Bruno Melmer

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Bruno Melmer (born November 7, 1909 in Wiesbaden , † 1982 in Berlin ) was a German SS-Hauptsturmführer . At the SS main office , Dept. A II, he was in charge of the so-called office cash desk, quasi an SS-internal bank or a cash desk within the SS economic and administrative main office (WVHA) in Berlin. Melmer is referred to as their leader and was with the SS between May 20, 1943 (the first documented nine gold bars) and April 2, 1945 for valuables and gold transfers from the Nazi concentration and extermination camps to an account of the SS Reichsbank responsible.

Life

Bruno Melmer was the illegitimate son of an underage seamstress. After completing his school career, he trained as a technical draftsman in Berlin . At the age of 21 he joined the NSDAP in 1930 (membership number 183.436). At times he was unemployed.

In 1935 Melmer was able to begin his administrative career within the SS . According to the SS assessment, he was regarded as a trustworthy financial and administrative expert. From 1942 he headed the official treasury of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA).

It was also known that he was taken prisoner at the end of the war and that he was sentenced to three years in prison on November 2, 1948 by a tribunal in Stade for belonging to the SS.

Origin of the gold holdings

Concentration camp fence (2005)

The gold came from B. from the extermination camp Auschwitz and other concentration camps "in the east" from the people arrested and murdered by the SS. The last two “Melmer” gold purchases are entered in the bank records on January 5, 1945 . During this period, Melmer drove up to the central bank in a car or as a company to transport the stolen precious metals over 70 times and had the collection confirmed for his organization. Had that been a justiciable crime at the time, it would show a strong criminal energy. Due to the prevailing system of injustice , he and his actions counted as a small wheel in the great system of the " extermination of Jews " and the Nazi repression by the concentration camps. As a desk perpetrator within the SS and its camp system, at the very end he corresponded to the “transport specialist” Eichmann at the beginning of the murder machine. Between these two people, many SS members acted as direct perpetrators in arresting, unloading trains, guarding or running the camps. After all, Melmer stood at the point of intersection between the murder and the exploitation of the victims' last gold remains. He did not evade it, but made an active contribution to the Shoah . According to a widespread view of obedience, Eichmann and Melmer could refer to “orders” from their superiors at any time.

The Melmer gold

Hall of the former main cash desk of the Reichsbank (2007)

The so-called Melmer gold deliveries ( bars and coins ) to the Reichsbank, so-called after him, were worth at least 2.5 million dollars . According to witness reports in the Nuremberg proceedings, Melmer is said to have personally monitored the delivery of the valuables. The number quoted here should represent a minimum according to the calculation method, because it only contains amounts that could be clearly assigned to the Melmer account at the Reichsbank on the basis of handwritten entries from the microfilmed books of the Reichsbank holdings in the National Archives in Washington, DC in 1997 . Other estimates put it at up to $ 4 million. The fact that it was not an SS deposit at the bank, but a current bank account, is legally relevant. After that, this gold was part of the Reichsbank's internal and international payment transactions, with the latter largely (over 75%) being processed through the Swiss National Bank . The SS was to be credited with the value of the consignments.

When and from whom and whether specifically these gold bars were given and taken in payment by the Reichsbank, that does not say. This looted gold represents part of the looted gold amounts of the German Reich determined in various investigations (1946 and 1997) during this period (less than 1% of the income in gold, definition p. 2–3 and table p. 9 at Independent Expert Commission Switzerland Etc.).

The whereabouts of part of the gold stolen from the prisoners by the SS guards was verified in the Reichsbank's depot in the potash mines near Merkers . There were also large quantities of unmelted jewelry made of precious metals. From there, a US Army Task Force Whitney transported the finds to the then US headquarters in Frankfurt am Main . Walther Funk , Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank, was convicted as a war criminal in 1946, among other things because of these "banking transactions" .

See also

  • Nazi gold (The article is about much more extensive gold transfers between the German Reich and other states.)

literature

Movie

  • Oliver Merz, director: bloody booty. The SS looted gold and the missing files. TV documentary, Germany, 1998. Eric Friedler Production, Südwestrundfunk (SWR), Stuttgart, Baden-Baden. (The film explores the question of what became of the gold that was stolen from the Jews murdered primarily in Auschwitz, for example as dental gold or jewelry, as well as property in general.)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. to Harald Welzer Posts
personal data
SURNAME Melmer, Bruno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS Hauptsturmführer
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH 1982
Place of death Berlin