Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis (47 page)

215
“Downstairs the radio”
Ibid.

SECTION III: VICTORY

217
“Absolute secrecy is essential”
Donovan to Roosevelt, “Memorandum for the President,” March 8, 1945, from “Memoranda for the President: Sunrise,”
Studies in Intelligence
, vol. 7, issue 2, accessed via CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, cia.gov.

Chapter 21: Trouble in the Ranks

219
“Now it is not a war”
Dulles,
From Hitler’s Doorstep
, 429. Dulles cable, January 18, 1945.

219
between eighty and a hundred thousand German soldiers
Max Hastings,
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945
(New York: Vintage Books, 2004), 235.

220
“Our precious reserves”
Major-General F. W. von Mellenthin,
Panzer Battles 1939–1945: A Study of the Use of Armour in the Second World War
(London: Cassell & Company, 1955), 332.

220
19,246 American deaths. More than four times
Tom Gibbs (historian at The National World War II Museum), in discussion with the author, June 18, 2012. Official Department of the Army statistics have the exact number of casualties at 108,347 (19,246 killed in action, 62,489 wounded, 26,612 captured or missing). The Defense Department lists 89,500 casualties. The real number probably lies in between those two estimates.

220
fourteen hundred casualties
Hastings,
Armageddon
, 235; Jean Smith,
Eisenhower in War and Peace
(New York: Random House, 2012), 414; “Recognizing the 60th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge During World War II,” November 16, 2004,
Congressional Record
, V. 150, Pt. 17, October 9, 2004, to November 17, 2004 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004), 23589.

220
“is undoubtedly the greatest”
Alex Kershaw,
The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of WWII’s Most Decorated Platoon
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004), 174.

220
“Do not be too disappointed,”
Letter to Kathy, 20 December 1944, Keller Papers, Box 8, Folder 51.

220
“If I had gotten the award”
Letter to Kathy, 7 January 1945, Keller Papers, Box 8, Folder 52.

220
While standing in line
“Charley and the Captain,” Keller Papers, Box 19, Folder 1.

221
“I don’t care much”
Letter to Kathy, 13 January 1945, Keller Papers, Box 8, Folder 52.

221
“Private First Class Bernholz”
Mark Clark, “Award of Bronze Star Medal,” 21 May 1944, Charles Bernholz Papers, Private Collection.

221
“Me ne frego”
. . . “I don’t give a damn”
Letter to Kathy, 6 January 1945, Keller Papers, Box 8, Folder 52.

221
first time in sixteen months
Letter to Kathy, 27 February 1945, Keller Papers, Box 8, Folder 52.

221
Early in the morning of January 11, 1945. . . . “Some were digging holes”
Report, 11 January 1945, Keller Papers, Box 21, Folder 33.

222
Keller later made a rough sketch
Drawing, Keller Papers, Box 19, Folder 1.

223
“without exception they have all”
Edgar Erskine Hume, “Italian Decorations,” 30 December 1944, Keller Papers, Box 21, Folder 33.

223
In August 1943, local art officials
Poggi, “Relazione sui Monumenti e le Opere d’Arte di Firenze durante la Guerra 1940–1945,” 5 June 1945, Poggi Papers, Serie VIII, n.157, 12; Field Report, 17 February 1945, Keller Papers, Box 21, Folder 33; “Bronze Statue of Cosimo I,” 21 February 1945, Hartt Papers, Box 3, Folder 14.

223
After several days of planning. . . . “in the manner of a Maine”
Field Report, 17 February 1945, Keller Papers, Box 21, Folder 33.

223
“Captain, that horse is full”
William Keller interview with the author, October 22, 2010.

223
“a driver of a
carrozza
”. . . . “The implications of such a transport”
Field Report, 17 February 1945, Keller Papers, Box 21, Folder 33.

224
Smokey had been killed
Photo, Keller Papers, Box 36, Folder 222.

224
“The story of what has happened”
Herbert L. Matthews, “Tuscan Treasures Slowly Repaired,”
New York Times
, January 2, 1945.

224
“I am not alone in thinking”
Letter to Kathy, 28 March 1945, Keller Papers, Box 8, Folder 53.

224
“he had forgotten to mention”
Letter to Kathy, 24 January 1945, Keller Papers, Box 8, Folder 52.

224
“I know the Army feeling”
Letter to Col. DeWald, 21 January 1945, Keller Papers, Box 21, Folder 33.

225
“don’t like cheap publicity.”
Stanley P. Hirshson,
General Patton: A Soldier’s Life
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 303.

225
“Very few [soldiers] shoot off”
Mauldin,
Up Front
, 61–62.

225
“We always got along fine”
Letter to Keller, 23 January 1945, Hartt Papers, Box 3, Folder 25.

225
“Lt. Hartt has done”. . . . “Sunday morning last”
Letter to Col. Mayne, 29 January 1945, Keller Papers, Box 21, Folder 33.

225
Keller drew a cartoon
Keller to Pennoyer, “A.M.G.–5th Army and Regional Cooperation,” winter 1945, Pennoyer Papers, Princeton University.

226
Six million Red Army soldiers
Tony Le Tizier,
Durchbruch an der Oder: Der Vormarsch der Roten Armee 1945
(Augsburg: Bechtermünz Verlag, 1999), 27.

226
less than thirty miles from Carinhall
Horst Rambusch,
Erster Oderbrückenkopf 1945—Abschnitt Kienitz–Karlsbiese—und die Folgen für die Bevölkerung
(Gross Neuendorf: Landfrauenverein “Mittleres Oderbruch,” 2010), 11, http:// www.oderbrückenkopf1945.de; Le Tizier,
Durchbruch an der Oder
, 63, 70.

226
Aware the end was near
Report No. 2, The Goering Collection, September 1945, O.S.S. Art Looting Investigation Unit Consolidated Interrogation Reports, NARA, M1782, 170.

226
More than a year earlier. . . . “Under no circumstances”. . . . Instead, Göring instructed
Ibid., 30
.

Chapter 22: Switching Sides

229
On March 8, 1945,
Wolff,
Mit Wissen Hitlers
, 89, 97–102.

230
worth billions
Langsdorff, “Bericht über die Bergungsfahrt südlich Florenz während der Zeit vom 16.–23.7.1944 (Teilnehmer: MVA Chef Dr. Langsdorff u. Hptm. Zobel),” 17 August 1944, Kunstschutz Papers, Siviero Archive, Rome.

230
Throughout the late summer
Anti, “Lettera ad Alexander Langsdorff,” 25 August 1944; Correspondence of 23 August, 30 August, and 2 September 1944, Anti Papers, Serie 2, n.2, 33.

230
“were safer in a German Gau”
Cooper and DeWald, “Report on the German Kunstschutz,” NARA, RG 239, M1944, Roll 71, 13.

230
German stubbornness . . . “that the transportation of works of art”
Anti, “Appunto per il Ministro,” 4 September 1944, Anti Papers, Serie 2, n.2, 44.

230
“Gauleiter Hofer would not allow”
Cooper and DeWald, “Report on the German Kunstschutz,” NARA, RG 239, M1944, Roll 71, 16.

230
“was showing so much interest in the Italians.”
Ibid.

230
“the Führer’s Promise”
Carlo Anti, “Relazione al Ministro dell’Educazione Nazionale,” 5 December 1944, Anti Papers, Serie 2, Salvaguardia patrimonio artistico italiano/Opere d’arte toscane trasferite dalle Autorità Germaniche in Alto Adige, n.2, 72.

230
Over the following two days
Langsdorff, “Vermerk über die Besichtigung der Kunstdepots in S. Leonhard in Passeier und Sand in Taufers mit dem Vertreter des ital. Ministeriums für Nationale Erziehung Generaldirektor Prof. Dr. Carlo Anti vom 27. bis 30. 11. 1944,” 2 December 1944, Kunstschutz Papers, Siviero Archive, Rome; Anti, “Relazione al Ministro dell’Educazione Nazionale,” 5 December 1944, Anti Papers, Serie 2, n.2, 72.

231
Wolff explained that
Langsdorff, “Aktenvermerk: Verzeichnis der aus Villa Bossi Pucci in Montagnana geborgenen Gemälde,” 2 December 1944, Kunstschutz Papers, Siviero Archive, Rome; Letter, Alexander Langsdorff to Prof. Heydenreich, Deutsches Generalkonsulat Milan, 2 December 1944, Kunstschutz Papers, Siviero Archive.

231
“Without these my inspection was reduced to an interesting and very nice trip”
Anti, “Lettera a Reidemeister,” 13 March 1945, Anti Papers, Serie 2, n.2, 92.

231
“without a doubt,
the Germans will take the art”
Antonio Sorrentino and Alfredo Barbacci, “Lettera a Carlo Anti,” 12 February 1945, Anti Papers, Serie 2, n.2, 83.

231
“wish that the confiscated articles”
For Wolff from Reidemeister, “Telephone Call from the German Embassy,” 4 January 1945, NARA, RG 239, M1944, Roll 9, Part 1.

231
“radical Nazi fanatics”
Dulles,
From Hitler’s Doorstep
, 508. Dulles telegram 9099, April 21, 1945.

231
“Innsbruck or Bavaria,”
Cooper and DeWald, “Report on the German Kunstschutz,” NARA, RG 239, M1944, Roll 71, 9.

231
“should address me personally”
Letter, Hofer to Wolff, 14 September 1944, Kunstschutz Papers, Siviero Archive.

231
At one point, Hofer
Cooper and DeWald, “Report on the German Kunstschutz,” NARA, RG 239, M1944, Roll 71, 16.

231
“guests”
Langsdorff cover letter to Wolff, 22 August 1944, Kunstschutz Papers, Siviero Archive, Rome.

231
“Policy Instruction” . . . “Based on the Führer’s orders”
“Policy Instruction from Hitler to Himmler via Reichsleiter Bormann,” 26 January 1945, NARA, RG 239, M1944, Roll 9, Part 1.

232
Wolff had received instructions
Cooper and DeWald, “Report on the German Kunstschutz,” NARA, RG 239, M1944, Roll 71, 16.

232
“unable to do this”
Ibid.

232
Wolff ordered his staff to prepare
Ibid.

232
in a bid to save his position
Jonathan Petropoulos,
Art as Politics in the Third Reich
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 159.

233
In January and February alone
Hastings,
Armageddon
, 260.

233
the Vistula-Oder campaign
Ibid.

233
“millions were unable to be evacuated”
Langsdorff Diary, February 1944–May 1945, Alexander Langsdorff Papers, Private Collection, Switzerland.

233
“It is a situation of madness”
Ibid.

233
Wolff knew the Allied bombings . . . “prevented the German soldier”
“An Interview with SS-Obergruppenführer Wolff,” 13 June 1945, NARA, RG 331, 10000/145/440. Note that this document is not a transcript of the interview but rather a recollection of the conversation by the interviewer.

233
“collapse of morale”
Ibid.

233
“irretrievably lost.”
Ibid.

233
“had taken part in the spearhead”
Ibid.

233
Wolff knew that if such armaments. . . . February 6. . . . “a straight answer”
Allen W. Dulles,
The Secret Surrender
(Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2006), 68.

233
“The moment will come”
Heiber, ed.,
Lagebesprechungen im Führerhauptquartier
, 276. It was a briefing on August 31 at which Westphal, Keitel, Krebs, et al., were present.

234
Himmler and Ernst Kaltenbrunner made secret overtures
Waller,
The Unseen War in Europe: Espionage and Conspiracy in the Second World War
(New York: Random House, 1996), 368.

234
“contemplating the liquidation of ‘war-mongers’
”
Ted Ryan, “Account of Sunrise,” April 16, 1945, NARA, RG 226, Entry 190C, Box 9, 3.

234
“a sign of the increasing disintegration”
Ibid. 4.

234
“Although persons of the Himmler, Kaltenbrunner type”
Ibid.

234
Wolff used his February 6 Berlin visit. . . . abandon the idea.
“Footnote to Chapter X,” excerpts from interrogations held in 1945, NARA, RG 226, Entry 190C, Box 9.

234
During that trip. . . . According to the plan
Dulles,
The Secret Surrender
, 68–69.

235
Germany’s most intact fighting force
Lang,
Der Adjutant
, 8.

235
“the most important route”
Franz Hofer, “The Alpine Defense Line,” B-457, NARA, RG 549, M1035, Annex 3, 3.

235
“The Nazi theory is that”
Dulles,
From Hitler’s Doorstep
, 366. Dulles cable 4471–73, August 12, 1944.

235 * Hofer, “The Alpine Defense Line,” Annex 1, 1.

235
The following month
Ibid., Annex 1, 2 and Annex 3, 1, 5.

235
“exploiting skillfully and rapidly”
Franz Hofer, “National Redoubt,” B-458, NARA, RG 549, M1035, 10.

236
Eventually Hitler summoned him
Ibid., 11, 23. Order was dated April 20 but not issued until April 24.

236
Believing the Redoubt to be a credible threat
Waller,
The Unseen War in Europe
, 372.

236
“madness”
Allen Dulles and Gero von Gaevernitz, “The First German Surrender,” 22 May 1945, NARA, RG 226, Entry 190C, Box 8, 16.

237
February 25 meeting. . . . Through a series of intermediaries
Dulles,
The Secret
Surrender
, 58–61.

237
indicated a willingness to meet
Ibid., 61.