The victim gold was shipped to Berlin in the form of jewelry, such as rings or watches, gold coins, and also in the form of dental gold. The civil administration kept accounts with a relevant designation[50] and apparently credited the Reichsbank directly. Jewelry went to the Municipal Pawnshop in Berlin, which either appraised the objects, or if they could not be sold, had them resmelted under the supervision of the Reich Office for Precious Metals. Military offices (field commands) transferred the gold to the Reich Main Accounting Office where the shipments were duly entered into the «Russia Booty Ledger».[51] . . . In the annexed areas, precious metals looted from both Jews and non-Jews were also confiscated by the Main Trusteeship Office East [Haupttreuhandstelle Ost] and the Trusteeship Office for the General Government.[60] These offices reported to the Four-Year Plan Office, namely Hermann Göring. Only in 1944 were they directed to ship the objects they had sequestered to the Reichsbank. The Lodz ghetto was an exception since the local municipal administration was responsible. «Operation Reinhardt» came under the General Government. Here the same types of deportation, killing, and plundering operations took place as had been applied to the occupied areas of the Soviet Union. As a result, conflicts ensued between Reich Leader of the SS and Police Heinrich Himmler, and General Governor Hans Frank, with the latter emerging victorious in autumn 1942.[61]
Up until mid 1942 the SS collected in the territory of the Reich the dental gold from the deceased or murdered concentration camp inmates and shipped it directly to the SS Health Office. There it was used for the dental needs of SS personnel.[62] A modification of this procedure was instigated by an exchange of letters between Dr. Ernst Robert Grawitz, Reich Physician of the SS, and Police, and the SS detachments in the General Government. At the end of April 1942, SS Major General [SS-Gruppenführer] Grawitz addressed the Warsaw Leader of the SS and Police requesting that «old gold of Jewish origin» confiscated in Warsaw be made available for dental purposes.63 From Warsaw, SS Senior Colonel [SS-Oberführer] Wigand replied that he was unable to decide about the use of «old gold of Jewish origin» which had come into his possession, and that Grawitz should obtain instructions from Himmler. After Grawitz had contacted the personal headquarters of the Reichsführer SS, Himmler sent out a directive in August 1942 to the Higher SS and Police Leaders in the «Eastern Territories» to the effect that «all quantities of gold, old gold, silver, various precious metals, and other valuables without exception be shipped to SS Lieutenant General [SS- Obergruppenführer] Pohl», head of the SS Central Office for Economy and Administration [SS-WVHA].[64] Thereafter it would be up to the WVHA to decide how the booty would be distributed. At about the same time, negotiations took place between the WVHA, representatives of the Reich Ministry of Finance, as well as the Reich Minister of Economy and Reichsbank President Walther Funk concerning the disposal of the looted assets gathered by the SS.[65] The result of these negotiations was that the booty was to be taken from the WVHA to the Reichsbank. Beginning in August 1942, SS Captain Bruno Melmer [SS- Hauptsturmführer][66] shipped sealed containers to the Reichsbank where the foreign currencies, precious metals, coins, and pieces of jewelry were sorted.
The Reichsbank Office for Precious Metals, headed by Albert Thoms,[67] accepted these shipments and distributed them along the various channels such as the Municipal Pawnshop, refining centers, etc. Once the SS dentists had covered their «requirement»,[68 – footnote reads: It was not until November 1942 that dental gold looted from victims began arriving at the Reichsbank due to the fact that until that time it had been being used for the dental treatment of members of the SS as per request of SS Reich Physician Dr. Ernst Robert Grawitz (see Jüdisches Historisches Institut Warschau 1961, p. 404). In October, the Head of Office A of the WVHA informed Himmler that the Health Office had already received 50 kg of dental gold, sufficient for the next five years. For this reason, he wanted to ship this gold to the Reichsbank in the future in return for acknowledgment from the latter. Frank to Himmler, 8 October 1942, BAB NS 19/3929. ] Himmler’s subordinates also began, in November 1942, to deliver dental gold extracted from those who had been murdered. This gold was for the most part smelted down and processed into bars of a type designated «various». In this connection, it should moreover be noted that within the deployment area of «Operation Reinhardt» in the General Government, the process of melting down was carried out prior to dispatch to Berlin, whereas for Auschwitz-Birkenau, such a procedure is not known to have taken place.[69 – footnote reads: That the practice of melting down was carried out in Poland is confirmed by the comparison of two documents, i.e., by the concluding report of the Lublin SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik on the economic aspect of «Operation Reinhardt» dated 5 January 1944, as well as the concluding report of the Galicia District SS and Police Leader Friedrich Katzmann on the local «solution to the Jewish question» dated 30 June 1943. According to these documents, Katzmann shipped scrap gold, earrings, dental gold etc. to Globocnik’s «Special Headquarters», while the latter’s statement of accounts showed only gold and silver bars. See Jüdisches Historisches Institut Warschau 1961, pp. 421 f. (Globocnik); Trials of Major War Criminals, vol. 37, pp. 402 f. (Nuremberg Document Nr. L-105) (Katzmann).]
The precious metals carrying the designation of «Melmer» in the records of the Reichsbank, did not, however, originate solely in «Operation Reinhardt». Considerable amounts of gold came from the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. These shipments were after all so voluminous that Auschwitz was exempted from a new regulation on the disposal of victim gold that, according to a declaration made by the head of Amtsgruppe D of the WVHA, Willi Burger, was introduced around the end of 1943. According to this new regulation, the WVHA ordered that in the future, valuables and dental gold were no longer to be shipped directly to the Office A-II headed by SS Captain [SS-Hauptsturmführer] Melmer, but rather to the Concentration Camp Administration [Office D], which would deliver them to Melmer. Auschwitz, on the other hand, continued making its shipments directly to Melmer.
To summarize, the disposal of looted gold had several routes: from theT4 killing centers to Degussa; from the Soviet Union direct to the Reichsbank and to the Pawn Shop; from military authorities in all the areas occupied by Germany, as booty, via the Reich Main Accounting Office to the Reichsbank; as refined precious metal from Lublin to the WVHA and on to the Reichsbank; as unrefined precious metal from Auschwitz-Birkenau to the WVHA. It must be noted that we know very little about the security police. In addition, the above-mentioned September 1942 order issued by the Ministry for the Eastern Territories is a strong indication that looted gold could also bypass the Reichsbank. For a long time, the paths taken by victim gold, as well as the manner in which it was disposed, have only been very partially researched. Due to the absence of sources, the elucidation of these points is to a certain extent doomed to failure.
Seen as a function of the quantity and of the value it represents, the gold which was looted from victims is but a fraction of the proven gold reserves handled by the Reichsbank.[70] . . .
