Paradox Part 30

Chapter 29
April 28, 2012 – Gaißach

The morning began with gray overcast skies that quickly burned away, bringing forth a gorgeous sun and casting long shadows down through the scenic little valleys spreading out from the bustling little village of Gaissach.
Monday and his team were refreshed by the crisp morning air. Daria walked about greeting the village residents as they scurried about their early morning chores. The little cemetery hummed with activity. Dom was talking with the minister of the church, his Italian flavored German combined with his hand waving gestures, almost comical to the eye. Henri was in a heated discussion with the commander of the SGS9, Special Operations Section, who was also commanding the SEK Teams, one stationed around the cemetery, the other waiting nearby in an armored personnel carrier.
“Old fart won’t let us bring the backhoe into the cemetery,” Chester cast an evil eye at the tall lanky minister talking with Dom. “Doesn’t want the other graves disturbed by the treads.”
Monday watched as the minister gave a signal and four stout villagers ambled over and started burying their spades in the rich dark soil. The men went at the ground with gusto, dirt flying high and starting to mound on one side of the grave. At the rate they were digging the casket would be unearthed in no time at all. Noting a noise to his right, just outside the cemetery, he saw the second SEK Team load into the personnel carrier. The vehicle backed then pulled out heading down the hill towards Bad Tölz. He glanced at the roof of the church but could see nothing, which was as it should be. Scout was posted on the roof, both as a sniper and to give early warning of unusual activity. Monday had previously made contact with him and all was clear from his vantagepoint. He looked up as Henri approached.
“Arrogant little snot,” Henry nodded his head in the direction of the SEK commander. “Tried to give him a few pointers and he acted as if I was taking his command away from him. Hell, I was dropping on missions before he was a twinkle in his daddy’s eye.”
“Some men don’t take to advice,” Monday smiled at the frustrated Henri. “Until it’s too late.”
“Local police said there was no activity around the cemetery last night,” Henri continued, with a delayed chuckle. “Place was quiet as a grave yard.”
Monday glanced at his smug face with a sardonic grin, then dismissed his silly attempt at humor. He was concerned that Dorbec had not yet shown his hand. The middle of the night would have been a golden opportunity to do so. At the rate those men were digging, Dorbec’s men could have accomplished the job with plenty of time to spare before daylight. Something was sure to happen, a man like Dorbec did not concede defeat without a fight.
The activity in the cemetery also brought out a group of curious spectators. A small collection of elderly men and women and a few children were standing just outside the cemetery in a tight knot. Among them Monday recognized Helmut Drechsler, the gasthaus owner, waving a greeting at him. He scanned the small crowd for signs of Heike, Drechsler’s daughter, but did not spot her. He and Heike had been friends; close friends, but when she got too interested and started talking marriage, he stopped going to the gasthaus when he was certain she was around. Not that he disliked Heike, he simply was not ready for marriage or commitment at the time. He waved back at Drechsler who raised his arm in mimic of downing a lengthy beer.
Daria watched as Monday waved to a cotton headed man in the small crowd, then smiled as the obvious invitation to have a beer was returned by the man. “The gasthaus owner,” she assumed. Monday and Henri stood together near the excavation site. The workmen were making quick work of excavating the casket as the mound of earth grew higher and higher by the minute. Glancing to her right she could see Dom earnestly talking with the lanky church minister, where they were joined by several people, most likely members of the Jager family. She laced her fingers in Monday’s as she slid in between Monday and Henri.
“Almost over Liebling,” Monday said, looking down into her beautiful blue eyes. “In a few minutes we’ll know if we have succeeded or failed. It’s been an interesting hunt hasn’t it?”
“To say the least,” Daria rolled her eyes. “All I want is for it to be over so we can be together, by ourselves preferably.”
Suddenly, one of the diggers yelled from the gravesite. They had hit the solid wood of the casket. The minister hurried over to the grave and glanced down. The small group of family members followed him but he signaled for them to back away and for the diggers to continue removing the dirt from around the casket. Two other men walked over carrying long heavy-duty straps, which would be used to lift the coffin from the hole. In less than half an hour the sturdy casket was resting on solid ground to the side of the small pit. The minister approached and removed the remaining dirt particles with a small broom, then stood back and motioned for everyone to bow their heads in prayer. As soon as the prayer was completed, he nodded to Henri, giving permission to open the casket.
After breaking the seal, which took considerable effort, Monday and Henri lifted the lid of the casket. The body inside was dressed in Wehrmacht uniform and the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was draped around the corpse’s neck. Although considerable decay had set in, the man could still be identified as the same young man in the photograph in the wine shop and the one on the tomb.
“Sergeant Jager,” Henri whispered. “Are you sleeping on top of twenty tons of gold?” he muttered, as if the dead man would answer him.
Monday noticed a small box lying near the corpse’s feet. The box was about five inches by five inches in size with a depth of several inches. It was very heavy when he picked it up. He handed it to Daria, standing behind and to his right. She fidgeted with the box for a few minutes then passed it back to him, unable to open it. Monday removed his pocketknife and scored around the edges of the box then pulled hard on the lid. The box slowly opened.
Inside the heavy box, resting on a cushion of what appeared to be powdered gold, was a heavy gold chain. Attached to the chain, in a beautifully designed setting, was a strange pulsating jewel embedded in the center of a twisted cross. As the egg sized jewel continuously shifted colors, the pulsating light made them dizzy. Leaving Monday and Daria lost in a mesmerizing fog. They quickly snapped out of the trance when Henri reached over and closed the lid of the heavy box.
“So beautiful,” Daria whispered in awe of the radiant jewel.
Henri started going though the pockets of Sergeant Jager’s uniform tunic. After a few moments of careful searching, he held up a manila envelope, faded amber with time. He asked to borrow Monday’s pocketknife, then slit the envelope open. Monday removed several pages of yellowing and stained papers. The lettering was handwritten, not typed. The message, in German, was addressed to no one or no organization in particular. Henry started reading it:
March 27, 1945
We received word that the American Army was moving into our area under their gangster leader, General Patton.
We were ordered to assemble all the students of our SS-Junkerschule at Bad Tölz and along with the cadre to form a combat unit to resist the Americans. It was first intended that the unit should be named SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz, but was renamed to SS-Division Junkerschule, but they finally took the name away and named it the 38. SS-Grenadier-Division Nibelungen. This was done by the commander of our SS cadet school Richard Schulze-Kossens .
Although formed from men of the Junkerschule, our division also received additional strength from parts of other units. This included an SS “special use” Begleit-Battaillon Reichführer SS, two Zollgrenzschutz battalions , soldiers from 6th SS Mountain Division Nord , a company from 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen (with Volksdeutsche members) officers from the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian) (who were incorporated in the SS-Polizei-Bataillon-Siegling ) and a whole battalion of Hitlerjugend members. We also had 2 Grenadier regiments, SS-Grenadier-Regiment 95 and SS-Grenadier-Regiment 96.
Our first commander was Richard Schulze-Kossens, who was the Commanding officer of the SS-Brigade Nibelungen and the Junkerschule at Bad Tölz but he was followed by Martin Stange.
To get to the point of my message, while organizing the unit and preparing for combat against the Americans, I was ordered by SS Brigadefuhrer, August Schmidthuber, commander of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division, the Prinz Eugen Division, to prepare for a special delivery on April 3, 1945.
I was to prepare a brick lined recess on the lowest floor of the school, a room five meters by four meters, and have enough concrete available to cover the entire floor for a distance of 10 meters over the recess.
On the evening of April 9, 1945, a convoy of trucks and ambulances entered the Kaserne. We had one full company of men left on duty at that time, the rest had left with the Nibelungen Divison.
The commander of the convoy, a Major, told me the ambulances were used because Bad Tolz was well known by the Americans as a medical and hospital center and they were known not to bomb hospital vehicles.
I was ordered to have my men unload the crates inside the ambulances and stack them in the special recess we had built on the bottom floor. During the unloading, one of the crates fell and inside, to our amazement, was a number of solid gold bars.
When I asked the Major about them, he told me that no one was to know what was in the boxes, not even our new commander, SS-Standartenführer Martin Strange, who had just assumed command that day.
The last thing he gave to us was ten large and very heavy boxes. Marked on the exterior of the boxes was the address of Wewelsburg Castle. He did not say what was inside them, but we later learned that they were full of SS rings.
The number of boxes we placed into the special recess almost filled it completely. I would estimate at least 20 tons or more.
Upon completion of filling the recess, we poured a five-inch layer of concrete over the entire area and blended it in with the remainder of the floor so as to appear that nothing was below.
I was told to leave the area and the Major and his men allegedly placed tripwires and demolitions to keep the Americans from that section of the school. After the war, and we are all certain now that it will end soon, I will report this to higher command. If…”
Because of water damage, the remainder of the note was illegible and the name of the young officer who wrote it was also smudged and could not be read. He passed the note to Dom.
“I’ll be damned,” Monday blurted. “The gold is in Flint Kaserne after all. We all thought it was just another tall tale. Seems like wherever the Allies went after the war there were rumors of Nazi gold hidden nearby.”
“Twenty tons of gold,” Henri smiled, his eyes lighting up. “And we found it.”
“That’s not all,” Dom stated, reading the message again. “The SS rings from Wewelsburg castle could also be worth a fortune.”
“Why’s that?” Daria asked. “Aren’t they just rings?”
“The SS Ehrenring, SS Honour Ring or Totenkopfring, Death's Head Ring, was given to members of the SS as an award for bravery,” Dom explained. “Upon the death of the recipient, the rings were to be returned to Wewelsburg castle, the "spiritual home" of the SS. As the war drew to a close, Himmler ordered that all of the rings that had been returned, estimated at around 9,280, should be hidden in a cave somewhere near Wewelsburg and the entrance to the cave sealed forever with explosives. They have never been found. Obviously, they were sent to the SS School here instead. At current market values, the rings would be worth between £3,000 (4,600) and £5,000 (7,600)each, or £27,840,000 – (42.600.000) £46,400,000 (71,000,000) in total. The rings held at the castle were only those that were returned there from the battlefields. In many cases soldier’s remains were not recovered, or rings were lost, so genuine examples of Totenkopfring's have turned up occasionally.”
“So, on top of the base value of the gold itself, these SS Rings are also worth a fortune,” Henri stated. Dom nodded his head in reply. “Of course with so many hitting the market at one time their value will drop considerably.”
“What do you make of this?” Monday passed the heavy box to Dom. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.”
Dom curiously opened the box. As soon as he spotted the incredible jewel, his jaw dropped and his thoughts exploded. “This is it,” he thought. “This is what we have been searching for.” The spell was broken when Monday slammed the lid on the box. Dom wanted to take it and run, run as fast as he could.
“Strange jewel isn’t it? Monday observed the clouded look on Dom’s face. “Daria and I felt the same way when we looked at it. It’s as if the jewel has the ability to take over your mind.”
“Incoming,” Monday heard over his earphone. “Parachutes gliding in at ten o’clock,’ Scout reported. Monday looked up into the sky to his left. Half a dozen paragliders were quickly descending towards the cemetery. It looked like Dorbec was finally making his move.