Endnotes for Chapter XIV

1 For a complete tactical description see Charles B. MacDonald, The Last Offensive, (Washington, 1973).

2 Lewis F. Gittler and Sail K. Padover, "Up the Weser River," in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, Jacket 9.

3 Hqs, 12th AGp, P&PW, Daily Summary of iIntelligence, 13 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, Jacket 9.

4 Hist Rpt, 12th AGp, G-5, Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.16, Jacket 10.

5 Hqs, ECAD, to SHAEF, sub: Activities of the EGAD, 1-30 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 601.

6 Madlen Lorei and Richard Kirn, Frankfurt und die drei wilden Jahre (Frankfurt a. M.:  Verlag Frankfurter Buecher, 1968), pp. 11-17.

7 Frankfurter Presse, 10 May 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.16, Jacket 12.

8 Cable, SHAEF Forward to AGWAR (Hull), 16 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-3, Ops. 387-15.

9 The discovery that Germans had possibly removed money recently raised suspicions concerning the uses to which it might be put. Dr. Werner Veick, a Reichsbank official who gave himself up to military government in Merkers on 8 April, insisted, however, tinder intensive questioning, that the money was being taken out for normal circulation because the Reichsbank's printing presses had broken down. As Veick explained, he and several other bank employees had loaded 1,000 bags of money in a railroad boxcar on 3 April. The next morning they had decided to unload the car again when they learned that it could not leave Merkers because of a blown bridge. They were about half finished when they heard that the Americans were less than two miles away. The senior official then decided that he was badly needed back in Berlin, locked the vault, and drove off by car while Veick went to get his suitcase. When Veick returned to the mine, the Americans were there. They searched him, asked what he was unloading, looked at the money, and moved on. He and the laborers then finished unloading the money and stacked it in the passage outside the vault.

10 The gold remained in the Reichsbank vault tinder Army control until 24 January 1946 when control and responsibility for it passed to the Inter Allied Reparation Agency. The agency was charged with returning the gold on a prorated basis to governments having claims on it and with making a substantial amount ($25 million in monetary gold, plus all "non-monetary gold" and all so-called heirless funds, according to a subsequent agreement of 14 June 1946) available to "non-repatriable victims of German action." The latter amount went mostly to compensate and resettle Jewish victims of nazism. The Soviet Union was not included in the distribution, since it had relinquished all claims to captured gold in the Potsdam Agreement.

11 (1) SHAEF, G-4 Functions in ETOUSA Operations, Merkers-Herringen-Frankfurt Areas of Germany, 9 Apr to 22 Apr 45, in CMH files. (2) Hist Rpt, 12th AGp, ACofS G-5, 1-30 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.16, jacket 1 0. (3) Rpt, SHAEF, G-5, Col Bernstein to Brig Gen F. J. McSherry, sub: Developments in Removal of Treasure from Kaiseroda Mine at Merkers, Germany, 18 Apr 45, in SHAEF, G-5, 1/13. (4) Cable, SHAEF Main, Eisenhower for CCS, CCAC, 6 May 45, in SHAEF G-5, 1/13. (5) Cable, SHAEF to AGWAR, 18 Apr 45, in USFET SGS 123.3.

12 (1) Hist Rpt, Third Army, G-5, 1-30 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.16. (2) Hqs, 12th AGp, P&PW, Daily Summary of Intelligence, 12 and 15 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, jacket 9.

13 (1) After Action Report, V Corps, ACofS G-5, Apr 45, 6 May 45, in V Corps, 205-5. (2 ) Hqs, 12th AGp, P&-PW, Daily Summary of Intelligence, 13 and 14 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, Jacket 9.

14 (1) Hist Rpt, 12th AGp, ACofS G-5, May 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.16, jacket 1 1. (2) Hist Rpt, First Army, ACofS G-5, 1-30 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, Jacket 10. (3) Memo, Hqs, USFET, sub: Nordhausen Caverns, 7 Jim 45, in USFET SGS 600.6, vol. 1.

15 (1) After Action Report, First Army, 1-30 Apr 45, in First Army, 101-0.3. (2) Hist Rpt, Hqs, Third Army, ACofS G-5, Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.10. (3) Hqs, Ninth Army, ACofS G-5, Bi-weekly CASUM, 8 May 45, in Ninth Army G-5, 109-5.

16 Hqs, 12th AGp, P&PW, sub: Buchenwald, a Preliminary Report, 24 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, Jacket 10.

17 (1) Hist Rpt, Third Army, ACofS G-5, Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11. (2) SHAEF, G-5, Hist Sec, sub: Report on German Concentration Camp for Political Prisoners at Buchenwald by Lt. Col. F. van Wyck Mason, in SHAEF G-5, 60, jacket 3. (3) USFET, General Board, Study No. 35, p. 20. (4) Eugen Kogon, The Theory and Practice of Hell (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1950) , pp. 48-5 7.

18 After Action Report, Hqs, Ninth Army, ACofS G-5, 1-15 Apr 45, in Ninth Army 109-1.

19 Hist Rpt, Hqs, Third Army, ACofS G-5, Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11.

20 Hist Rpt, 12th AGp, ACofS G-5, Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.16, Jacket 10.

21 Gittler and Padover, "Up the Weser River," in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, Jacket 9.

22 H 1 G3, War Diary, Mar-Jun 45, in OMGUS 413/3/3.

23 Hist Rpts, 12th AGp, First Army, Third Army, and Ninth Army, Apr 45.

24 (1) SHAEF, G-1, PWX Br, sub: Report on Enemy POWs, 19 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-1, 383.6/ 1. (2) Cable, SHAEF Main, Eisenhower to AGWAR for CCS, sub: Armistice, Control and Disposal of German Armed Forces, 10 Mar 45, in SHAEF G-1, 387.4/1. (3) Cable, CofS SHAEF to AGWAR for Hull from Smith, 16 Apr 45, in USFET SGS 371, Germany, vol. II. (4) Cable, SHAEF, G-1, to AGWAR, sub: Equalization of PWs Under 50/50 Agreement, in SHAEF G-1, 383.6/3-19.

25 SHAEF, G-5 Hist Sec, "Germany-April 1945," 5 May 45, in SHAEF G-5, 60.

26 Hqs, 190th FA Gp to CG ,V Corps, Report of Military Commander, Stadtkreis Leipzig, 7 May 45, and After Action Report, Hqs, V Corps, Apr 45, 6 May 45, in V Corps 205-5.

27 Hist Rpt, First Army, ACofS G-5, 1-30 Apr 45, and Press Release, First Army, G-5 PRO, sub: Burial of Atrocity Victims [no date], in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, jacket 10.

28 SHAEF, G-5 Hist Sec, "Germany-April 1945," 5 May 45, in SHAEF G-5, 60.

29 Ibid.

30 Wk Rpt, Hqs, XXI Corps, to CG, Seventh Army, 31 Mar 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.18, Jacket 5.

31 History of Military Government in Land Wuerttemberg-Baden to 30 June 1946, pt. I, p. 124, in OMGUS 409-3/3.

32 Hist Rpt, Det B-211, 20 Jun 46, in OMGUS 81-3/10.

33 SHAEF, G-3, ECLIPSE Memorandum No. 1, 25 Apr 45, in SHAEF SGS 387/2.

34 SHAEF, G-3, Plan GOLDCUP, 18 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-3, 21550/2/3.

35 Memo, SHAEF, ACofS G-2, for Distribution, sub: Ministerial Control Parties, in SHAEF G-5, 803/2.

36 History of Military Government in Land Wuerttemberg-Baden, pt. 1, p. 126.

37 CO, 15th Infantry, to CG, 3d Infantry Div, 30 Apr 45, in OMGUS 76-1/10.

38 After Action Report, Hqs, V Corps, ACofS G-5, May 45, in V Corps G-5, 205-5.

39 Hist Rpt, Third Army, ACofS G-5, Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11.

40 (1) History of Military Government in Land Wuerttemberg-Baden, pt. I, p. 127. (2) Hist Rpt, Det 14B2, 14 May 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11, jacket 7. (3) War Diary, Det HIG3, Mar to Jun 45, in OMGUS 413-3/3.

41 SHAEF, ACofS G-5, Financial Br, Report of Conference Held at SHAEF Forward, 25 Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 1.

42 Hist Rpt, Third Army, ACofS G-5, Apr 45, in SHAEF G-5, 17.11.

43 Hqs, Seventh Army, ACofS G-2, Dachau Report [no date], in Seventh Army 107-2.0.

44 SHAEF, PWD, Report on Dachau Concentration Camp, 12 May 45, in SHAEF G-2, GB 1/C l /CS/383.7-1, Folio 2.

45 In Mauthausen, the center of a camp complex around Linz in Austria, prisoners were worked to death in stone quarries. Third Army evacuated the 23,000 prisoners as quickly as they could be moved and burned the disease- and vermin-infested buildings to the ground.

46 Memo, Hqs, XV Corps, to CG, Seventh Army, sub: G-5 Report, Concentration Camps, Dachau, 5 May 45; Memo, SHAEF G-5, Ch, DP Br, to ACofS G-5, sub: Visit to Dachau, 19 May 45; Msg, CG, Seventh Army, to SHAEF, 9 Jun 45, in SHAEF G-5, 2711/7.3.

47 Hqs, Seventh Army, ACofS G-2, Dachau Report [no date], in Seventh Army, 107-2.0.

48 (1) Annual Hist Rpt, Det E-213, 3 Jul 46, in OMGUS 78-1 /10. (2) Hqs, EUCOM, Hist Div, Special Studies, vol. 1, no. 3, Military Government in Munich, 1945-47, in CMH files.

49. (1) Hist Rpt, OMGB, Transportation Br, Jun 46, in OMGUS 65-11 /0. (2) OMGUS, Control Office, Hist Br, History of U.S. Military Government in Germany, 8 May 45-30 Dime 46, Jul -17, in OMGUS 23-1/5, Folder XIV-6.

50 Cable, Marshall to Eisenhower, sub: Goering Friendliness, 13 May 45, and Cable, Eisenhower to CG's, 12th AGp, Third and Seventh Armies, 14 May 45, in USFET, SGS 250.

51 Annual Hist Rpt, Det E-311, Jun 46, in OMGUS 77-1/10.


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