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Elsa and I sat down in the living room one Saturday morning to discuss our upcoming trip to Switzerland. She had decided that it was time for me to learn more about the background of the financial empire I would be inheriting. According to Elsa, Hans was the key to my understanding how they started their financial empires.

“By the time the war started in September of 1939, Hans was a Hauptsturmführer in the Waffen-SS, which was equivalent of a Captain in the German Army. Adolf Hitler tasked Hermann Goering with establishing several small groups of SS officers to orchestrate the looting of the countries Germany conquered. One of the groups was the commanded by Hans’ patron, who was a senior Waffen-SS officer and a highly placed Nazi Party member. The group was responsible for inventorying and storing the items Goering’s other groups looted from Europe and forwarded to Germany. Han’s patron arranged for him to have a senior position within the Waffen-SS group that handled the assets looted from Europe.”

“Excuse me, Elsa. I’m confused. You just said that Hans was in the Waffen-SS, but earlier you said he was in the German Army. How could he be in both the Army and the Waffen-SS; and before we go on, would you explain the organizations that you will mention in your explanation of Hans’ background?”

“I can see how you might be confused, Paul. I will do my best to give you a simple explanation of the organizations. The hard part about doing that is, all of the organizations overlapped to some extent; so there is no simple explanation.

“Let’s start with the Nationalsozialisische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which was the official German name of the Nazi Party. It was basically a political Party; however, it had a paramilitary branch called the Sturmabteilung, or SA. The SA was not totally loyal to Hitler and they challenged the authority of the German Army. So in 1934, Hitler purged them and replaced them with the Schutzstaffel, which you call the SS. The Nazi Party was linked to the other Nazi organizations and a number of the civilian organizations in that many of the people in those organizations were required to be members of the Nazi Party.

“The Wehrmacht was a combination of Germany’s Army, Navy, and Air Force. Many of its high-ranking members were also members of the Waffen-SS, which was the armed branch of the SS. Hans was in the Army, and at the same time, he was also a member of the Waffen-SS. Simultaneous membership in the Nazi Party, the Wehrmacht, and Waffen-SS was common amongst senior military officers.

The Schutzstaffel, or SS, was a paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. It was divided into two groups: the Allgemeine SS and the Waffen-SS; Hans had nothing to do with the Allgemeine SS, so I won’t bother explaining it to you. The main thing you need to know about the Waffen-SS is, it was a military organization and its members, like Hans, were often members of the Wehrmacht and the Nazi Party.

The Geheime Staatspolizei was what you call the Gestapo, and it was established by Goering as one of the SS organizations. They were the Nazi’s Secret State Police. They were not soldiers; they were police who wore military uniforms with Gestapo and military insignia. They imprisoned people, sent people to the concentration camps, tortured prisoners, and engaged in many more activities.

“Don’t worry too much about trying to keep these organizations’ functions straight, Paul. If you need clarification, just ask.”

“Okay, Elsa. For the moment, I have a basic understanding of the differences.”

Elsa continued her story about Hans with, “Like many Germans, Hans viewed the loss of Germany’s colonies, the ceding of portions of Germany, and the reparations Germany was forced to pay as Europe looting Germany to punish it for losing a war that had been forced on them. WW I’s peace treaty required Germany and its allies to pay reparations. However in practice, that requirement was only applied to Germany; Germany’s allies in the war were not punished financially like Germany was. Hans and many Germans felt that Germany’s looting of Europe during the war was nothing more than Germany recouping the financial loss inflicted on it by Europe’s use of the Treaty of Versailles to loot Germany.

“Hans’ main responsibilities in the Waffen-SS group, which his mentor commanded, was to maintain the inventory of all liberated valuables that were shipped back to Germany, and to arrange for the storage of the valuables in secure warehouses. This was an immense task, and he was assisted in this task by his administrative assistants.

“Goering handpicked the people he needed to create the organizations that were responsible for the actual liberation of the bullion, jewelry, art, and other valuables. When one of these groups notified Hans of a shipment, he would see to it that the shipment was inventoried by his staff and he arranged for the valuables to be stored in a secure warehouse. Then he and his staff would use the inventory sheets to create the official list of what had been placed in the warehouse.

“Hans and I became disillusioned with the Nazi Party, late in 1942. We learned that the Gestapo had confiscated the factories that our families owned in Germany and Austria. Our two families had been declared traitors and shipped to the concentration camps, and all of their assets were forfeited to the Fatherland.

“Hans and I had been estranged from our families for a long time due to Hans’ choice of aligning himself with the Nazi Party. Hans’ last name was very common in Germany, so in the rush to conceal their actions, the Gestapo never associated a Waffen-SS officer and highly placed Party member or his wife with the two families.

“When Hans and I learned of our families being sent to the concentration camps, he made some quiet inquiries. He learned that our families had been executed as soon as they arrived at the concentration camps. We knew our families did not agree with the Nazi Party, but they weren’t traitors. When we recalled other things the Gestapo had done, we realized the Nazi Party was stealing the assets of wealthy citizens. This made Hans change his opinion of the Nazi Party. We reached the decision that Hans had to desert, and we had to go into hiding outside of Germany.

“During the early part of 1942, a few members of the Nazi high command strongly suspected that Germany would lose the war within a couple of years. The senior members of the Nazi Party formed a secret cabal that began to prepare for their personal futures. Goering was one of the key Party members involved in the preparations, which had to be done without Hitler learning of their actions. Hitler would have had everyone involved in the plot executed for defeatism or treason.

“Goering tasked Hans’ commanding officer with opening numbered Swiss bank accounts for the members of the cabal and with assisting in the movement of valuables stored in the warehouses to out-of-the-way caves. Goering and Hans’ boss decided the first thing they would do was to relocate the valuables stored in the warehouses.

“Their first mistake was they misjudged Hans’ loyalty. Hans was fiercely loyal to Germany, but had come to despise the Nazi Party and its leaders. Their second mistake was they involved Hans in the execution of their plans, which is how Hans learned that Goering and some of the senior members of the Nazi Party planned to abscond with a large portion of Germany’s wealth.

“Hans’s boss selected Hans and another Waffen-SS officer to support Goering’s operation. He briefed Hans and the officer on what was to be done and assured them that Goering was carrying out Hitler’s orders. Before they began the operation, Goering spoke with Hans and the officer and he confirmed that the operation had been approved by Hitler and that the operation had to be carried out in secrecy.

“They believed the operation was approved by Hitler for when the Allies started bombing Germany, Hitler believed that the warehouses were no longer safe storage locations. He ordered that the valuables be moved into mines and salt caves for safekeeping. Hans and the officer were assigned to the operation during the time the valuables were being moved to the mines and salt caves. Therefore, storing some of the valuables in remote caves was accepted as part of Hitler’s efforts to protect the valuables.

“Hans part of the operation was to arrange for valuables to be removed from the warehouses and turned over the officer and a squad of soldiers who would transport the valuables to the caves. Hans created an inventory list of the valuables turned over to the officer for storage in each cave. Using the information the officer would provide, Hans would create a documentation package for each cave. The package included: a map showing the location of the cave, pictures of the cave’s sealed opening, pictures of the surrounding terrain, a description of how the cave had been booby-trapped, a description of how to disarm the booby traps, and the inventory of the cave’s contents. Hans was to store the packages in an office safe that only Hans and his boss could access. Storing the packages in the safe was unusual for the inventories of the valuables in the mines and salt caves were stored in the office’s filing cabinets. This seemed odd to Hans, but he complied with the way his boss wanted the packages stored.

“The officer and a few of his group began their task by locating caves in remote areas of Austria and Germany. Once a suitable cave was located, the remaining members of his group used concentration camp laborers to prepare the cave for storing the valuables that Goering was liberating from the Nazi Party. The laborers were guarded by a group of German soldiers who traveled with them from cave-to-cave and the soldiers remained at the caves throughout the construction and storage period. A very small group of soldiers who the officer trusted to not talk about the operation were used to transport the valuables to the caves. Prior to sealing a cave, booby traps were installed that would kill anyone attempting to enter the cave.

“The officer documented the cave’s location on a map and took photos of the area and the cave’s opening, which had been sealed by a landslide. The documentation also described how to safely disable the booby traps. The officer then gave the documentation packages to Hans.

“The officer took four main security measures to ensure the secrecy of the operation. First, he exercised great care to ensure the laborers and the soldiers who guarded them did not know the locations of the caves. Second, he did not allow the soldiers to come in contact with the locals. Third, he had his soldiers execute the laborers after the valuables had been sealed in the last cave. Fourth, he had the German soldiers who had guarded the laborers sent to the Russian front.

“From what Hans heard, the soldiers sent to the Russian front all died in combat shortly after arriving at the front lines. Hans noticed that the officer in charge of the detail, and the soldiers who transported the valuables to the caves all died in accidents shortly after the operation was completed. He suspected Goering had them executed. The deaths of everyone involved in moving the valuables and the way the packages that were handled by storing them in the office safe led Hans to believe he had been lied to by his boss and Goering and that, destroyed any trust that he had in them and what they told him.

“What bothered Hans the most was, the only people remaining who knew about Goering’s operation were Goering, Hans’ boss, and Hans; we did not learn of the cabal until after the war ended. Hans believed that Goering would eventually arrange for him to have an accident.

“Goering knew that a few trusted people had to know about his plans and Hans was trusted by both his boss and Goering. However Hans had been lied to, so he did not trust Goering or his boss. The deaths of the people involved in hiding the valuables in caves, forced Hans to begin making his own plans for escaping from Germany.

“Hans’ boss unwittingly helped Hans with executing his plans. Once the valuables had been stored in the last cave, his boss informed Hans that Hitler had tasked Goering with a number of clandestine operations in England and the United States that would begin during the coming year. The operatives required thirty numbered Swiss bank accounts to fund their activities. His boss tasked Hans with traveling to Switzerland and opening thirty numbered Swiss bank accounts. His boss told him, Goering would provide Hans with travel documents that would permit him to leave Germany and enter Switzerland on Nazi Party business.

“His boss explained to Hans that opening all of the accounts at the same time might make the Allies suspicious. Therefore, Hans was to make six trips to Switzerland and open five accounts on each trip. After Hans returned from a trip and turned over the paperwork and passwords for the accounts, the documents and account information would be conveyed to Goering. When Goering received the documents and information, he would have German funds secretly transferred into each of the accounts for the operatives to use.

“We didn’t know if what Hans had been told was true, but Hans decided to do what his boss requested of him for it fit into his escape plan. The secrecy surrounding the creation of the storage caves and the story he had been told about Goering needing numbered accounts caused Hans to become extremely concerned for his safety. It didn’t take long for Hans to come to the belief that Goering would order his death as soon as he finished opening the last of the numbered accounts.

“Hans and I discussed his new task and we agreed we had to flee Germany before Hans opened all of the numbered bank accounts. So, we decided Hans should do what he had been requested to do for two reasons. First, it would provide us with an opportunity to flee Germany, and second, we felt we were owed something for what had been done to our families.

“While Goering, his boss, and the others were preparing to depart Germany, Hans and I were preparing to flee Germany and go into hiding in Switzerland. There were three main parts to Hans’ final plan.

“Hans believed Goering was stealing the valuables in the caves from Germany. So the first part or his plan was, he would prepare false documentation packages for each of the caves, and switch his false packages for the real packages. Hans thought this would probably be the most dangerous part of his plan for he would have to smuggle the fake packages into his office, switch the packages, and then smuggle the real packages out of the office without being observed by his staff.

“Hans had come to believe the money in the numbered accounts was being stolen from Germany by Goering, so the second part of his plan was, he would cooperate with his superiors’ plan to transfer funds from Germany to the Swiss bank. At the proper time, he would transfer the funds from the numbered accounts he had opened for Goering into a numbered account that he would open and control. That would give him sole control of the funds Goering was stealing from Germany.

“Hans knew we would need to hide from the Nazi Party, so the third part of his plan was, he would create false identities for us as Swiss citizens and we would undergo cosmetic surgery to change our appearance.

“When Hans arrived in Switzerland on his first trip, he opened five numbered Swiss accounts. After opening the accounts, he went to a second bank and opened a regular checking account using the names that he and I decided to use once we fled Germany. He also rented a safe deposit box and placed a sheet of paper listing the account numbers and passwords of the numbered accounts in the box. We thought of the first bank as Goering’s bank and the second bank as our personal bank.

“While in Switzerland, he visited a cousin who he trusted implicitly. The cousin was a Swiss citizen who worked for the Swiss Government. The cousin was in a position to insert false information into the Government’s citizenship records. Before returning to Germany, he gave his cousin a sealed envelope containing the safe deposit box key. He would obtain the key from his cousin on his future trips before going to Geneva, and returning it before he left Switzerland.

“Hans let his cousin know that we had to leave Germany, and wanted to hide from the Nazi Party in Switzerland as Swiss citizens. The cousin agreed to create false identities for Hans and me, so Hans provided his cousin with the names we wanted to use once we left Germany. If there was ever a question about our citizenship, a search of the Swiss Government’s records would prove we had both been born in Switzerland before the war and had always been Swiss citizens.

“After having handled the transfer of the valuables to Goering’s caves and opening the first batch of five numbered accounts, Hans was trusted totally by his boss and Goering. Hans took advantage of that trust and asked Goering to include me on the travel authorization to Switzerland, so he could take me with him on his second trip to Geneva. Hans excuse was, I needed a short vacation. On that trip, we visited his relatives in Switzerland. I didn’t know it at the time, but his Swiss relatives were the ones creating false identities for us.

“During the period Hans was making his trips to Switzerland, he and I prepared a false documentation package for each of the caves. It really wasn’t that difficult to do. Buy some maps and mark a remote, mountainous location on each map. Obtain random photos of mountainous terrain and create descriptions of the areas in which the caves where supposedly located that matched the map and photos he had for each package. We included copies of the actual inventory lists for the real caves.

“As I said earlier, Hans was the one who was responsible for creating and maintaining the inventory of the valuables the SS looted from Europe. His department was still moving the assets stored in warehouses into Hitler’s mines and salt caves, Hans’ people created new inventory sheets to document what was transported to and stored in Hitler’s salt caves and mines to include the warehouse where each valuable had come from. This meant Hans’ staff had to update the inventory lists for the warehouses to reflect the assets had been moved and where the assets were now stored. Hans part in creating the new inventory lists and updating the old inventory lists was a major task and his office staff were overworked. Errors were not uncommon, but were usually caught and corrected.

“After Hans’ third trip to Geneva, he decided it was time to smuggle the first documentation package out of the office and replace it with one of our false packages.

“However before he removed the first documentation package, Hans had a new idea. Instead of his original plan, Hans decided to ingratiate himself with his boss. He told his boss that it had been brought to his attention that an inventory list indicated there were assets still in the warehouse where they had been stored, but the warehouse was empty. He said that he suspected that in the confusion and rush of moving the assets from the warehouses to the mines and salt caves, there may have been a few errors in the record keeping. He suggested that he work on the weekends to determine the reason for this discrepancy and to correct the problem and any others that may found. His boss agreed that the inventory lists had to be complete and accurate and he approved Hans’ suggestion.

“The staff of Hans’ office did not normally work on the weekends unless a shipment was due to arrive. This meant Hans would have the office to himself, and he could do whatever needed to be done without the danger of his staff observing him swapping the documentation packages.

“Hans put all of our phony documentation packages into his briefcase and took them to the office on Saturday. Hans carried his briefcase past the soldier guarding the office with no problem. The soldier was only there to ensure unauthorized people were not allowed to enter the office, so Hans wasn’t worried about being searched entering or leaving the office.

“There was no one in the office so Hans swapped the documentation packages putting the real packages into his briefcase. He located the inventory lists that documented what had been stored in the empty warehouse and the inventory lists of the locations to which the valuables had been moved and compared them. Hans knew there was no discrepancy, but just in case someone came into the office, he spent most of the day cross-referencing the lists. On Monday, he told his boss that he had worked Saturday and he had found and fixed the problems.

“On Hans’ fourth trip to Switzerland, he opened another five numbered accounts and he put the real cave documentation packages into our safe deposit box.

After that trip, Hans became very nervous. He explained to me that maybe Goering only needed twenty five numbered accounts. If that were true, then Goering would arrange for his death if he returned from his fifth trip. We both knew Goering was capable of that type of duplicity, so we decided to play it safe.

“For the fifth trip to Switzerland, Hans again arranged to take me with him to Geneva. He had us pack enough clothing for a week and Hans made arrangements for one of his fellow officers to check on our apartment while we were gone. We knew we would not be returning to the apartment, so we took a few pictures and other small personal mementos with us; there was a small risk but so far Hans hadn’t been searched before he crossed the border into Switzerland. He doubted we would be searched on this trip if we crossed the border where he had on prior trips.

“As we left Frankfurt, Hans told me he wanted to stop at his cousin’s place in Frauenfeld, which is northeast of Zurich, to get the key to our safe deposit box. We followed Hans usual route and crossed the border into Switzerland were he normally crossed. The border guards were accustomed to Hans crossing the border and followed their normal routine. After entering Switzerland, Hans drove on through the night until we reached Frauenfeld. We spent the rest of the day and the next night with his cousin.

“Once we arrived in Geneva, Hans opened a single numbered bank account in a third bank. He then transferred the funds in the twenty numbered accounts he had previously opened for Goering to his new account at the third bank. Hans believed there was now no way for the German officials to learn what happened to the funds they had deposited in the numbered accounts in Goering’s bank. Hans also transferred some of the funds from our numbered account into our checking account.

“Once Hans had the money where the Party officials could not access it, we relaxed. Our next task was to decide what we should receive as compensation for our losses, both business and personal. Remember, Paul, at the time, there were no courts that we could appeal to for justice, so we decided to award ourselves with suitable compensation.

“We believed that the Nazi Party should compensate us for the confiscation of our families’ assets, loss of income from the businesses, and for killing our families. We believed the value of the assets Hans had transferred to the third bank would be suitable compensation for our financial and personal losses. I think we made that decision in anger for the account balance was more than what would be reasonable compensation.

“At that time, Paul, we were the only people who had access to the funds and assets the Nazi Party officials had planned to use when they absconded from Germany to their new homes. Their numbered bank accounts had been closed, and there was no cave with valuables at the locations marked on their maps. We knew Goering and his people would be looking for us.

“We moved to Zurich, which was our initial hiding place. We needed a large town that had good medical facilities for we had to change our appearance. While in Zurich, we did not socialize with our neighbors for we did not want them to remember us. After undergoing and recovering from the cosmetic surgery that changed our appearance, we moved to Gasel.

At the time, Gasel was a small town southwest of Bern, Switzerland, and when we arrived, we established ourselves as well-to-do Swiss citizens. We let our neighbors know we had worked in a family-owned business outside Berlin. The business was destroyed during a recent air raid, so we decided to return to Switzerland; where we would be safe.

“After we made the trip to Geneva several times to transfer funds into our checking account, we decided to move our funds to Zurich, which was closer to us, and store the contents of our safe deposit box in our new bank. We found a banker, Dietrich Doessel, we liked and opened a checking account and a numbered account with his bank in Zurich, and rented a safe deposit box. We then transferred the funds from our Geneva accounts into our Zurich accounts, and moved the documentation packages to our new safe deposit box.

“Gasel did not have the resources we needed to manage our businesses. So since our funds were in Zurich, we decided to make Zurich the center of our business affairs. We found a young lawyer, Helmut Agiler, to represent our legal needs and he recommended a business advisor, Petra Krause, to manage our business activities. They were younger than us and just starting their businesses. We continued to live in Gasel, and despite the age difference, we became friends with Helmut and Petra.

“While we lived in Gasel, we would transfer funds from our numbered account to our checking account, and then invest the money in Swiss businesses. The income from those investments was deposited to our checking account. When our checking account balance became excessive, we transferred the excess into our numbered account.

“When the war ended in May of 1945, Hans and I were well-established as very wealthy Swiss citizens. Our investments were prospering, and we started to invest our money by purchasing primarily service, manufacturing, and transportation businesses in Germany, Austria, and a few other countries. Many of the businesses in Europe were almost bankrupt for the economy was in very bad shape. We were able to purchase the companies at very low prices. We believed the economy would rebound in the near future, so we invested additional money in the businesses so they would be more efficient and profitable after the economy recovered. We paid our employees a reasonable wage and charged reasonable prices for our products and services; we also made a large profit from the businesses and most of the profit ended up in our numbered account.

“In addition to buying businesses, we invested a large portion of the funds, which were in our numbered account, in stocks and bonds knowing our investment would help stimulate the economy in Europe, which in turn would increase the value of our stock. Of course in addition to our businesses, Petra managed our stock portfolio for us, and arranged for the dividends, less management expenses, to be deposited to our checking account. When appropriate, we transferred the funds to our numbered account.

“It only took us a couple of years to build a small financial empire. During the years following the end of the war, there was a major effort underway to locate Nazi war criminals. The searchers were scrutinizing everyone. Hans’ commanding officer was arrested, tried, and executed as a war criminal. We didn’t learn of it until after his execution, but the only thing that kept them from looking for Hans was the story Hans’ boss told the authorities after his arrest, which was substantiated by the Army’s records. While preparing for the last trip, Hans said we would be spending the night at his usual hostel outside Strasbourg. But instead, we drove straight through to Frauenfeld. The night we would have stayed at the hostel, it was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid. Hans’ commanding officer thought we had stayed at the hostel and been killed in the raid, so he reported Hans as killed in action. Since Hans was officially dead well before the war ended, no one bothered to look for him.

“We believed that we were safe in Gasel. However, Hans and I had known and were friends with a large number of people. If we encountered one of those people, they might recognize one of us in spite of the cosmetic surgery. In the summer of 1948, we emigrated to the United States and applied for US citizenship. We wanted a home in a medium-sized city somewhere in the central part of the US, and we ended up here in Pueblo.

“We purchased a home on almost twelve acres of land, and at that time we had no close neighbors; we later sold part of the land to a company that wanted to build a housing tract. We made numerous improvements to the house, to include a bomb shelter that was connected to the house by an underground tunnel. The bomb shelter was one of those things that a few people felt were necessary during the 50’s, when the threat of nuclear war was a major concern of many US citizens. We had a different purpose in mind for our bomb shelter. Hans converted the shelter into a workroom once its construction was complete.

“Once a year, we let our friends and new neighbors know that we were taking a vacation to take care of our business interests in Switzerland. We did not work like most people, so that explained our financial status.