Krueger's Men (30 page)

202 “to meet the Bank of England’s pride”: Ibid.

202 a typically obscure British compromise: See “Repatriation (import and export) of sterling notes: Withdrawal of high denomination Bank of England notes 1945–47,” in particular, memo from Bank of England [author’s signature illegible] to C. G. Thorley of the Treasury, 22 November 1946, and undated Minute Sheet [#52], all PRO T 231/692.

202 Leo Strawczynski: Author interview in May 2005 with Strawczynski’s son and daughter, now resident in Montevideo, Uruguay.

202 A regular trade developed in phony fivers: John Walker, British Embassy, Madrid, to K. S. Weston, Treasury, London, 27 November 1946. Traffic in Spain in forged Bank of England notes, PRO FO 371/60477.

203 From Stockholm, Harry Söderman: Letters and telegrams starting on 7 September 1946 and throughout the month to Scotland Yard, PRO MEPO 3/2400.

203 And a Hungarian refugee from Budapest: Letter, from the British consulate in Basel to the British legation in Bern, 26 October 1946. The file, “Alleged Circulation of Bank of England Notes in Switzerland, 1946,” PRO FO 371/60518, also contains an article from
La Suisse
of that same date with a headline warning of false banknotes and concluding, “They are good imitations and are difficult for ordinary people [
au profane
] to distinguish from real ones.”

203 inside the organ of the San Valentino church: “Cache Hidden in Organ Was WWII Nazi Counterfeit,” Associated Press dispatch datelined Merano, Italy, in the Appleton (Wisconsin)
Post Crescent,
August 15, 1967.

203 Ricardo Coqueto, a carpenter, escaped execution: Quoted in “A Struggle With Memories of Torture Down the Street,”
New York Times,
March 8, 2005.

203 “photographic copies and records”: Memorandum [#11R], date-stamped 30 November 1949, B/E PW 17/5, Forgery.

204 His [Peppiatt’s] obituary in the Bank’s house organ: September 1983.

204 he continued believing that many of the Bank’s own records: Sir Kit McMahon, former director of overseas finance and deputy governor of the Bank of England, e-mail message to the author, September 6, 2002.

204 Sir Eddie George, O’Brien’s successor as governor: Sir Eddie George, communication directed to the author on December 10, 2001. George commented on a suggestion, made not entirely in jest, by a retired senior official of the British Treasury that the Bank had secreted the records of its most embarrassing counterfeit in some obscure warehouse that might remain inaccessible for many years. The governor denied this but was the first to use the word
conspiracy
in the correspondence, defensively.

204 the Foreign Office did have one and declassified it: Reeves Report.

204 John Keyworth, head of the Bank’s museum: Quoted by Jonathan Glancey in the
Guardian
(London), September 24, 1998.

204 Yet the Bank’s own promotional film: Viewed by the author (twice) in London, May 2001.

204 “found their way into circulation and were a constant headache”: Fact Sheet: Bank Notes,
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/factnote.pdf
.

205 Smolianoff had filled his idle hours: Krakowski, 161.

205 so they arranged to meet at the Swiss border: Smolianoff, signed statement given to New Scotland Yard Criminal Investigation Department, September 11, 1947. Translation from German by Fiona Fleck. Swiss Federal Archives (SFA), E4323 (A) 1981, band 101 (Eugen Zotow); Bloom,
Money of Their Own,
189–90.

205 The next year Miassojedoff/Zotow was convicted in Liechtenstein: Inspector Benz, report to Chief of Federal Police Service, Bern, September 17, 1948, SFA, ibid.; Interpol Notice 417/46.

205 Police Commission in Paris issued a wanted circular: Circular No. 1103, SFA, ibid.

206 weakened by Parkinson’s disease, of which he died: Letter from S. Sondermann Espindola, Porto Alegre, Brazil, to Murray Teigh Bloom, March 31, 1986.

206 Oskar Stein, the meticulous bookkeeper: McNally Report.

206 Hirsche and Moshe Kosak, two brothers: Krakowski, 166.

206 Felix Cytrin, the chief engraver: NARA, RG 87, Index to General Correspondence. See entries for Counterfeiting Activities of Amt VI-F RSHA, Bernhard Krueger, and Salomon Smolianoff.

206 Norbert Levi adopted the name: Krueger, “I Was the World’s Greatest Counterfeiter” (story signed by Krueger but source was Bloom).

206 a sworn deposition from Krueger: Reproduced in Burger, 241.

207 returned to work as a stereotyper: Nachtstern’s daughter Sidsel, e-mails to the author, 2005.

207 publishing his memoirs in Czech and then in German:
Komando padelatel°u
(Prague, 1983);
Ďáblova dílna: V padělatelském komandu koncentračního tábora Sachsenhausen
(Prague, 1991), and
Unternehmen Bernhard: Die Fälscherwerkstatt im KZ Sachsenhausen
(Berlin, 1992). Burger republished the book under the title
Des Teufels Werkstatt
(Berlin, 2001).

207 knew him as “the rabbi”: Krakowski interview.

207 Peter Edel became an author:
Wenn es ans Leben geht: Meine Geschichte
(1979).

207 “I knew the future. I’d be free”: Groen interview.

207 his last wish was fulfilled: e-mail to the author, August 2, 2004, from Groen’s former wife, Anne Makkinje.

207 complete with its own website:
www.toplitzsee.at
. It even has its own webcam, giving the day’s temperature. The site also presents a short history titled “Treasures of the Toplitzsee,” which beguilingly reports the discovery of many crates of gold, gold coins, diamonds, and, most intriguing of all, “3 crates of gold bullion from the Tatar Treasury.” There is no such record, official or otherwise, of any of these discoveries (to say nothing of the Tatar Treasury, whatever that may have been).

207 the first catch was made innocently: Evelyn Irons, London
Evening Standard,
May 21, 1945, dispatch from Salzburg, Austria, B/E C 12/111: Note Issue Files (6 November 1862–25 November 1954), Press cuttings on forgeries, robberies, mutilated notes, etc.

207 U.S. Navy divers based in Cherbourg: McNally Report. They also tried the Traunsee and came up empty-handed. Photographs taken by McNally during the dive were rushed by diplomatic pouch to the chief of the U.S. Secret Service, but were among the items apparently destroyed during the subsequent purge of Secret Service file CO 12,600.

207 In 1946, two former engineers: Hoettl, 158–59.

208 The most ambitious underwater expedition: See Löhde and Horbach, “Geld wie Heu” (Money Like Hay),
Der Stern
’s twelve-part report, published in 1959.

208 Their official report contains no hint: E. de M.R. [initials only], memorandum to Chief Cashier, Bank of England, with copies to Secretary, General Manager, Bank of England Printing Works, re: “Destruction of German Forgeries Salvaged from the Toplitzsee,” December 1, 1959, B/E PW 17/5. They saved some for the Bank’s museum, where a few are on display in a thick glass case, on which visitors are strictly enjoined from leaning too closely.

208 declared there was nothing more to be found: “Divers’ Search of Austrian Lake Deflates Wild Tales of Nazi Gold,”
New York Times,
December 8, 1963.

208 Again neither the Bank nor the Yard: Detective Sergeant A. E. Noble, report summarizing the report, dated 29 May 1964, of L. Cunnell of the Bank of England’s Note Office, which said that 100,000 counterfeit notes had been destroyed, along with plated and numbering barrels. Noble added that “the forging equipment recovered from Lake Toplitzsee [
sic
] is now complete, these papers now can be ‘put away.’” PRO MEPO 3/2400.

208 declared himself a Mossad operative: Hans Fricke, interview by
Geo
magazine (his sponsor), posted on Geo Explorer website as “Toplitzsee: The Myth That Will Eternally Live.”

208 $600,000: Scott Pelley, “Hitler’s Lake,” transcript of segment on the CBS program
60 Minutes II,
originally broadcast November 21, 2000.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/11/21/60II/main251320.shtml
.

209 beer caps: Luke Harding, “Last dive for Lake Toplitz’s Nazi Gold,”
Guardian
(London), April 6, 2005.

209 Norman Scott: Ibid.

B
IBLIOGRAPHY

I
NTERVIEWS

Groen, Max. Interview by the author, October 12, 2002, Amsterdam.

Krakowski, Avraham. Interview by the author, November 10, 2002, Brooklyn, New York.

Landau, Paul. Telephone interview with Margaret Shannon, 2004, Tampa, Florida.

Soros, George. E-mail exchanges with the author, 2005.

U
NPUBLISHED
M
ANUSCRIPTS AND
L
ETTERS

Krueger, Bernhard. Unpublished fragments, translated by Ingeborg Wolfe.

Nachtstern, Moritz.
Falskmynter i blokk 19,
unpublished English translation.

A
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United States

N
ATIONAL
A
RCHIVES AND
R
ECORDS
A
DMINISTRATION
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)

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Records of the Collection of Foreign Records Seized (RG 242)

Records of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (RG 243)

Records of the Office of the Military Government, Germany (RG 260)

Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (RG 263)

Records of the Seventh Army, G-2 (RG 407)

F
RANKLIN
D. R
OOSEVELT
P
RESIDENTIAL
L
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(
FDRL
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Morgenthau Diaries
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U
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S
TATES
H
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M
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M
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A
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Allen A. Cramer Collection

Leo Haas Collection

Samuel Stammer Collection

France

A
RCHIVES DE L
’
OCCUPATION FRAN
ç
AISE EN
A
LLEMAGNE ET EN
A
UTRICHE
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)

www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/archives/archives_modele/service/inventaires/colmar/colmar.html

Great Britian

B
ANK OF
E
NGLAND
A
RCHIVES
(
B/e
)

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Administration Department (ADM)

Bank Note Office (BNO)

Chief Cashier’s Department (C)

Governors and Secretary’s Department (G)

Museum Holdings (M)

Printing Works (PW)

P
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R
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O
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(
PRO
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2003)

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Israel

C
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Z
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A
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C
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C
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-R
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