Shirley
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« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2007, 08:42:48 PM »
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Dive tech.
Like yourself I was unsure as to where to post this interesting news item taken from a newspaper here in the UK this past weekend. In fact I have posted it once in the wrong place where no comment was needed. I am still trying to figure all of these "threads" out. but I saw your post and thought, why not carry on here, it seems appropriate.
Rommels Loot.
A young German soldier posed for a photograph with his parents. Typical of many that would be taken during the early days of the Second World War. but this particular snap shot holds a secret
that would unlock a 60 yr old mystery. The whereabouts of the fabled hoard of looted Nazi gold worth �20 million,
Scrawled on the back of the photo is a code which investigators hope will pinpoint Rommels Treasure- a cache of ingots, jewellry, and works of art, hidden by the SS as they retreated at the end of the War. Terry Hodgkinson the British investigator leading the chase for the treasure said " We have now worked out the code and are pretty confident of where the treasure is"
He believes the co-ordinates refer to a point less than a mile off a tourist beach close to the port of Bastia, on the French Island of Corsica. Mr. Hodgkinson would confirm only that he would be searching an area just off Marana beach.
The hoard was amassed by fanatical SS units operating alonside Rommels Africa Korps. It is believed to be made up of 440 lbs of gold bullion, and other precious objects looted from the Jews in Tunisia during the North Africa campaign.
The Germans stashed the loot on Corsica, a convenient stopping off point en-route from Africa to Germany. But as the Allies advanced in 1943 it was collected, sealed, and hidden off the coast. its whereabouts known only to German cartographers.
The soldier in the photograph is Corporal Kirmer. At the end of the War, Kirmer was imprisoned along other SS men in Dachau, and it is here it is said, he learned the legend of Rommels treasure.
Mr. Hodgkinson knew of the man Kirmer, he has spent 15 yrs investigating German Archives. there is a good chance that Kirmer did not know the co-ordinates himself, but he wrote them down on that old family photograph.
The Rommel treasure has been a target for bounty hunters for decades. Lord Kilbracken, who died last year, and who had served as a Swordfish Pilot during the War, has led an unsuccessful trip to Corsica in 1963 to try and retrieve the treasure. His expedition was based on Kimer's testimony made to a French Secret Serviceman, when the former SS man turned himself in, after escaping from Dachau. Kirmer was interviewed at length, by all kinds of security agencies. There are files on the subject, but no one has ever been successful in tracking down exactly where the treasure is.
German efforts failed, when they carried out secret research last year, in order to beat off Terry Hodgkinson.
Under French Law, the proceeds from the treasure would be split between the State and those who found it. But the French would also try to find any surving relatives of those stripped of their gold.
As a complete novice and an unknown to treasure hunting, my first reaction when I read this article was. "Why publish all these facts". Anyhow I hope you find it of interest.
regards Shirley
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