| Original caption: “Captured German Gold — United States Third Army finance officers, aided by a Reichsbank official in civilian clothes, inspect bags containing part of an estimated one hundred tons of gold bullion found April 7 in a salt mine near Merkers, southwest of Gotha, Germany. The picture shows the gold in the mine.” The United States Army 90th Infantry Division discovered this Reichsbank wealth, Schutzstaffel SS loot, and Berlin museum paintings in the Merkers Mines. Every bag to the right of the railroad track contains Nazi gold from the Reichsbank. The Merkers mine contained most of Germany’s reserves of currency and gold. Doctor Werner Vieck (???? – ????), seen holding his hat at right, was attempting to remove millions in currency to pay Nazi German soldiers when the Americans took the mine. He was stopped when bridges nearby were blown to prevent the Allied advance. He and the currency returned to the Merkers mine. The New York Daily News reported on April 9, 1945, how the mine was opened: “Pound of TNT Opens Nazi Treasure Vault By Reynolds Packard. At the Bottom of a Salt Mine, Merkers, Germany, April 8 (United Press) — One pound of TNT blew open a brick-walled vault twenty-one hundred feet deep in the earth at 0830 Hours today, and eager doughboys of the Third Army burst into what might have been Aladdin’s cave to secure the hundred million dollars in gold of the Reichsbank’s treasure and billions of dollars in currencies.” Hidden deep in this salt mine, they found the room filled with row after row of glittering gold. Some of the precious metal was stacked in grey sacks which looked like flour bags. Each bag contained 2 bricks. Other hags contained German and foreign metal money and paper currency. ‘I am convinced that this is all the Reichsbank gold,’ Werner Vieck, Reichsbank official present at the opening of the treasure pit, told the United Press.” “A Million a Ton.” “Vieck, who attended the sealing of the treasure, estimated the treasure at a hundred tons, each ton worth a million. ‘Hitler was trying to take that gold to some neutral country with him, but we beat him to it,” said one of the guards, Private Arthur Fisher, New York City. First Lieutenant Jack MacFarlane, Los Angeles, California, supervised operations which opened the treasure room. ‘It only took a pound of TNT.’ he said. ‘Nice return amount of money.’” “A high Army officer had to remind captains and majors during his inspection tour that they were not permitted to play with the gold bricks.” “Two GIs got the idea that a checker game with gold pawns might be fun. Some newspaper correspondents thought they’d conceal a brick or two as a joke. The Army’s sense of humor doesn’t run along those lines, we learned.” Over 98 percent of the gold reserves of Nazi Germany were accounted for and redeposited in Koblenz. Some pilfering by the American soldiers occurred while they rushed to remove the gold before the Soviets took control of the area, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in currency and gold. Photographer Byron “Beano” Heywood Rollins (April 26, 1913 – January 8, 1988) was 1 of 2 press pool photographers that accompanied the 87th Infantry Division as they invaded Koblenz. Rollins worked for World Wide Photos before World War II and joined the Associated Press for the Normandy landings. In March 1945, he was assigned to the 3rd United States Army as pool photographer. He photographed the Orhdruf subcamp when it was liberated and followed 3rd Army to Buchenwald. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0889.jpg |
| Image Size | 574.59 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2167 x 1630 |
| Photographer | Byron H. Rollins |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 7, 1945 |
| Location | Kaiseroda Salt Mine Complex |
| City | Merkers |
| State or Province | Thuringia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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