz Research Group, which included SS men such Otto Skorzeny, a top Hitler aide who rescued Benito Mussolini from captivity in 1943; Wilhelm Hoettl, the Third Reich intelligence officer; and Friedrich Schwend, considered the unofficial finance minister of the so-called Fourth Reich - the shortlived attempt by former Nazis to re- establish themselves at the end of the war. Schwend was in charge of Operation Bernhard. For 45 years Riegel, a retired pharmaceutical dealer, has spearheaded attempts to retrieve the treasure. Asked last week about what he thinks is in the remaining boxes, he was guarded. "Who knows? Perhaps more material on German industry, including the chemical company, I G Farben. It is my view that among the material at the bottom of the lake is some of that Vatican gold," he said. "The Austrian authorities did everything possible to prevent the truth coming out. They even threatened to torture a former soldier who knew exactly where the treasures had been dumped. With the present diving, the truth will come out." Although Riegel is unforthcoming about his war record, he later became Schwend's representative in Europe while the financier tried to avoid extradition to Italy from Peru on a murder charge. In South America - home to other Nazi exiles including Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele and Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons - Schwend had dealt in arms. Riegel's job was apparently to locate and recover Nazi assets left around Europe. The Germans did not manage, however, to reclaim the treasures of Toplitz. In the summer of 1959, the German magazine Stern mounted its own diving operation and retrieved boxes stuffed with forged pounds. It then found material of a different nature: SS documents containing orders for agents all over the world and those describing the Odessa system - which was to provide an escape route for Nazis to South America. The boxes were immediately confiscated by the Austrian police and Stern's investigation was shelved. In 1963 the Austrian government organised a dive at Lake Toplitz. It said it had recovered a further 38 boxes, but refused to provide any information on the contents. Ten years later Riegel was expelled from Austria after being caught trying to mount an illegal diving operation - and the lake's waters have been undisturbed since. According to witnesses, 130 boxes were sunk, meaning about 55 should still be in the lake. Maximillian Gruber, an SS officer who was in contact with Riegel, told him that after receiving orders to dump the boxes he detonated a massive rockfall into the 100-metre- deep lake to reduce depth at that spot to about 94 metres. Gruber gave him a map indicating where the boxes lie, details of which are reproduced here. "We have a 50-50 chance of finding what we're looking for," said Bill Owen, the high-tech team's dive leader. "This lake was the garbage can of the Third Reich." Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard terms and conditions. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from The Sunday Times, visit the Syndication website. -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ________________________________________________________ 1stUp.com - Free the Web Get your free Internet access at http://www.1stUp.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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