Alford Kenneth D. Allied Looting in World War II: Thefts of Art, Manuscripts, Stamps and Jewelry in Europe

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balked, and prior to Archbishop Rohracher’s releasing it to Hungary, U.S.

military personnel ﬂew to Rome and obtained the Vatican’s approval for its

release by Archbishop Rohracher to U.S. authorities. On this trip the Vatican

expressed its concern about these relics to Gen. Mark W. Clark and asked that

the crown be consigned to the Holy See. According to Vatican ofﬁcials: “the

general kindly expressed his readiness to offer every possible assistance.”

On August 20, 1945, Chaplain Ralph J. Diefenbach, a captain in the

U.S. Army, in the presence of a considerable number of ecclesiastic, military,

and civilian dignitaries, delivered the Holy Hand to the archbishop’s Vicar

General Custodian Witz Bela in Budapest. In 1083, when Saint Stephen was

canonized, his grave was opened in conjunction with traditional ceremonies.

All of his body had turned into bones and dust with the exception of his right

hand. This governing and blessed right hand gave rise to a cult in Hungary,

and every year on Saint Stephen’s Day the holy right hand is carried around

in a solemn and glittering ceremony in Budapest. The ceremony took place

in Budapest at the Convent of the English Sisters and in time for the cele-

bration of St. Stephen’s Day on August 20, 1945.

In this act of kindness, Chaplain Diefenbach did not request a signed

receipt for delivery of the holy hand. In the political arena, this became a big

problem, as charges surfaced that the hand was a substitute and the original

hand was still in possession of the Americans. Six months later, the embar-

rassed Chaplain wrote: “The U.S. authorities need an ofﬁcial statement for

their ﬁles showing that the holy hand of St. Stephen was returned by me to

the proper authorities in Budapest and the U.S. Army is cleared for any respon-

sibility in the matter of the holy relic.”

Fortunately he received a compas-

sionate and positive response from Witz Bela exonerating the U.S. Army and

stating the relic had been received intact in the original relic holder with the

seals unbroken.

This left one chest in Archbishop Rohracher’s possession, which con-

tained the royal robe and other scared objects. Unbeknownst to the U.S.

Army, Rohracher was also holding a treasure of Nazi tainted gold coins.

210 Part VI : Looting from Hungary in World War II

Chapter 30

The Gold Treasure

of Kremsmünster

Part of Hitler’s elaborate plan for his “Thousand- Year Reich” was the

total transformation of Linz, his hometown, into a cosmopolitan cultural cen-

ter. Arrays of public buildings were to be designed under Hitler’s personal

supervision. A cultural superstructure, the Führer Museum, was planned for

the town center. The collections for this remarkable center were to be selected

by the Linz Commission, which was headed by Martin Bormann. Under his

direction Dr. Helmut von Hummel was responsible for the collection of coins

and armor. The coins had been acquired from all parts of Europe, but the

main part of the collection was acquired from religious foundations in Austria,

notably that of Klosterneuburg, which also included coins from the Louis

Rothschild collections. The collection was known as the gold treasure of

Kremsmünster, as it was conﬁscated by the Nazi regime and selected by Hitler’s

art experts to form the nucleus of the coin collection of the projected Führer

Museum in Linz.

As the war progressed and owing to Allied bombings, this large collection

was stored underground in a salt mine in Alt Aussee, Austria. After Germany’s

surrender, the Allies recovered the paintings and other art objects at Alt Aussee,

but the gold coins were missing.

On April 30, 1945, von Hummel arrived at the Alt Aussee mine; there,

he had the case of gold coins delivered to him and placed on a truck. Von

Hummel stated that he was delivering the gold coins to Prince Archbishop

Andreas Rohracher of Salzburg. But the collection was later found to be miss-

ing and the bishop’s name was associated with this missing $2 million col-

lection. But the archbishop was above suspicion and of course he would never

have cooperated with the Nazi in hiding their ill- gotten gains. Or would he?

Late in October 1945, Walter W. Horn, the overworked art intelligencer

ofﬁcer, was informed by the MFAA branch in Salzburg, Austria, that a col-

lection of gold coins was missing. He was also asked for assistance in tracing

211

and apprehending Dr. Helmut von Hummel, the last person known to have

had the valuable treasure in his possession. Von Hummel should not have

been difﬁcult to spot; his eyebrows met in the middle without thinning and

he had a prominent Heidelberg sword scar on his lower left cheek.

Horn had no trouble in locating von Hummel’s associates in the city jail

at Zell am See; they denied any knowledge of von Hummel’s whereabouts

but admitted that the gold coins were taken to meet political ends. Finding

von Hummel’s wife and mother was also relatively easy, but at ﬁrst each stated

that she did not know the whereabouts of von Hummel. Finally, on the morn-

ing of April, 17, 1946, Horn again interrogated the TB- infected Mrs. Helmut

von Hummel. He forcefully directed her to swear that she did not know the

whereabouts of her husband, which she refused to do. Horn then explained

to her that refusing the oath was tantamount to admitting that she knew

where her husband was. At this she remained silent and began to weep. Under

mounting pressure from Horn, she maintained that she could not be expected

to betray her husband. Also, she did not want to betray her church. Horn

stated that he was interested only in obtaining the collection of gold coins.

After still more discussion, Mrs. von Hummel agreed that the most sensible

thing for her husband to do would be to give himself up to the American

authorities and that such action could only speed his eventual reunion with

his family. In spite of all this, she would not disclose her husband’s location.

She told Horn to give her a week and she would persuade her husband to give

himself up. Horn agreed that he would return to her farmhouse in Mondsee,

Austria, a week later, and if her mission was not accomplished with some sort

of success, she would be arrested in spite of her illness.

One week later, on April 26, 1946, Horn returned to Mondsee. Mrs.

von Hummel told Horn that her husband would turn himself over to Mr.

Hoffmann, chief of the CIC Detachment, in Salzburg at 10

A.M. on May 10.

Also, Mrs. Hummel had in hand a sheet of paper dated April 24, 1946, written

and signed by Prince Archbishop Andreas Rohracher of Salzburg. In a most

unexpected turn the signed document stated that von Hummel had appeared

before Rohracher with the coins that had been removed from the salt mine

of Alt Aussee during the last days of the Third Reich and given them to Rohr -

acher for safekeeping. Rohracher also wrote that at that time he had notiﬁed

Capt. George Selke and the abbott of the monastery at Kremsmünster that

he had the valuables and that both agreed that he should safeguard them.

With this document in hand Horn left immediately for Salzburg. The

following day he rechecked the ﬁles of the MFAA ofﬁce in Salzburg and the

ﬁles of the Austrian ofﬁcials concerning the lost coins. Selke had returned to

the United States and Horn was unable to ﬁnd any information conﬁrming

Rohracher’s statement that he had notiﬁed the proper authorities regarding

212 Part VI : Looting from Hungary in World War II

the gold coins. He then walked the 300 yards to the archbishop’s palace and

presented him with the document dated April 24, 1946, and signed by him.

After several heated debates, on May 1, 1946, the treasure of Kremsmünster

was taken into the custody of the U.S. Army in Austria. Sealed in the presence

of Rohracher, it was transferred to the Munich Collection Center.

Later, at the Munich Collection Center, it was established that series 1–

300 of the gold coins were missing. Because of this, on July 1, 1946, Veron

Kennedy, a property control ofﬁcer, examined the Hungarian valuables that

were in the custody of Archbishop Rohracher and stored in the treasury of

St. Peter’s Abbey in Salzburg, Austria. The gloves worn by King Charles IV

at his coronation, which had been turned over to Rohracher on June 18, 1945,

were not included in the chest with the coronation robe. They too had dis-

appeared.

A subsequent three- day investigation by Lt. Horn did not turn up the

gloves. During this time, however, he traveled to Lake Mattsee and noted

that Father Strasser still had in his possession three pieces of Hungarian glazed

pottery and a heavy silver platter that he had received as presents. Also it was

the belief of Charles Brousz of the military government of Bavaria that the

priest had in his possession valuable personal property of the Hungarian fas-

cists who were staying in Mattsee.

Some of the coins from the treasure of Kremsmünster and the gloves

worn by King Charles IV at his coronation are still missing.

30. The Gold Treasure of Kremsmünster 213

Chapter 31

Cardinal Mindszenty

The political balance in Hungary in 1945 was threatening, as the Com-

munist Party was making advancement in the ruling of Hungary. In any case

the religious elements seemed to offset the Communist Party’s presence in the

coalition cabinet. This seemed rather prophetic, since expectations were wide-

spread that the bishop of Vszprem would soon be elevated to the highest posi-

tion in the country’s Roman Catholic history. He was in fact named, on

October 2, 1945, the archbishop of Esztergom and prince primate of Hungary.

A few months later, he was created cardinal by Pope Pius XII. The new cardinal

replaced his old German family name of Pehm with a Hungarian one: Mind-

szenty. The village of his birth was named Mindszent. The Hungarian Car-

dinal Jozsef Mindszenty (March 29, 1892–May 6, 1975) became a symbol of

political and religious resistance to communism. Ordained a Roman Catholic

priest in 1915, he was imprisoned in 1919 by the short- lived Hungarian Com-

munist government of Bela Kun. Mindszenty had been known for his royalist

sentiments and some of his pronouncements strongly indicated a desire on

his part for the accession of Otto of Habsburg, son of the deceased King

Karoly IV, to be the crown ruler.

Shortly after his inauguration as prince primate, Cardinal Mindszenty

asserted that as the ranking religious dignitary he also regarded himself as the

head of the Hungarian nation. In Mindszenty’s Memories he writes: “The

archbishop of Esztergom held the foremost place among the dignitaries of the

state as well as the Church. When the king was absent from the country, the

archbishop represented him. The king depended on him for advice. If the

king violated the constitution, the archbishop of Esztergon was obligated to

rebuke him and demand he obey the law of the land.”

This supposition on Mindszenty’s part was bad history and worse law.

Later it would also turn out to be self- defeating. It appears that Pope Pius

XII had selected Mindszenty—a provincial priest of little administrative abil-

ity and less scholarship—for the exalted position of primate because of a

unique combination of factors. He was a Catholic priest of nationwide pop-

214

ularity in the midst of a bleeding population, a proud man among the ruins,

a militant anticommunist who had also been a courageous anti–Nazi and had

been imprisoned for his deﬁance to the Hungarian Nazis. He was an outspoken

nationalist with a well- known record of ﬁrm adherence to tradition in general

and royalist heritage in particular. And he was a man of modest origins, with-

out connections abroad but still part of the backbone of the Hungarian nation:

the peasantry. The pope alleged that he would have preferred someone of aris-

tocratic ancestry, cool temperament, profound scholarship, and wide Euro-

pean connections; in other words, someone rather like Pius himself.

Cardinal Mindszenty’s ﬁrst direct approach to the U.S. government in

the matter of the crown was made on August 31, 1947, in the form of a letter

addressed to the American minister in Budapest. He had recently returned

from a widely publicized trip to England, the United States, and Canada,

where he had met political and religious leaders as well as émigrés, including

Otto of Habsburg. In his letter the cardinal asked that the Hungarian crown

and relics be transferred to the Vatican. The U.S. government did not respond

to the letter.

After receiving Hungary’s gold and silver reserves, the chief of the Hun-

garian Ministry of Finance ﬁled formal claim number 491 for the restitution

of the Hungarian crown treasure from Germany to the government of Hun-

gary. The request speciﬁcally mentioned Saint Stephen’s crown and its accom-

panying regalia, which had been placed in the Foreign Exchange Depository

but had been removed on September 17, 1945, and sent to the Wiesbaden

Collection Center, where it remained until April 17, 1948. The crown was

then moved to the Munich Collection Center. This request set off a storm of

protest, for both the Hungarian government and the Vatican claimed own-

ership to the Hungarian crown treasure. The Vatican insisted that the treasure

had been in custody of the Hungarian Catholic Church for 1000 years and

that the Hungarian Catholic Church only had responsibility for safeguarding

it. Vatican radio announced that pursuant to a decision by the State Depart-

ment in Washington, the Hungarian crown treasure would not be given to

the present Budapest government but to the pope for safeguarding.

This broadcast set off a furor of activity, including a secret memo stating

that the Department of State’s view considered it a bad time to transfer the

treasure to the Vatican. The memo further stated that all the coronation regalia

should be consolidated in one place in the custody of the United States.

The next step in the request for the return of the crown came as the

American representative at the Vatican transmitted to the Department of State

a memorandum from Cardinal Mindszenty dated March 15, 1948. In it the

cardinal requested that the treasure of the crown be deposited in a place beﬁt-

ting its religious character and made it clear that he considered the Vatican

31. Cardinal Mindszenty 215

best for this purpose. Not surprisingly, a high ofﬁcial in the Vatican liked this

idea. The ofﬁcial at the time was Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini. Later,

on the death of Pope John in 1963, Montini was elected Pope Paul VI.

Monsignor Montini, the Vatican’s undersecretary of state, approached

the American political advisor in Germany in the summer of 1948 through

the Apostolic visitator in Germany. He requested the transfer to the Vatican

of the crown, which had come to Hungary as a papal gift. He stressed that

Pope Pius XII would be profoundly grateful if the Holy See were made the

trustee of the sacred crown of Saint Stephen.

In July 1948, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini approached the

American political advisor in Germany and requested a transfer to the Vatican

of “the crown that came to Hungary as a papal present,” thus stressing that

it had originated from Rome. Montini further stressed that Pope Pius XII

would be profoundly grateful if the Holy See were made trustee of the sacred

crown of Saint Stephen until such time as it could be safely returned to Hun-

gary. The U.S. government was fully aware of the historical and symbolic sig-

niﬁcance of the crown and coronation regalia. Aware that the Vatican to a

degree had control of some of the regalia that had been placed in the custody

of Archbishop Andreas Rohracher by U.S. forces in 1945, a plan was made to

consolidate the treasure completely under U.S. control.

On September 17, 1948, Vernon R. Kennedy, property control ofﬁcer,

met with Archbishop Andreas Rohracher and presented him with letters

requesting that the remainder of Hungarian treasure be turned over to him.

At the time it was the opinion of Kennedy that Archbishop Rohracher was

merely safeguarding the treasure for the U.S. Army, as outlined in George

Selke’s letter of June 19, 1945. Still resentful owing to the removal of the

Kremsmünster treasure, Rohracher refused to turn over the valuables. He told

Kennedy that he had written instructions from Cardinal Mindszenty not to

release the Hungarian coronation regalia to anyone unless he was instructed

to do so by the cardinal himself. Kennedy left and returned with a U.S. Army

priest, Father Edward J. Saunders, and then Archbishop Rohracher conceded

that he would release the property if ordered by higher authority of the papal

nuncio in Vienna.

At that time the responsibility for obtaining the treasure had been given

to Maj. Richard P. Weeber, head of Reparations and Restitution. Weeber was

highly intelligent and well versed in the German language. That day, Sep-

tember 17, 1948, Weeber and Father Saunders caught the Mozart train from

Salzburg to Vienna. A meeting with the papal nuncio had been scheduled for

10:20 on Saturday morning, September 18. Alerted by Rohracher, the papal

nuncio was out of town and could not be contacted. Without any success,

they then discussed a plan to get Cardinal Mindszenty’s approval for the

216 Part VI : Looting from Hungary in World War II

release of the coronation robe through the U.S. legation at Budapest. Relating

to this plan and in a secret document dated September 23, 1948, Maj. Weeber

wrote: “However, realizing the danger of compromising the Cardinal thru a

possible leak at Budapest, it was decided that the undersigned, being fully

familiar with the case and the German language, seek a conference with Arch-

bishop Rohracher and attempt to induce him to release the coronation robe

at Salzburg.”

This course of action was agreed upon and Weeber and Father Saunders

returned to Salzburg. Weeber then arranged for a conference with Archbishop

Rohracher on Sunday morning at his summer residence in nearby Bischof-

shofen.

The following day at his summer residence, Archbishop Rohracher con-

tinued to maintain his earlier position. Finally, at the suggestion of Weeber,

the archbishop agreed that a letter signed by Gen. Geoffrey Keyes, commander

in chief of U.S. Forces in Austria, would be sufﬁcient basis and authority to

permit him to break his word of honor to Cardinal Mindszenty. Archbishop

Rohracher even went so far as to suggest the wording of the letter. Weeber

could not guarantee the wording, but ﬁnally Rohracher agreed to the letter

and also a proper receipt for the treasure. At that time Rohracher stated that

he was worried about having signed for the silverware of Emperor Franz Joseph

in June 1945, which he had actually not received. He was most pleased when

Weeber informed him that the silverware had been returned to Hungary on

March 1, 1947, as claim number 184. Rohracher then requested that Weeber

obtain a proper receipt for the Kremsmünster coin collection that had been

taken from him in 1946. The case of the missing gloves of Charles IV or the

missing coins from the Kremsmünster coin collection was not mentioned at

this time, but one has to wonder whether Weeber was thinking about it.

The following day, September 20, 1948, Rohracher received a letter from

Gen. Keyes thanking him for safeguarding the treasure. The letter also con-

tained the following paragraph: “I have been directed by my government in

Washington that it is necessary to remove these coronation regalia and appur-

tenances from Salzburg for security reasons. In due time they will be returned

to the proper representatives of the Hungarian Catholic Church and the Hun-

garian people.”

On that same day Archbishop Rohracher received a receipt for the

Kremsmünster coin collection. He also received a copy of Capt. Selke’s report

of June 19, 1945, stating that Emperor Franz Joseph’s silverware was not

released to the archbishop but was assigned to the Property Control Ware-

house.

On September 20, Vernon Kennedy and Chaplain Edward J. Saunders

signed a receipt for two iron cases, empty, and one large wooden box, unlocked,

31. Cardinal Mindszenty 217

containing a roll of padding sewed in a cambric covering; a royal robe (the

coronation robe of Saint Stephen) and a leather case containing old documents.

Three days later and under the guard of two soldiers, the valuable were taken

to Munich and placed in the custody of Evelyn Tucker, the MFAA ofﬁcer for

the U.S. Army in Austria. She signed for these valuables on September 23

and turned them over to the Munich Collection Center. The receipt was

signed by Herbert Stuart Leonard. Also that same day the archbishop noticed

that the locks on the two empty cases were taken and, as a last request, sent

a message to Vernon Kennedy and stated that he wanted the two lock and

keys back as they were property of the palace.

He received the lock and keys

promptly, but it would be 30 more years before the Hungarian crown treasure

made its long return journey back to Budapest.

Not wanting the treasure to fall into the hands of the now communist

government in Hungary, Archbishop Rohracher wrote Cardinal Francis Spell-

man a letter and requested that Spellman meet with Cardinal Josef Mind-

szenty, who also wanted to see Harry S Truman, president of the United

States, in order to effect the transfer of the Hungarian crown treasure to the

Vatican. Unable to arrange for this meeting, Spellman wrote to Secretary of

War Robert P. Patterson, interceding on behalf of Mindszenty, and requested

that the Hungarian crown treasure be safeguarded in the United States or

entrusted to the care of His Holiness Pope Pius XII.

During this frenzy of activity it was recalled that in 1919, in the wake of

the ﬁrst Hungarian communist dictator Bela Kun, the crown had been offered

to a London antique dealer for £4,000. The dealer rejected the offer, where-

upon Kun issued orders that the crown be broken up and the gold, jewels,

and precious stones sold. According to one version, the dealer approached

was Pierre Cartier, then head of the world- famous Cartier jewelry ﬁrm; his

wife, born Countess Jacqueline Almassy of Hungary, prevailed upon him to

reject the offer and dissuade other important dealers from considering the

purchase of the crown. It was only through a miracle that the relic was saved.

The communist regime collapsed before the artisans entrusted with the task

of dismantling the crown could begin their task.

The church ofﬁcials repeated this story many times, although none of it

was ever substantiated, but the many shady deals in Kun’s past lent it credi-

bility. It was Mindszenty’s conviction and the church’s worry that the Budapest

regime would treat the crown disrespectfully on its return and see to it in one

way or another that it would disappear.

As Hungary’s leading church ofﬁcial, Mindszenty became a target of the

postwar communist regime. His self- chosen martyrdom as the head of the

Hungarian nation made it easy for the Stalinist regime to take measures against

him. A strong opponent of communism, Mindszenty was arrested by the

218 Part VI : Looting from Hungary in World War II

Hungarian government late in 1948 on charges of treason and illegal monetary

transactions. At a sensational public trial, Mindszenty pleaded guilty to most

charges. It was widely held that his confession had been obtained by drugging

him, because he had said in advance any confession he might make in case

of arrest his arrest would be false. In the 1949 trial, the prosecutor thunderously

asserted that Mindszenty “not only wished to deprive our state of this precious

relic, the crown, but wanted to be sure that it would be ready at hand in case

he wanted to put it on the head of Otto Habsburg.”

The court sentenced him to life imprisonment. Released from prison

because of ill health in 1955, Mindszenty was kept under close watch. During

the Hungarian revolution, he was freed by rebel forces. When the revolt was

crushed, he took refuge in the U.S. legation and refused to leave Hungary

unless the Hungarian government rescinded his conviction and sentence. In

1971, after 15 years and an agreement between the Vatican and the Hungarian

government, Mindszenty left Hungary for the Vatican. Shortly afterward, he

settled in Vienna.

In November 1949, Robert A. Vogeler, a vice president of the Interna-

tional Telephone and Telegraph Company, had been arrested in Hungary and

indicted on charges of espionage and sabotage. He was found guilty and sen-

tenced to 15 years in prison. The Hungarians offered the release of Vogeler in

exchange for the crown of Saint Stephen. The Department of State issued a

press release saying that the U.S. government was not prepared to discuss the

return of the crown as a condition of release of Vogeler.

As the Cold War continued, on November 19, 1951, an unarmed U.S.

C-47 transport plane was forced down by Soviet ﬁghters in Hungary after it

had lost its course through navigational error. This unfortunate incident

brought with it a resurgence of anxiety about the possible exchange of the

Saint Stephen crown. After two weeks, the ﬂyers were released by the Soviets

to the Hungarians, who asked that the crown be exchanged for the ﬂyers.

There was no question regarding the C-47, as it would not be returned. In

protest, the United States closed its Hungarian consulates. After a few months,

the ﬂyers and Vogeler were released.

In 1953, the sacred crown of Saint Stephen and other relics were removed

from Munich, Germany, and sent to the United States, where they were stored

at Fort Knox, Kentucky. During the following years, relations with Hungary

gradually improved and discussions regarding the return of the Hungarian

relics continued. On April 19, 1970, the New York Times printed an article

referring to the possibility that the crown would be returned to Hungary.

This article triggered a furor of protest that cumulated in a meeting at the

Department of State. That meeting, held on May 21, 1970, is reported as fol-

lows:

31. Cardinal Mindszenty 219