Download or read book Lost Treasures of World War II written by Stephen L. Wynn and published by Dorrance Publishing. This book was released on 2024-03-25 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: February 2nd, 1994 was going to be a special day at the Apache/Tiwa Indian Reservation with the construction of two new Tribal Government buildings, until human remains were discovered at the construction site. Some of the skeletons looked like they could go back hundreds of years, bringing all construction to a halt. It was determined that this was an unmarked ancient burial ground. It was also found that one of the skeletons was considerably different from the others, aside from not being in the grave as long as the others, there was a bullet hole in the back of its skull. The remains were identified as being those of one Karl Altman, who, as records show, was a member of Adolph Hitler's inner circle from 1934 to 1945. He was also convicted of war crimes at the 1946 Nuremberg War Trials. FBI Agent Ryan Carter is assigned to this case to find out who killed Karl Altman and how his body ended up in an ancient Indian burial grounds 49 years after he disappeared. Ryan is also directed to meet with agents from MI6 British Intelligence and Italy's Vatican Papal Police Department, who have important Top-Secret information on Karl Altman, along with information on an unsolved and never-reported theft of one of the Vatican's most treasured possessions, leaving Ryan Carter to say, “WTF.” You can't make this story up. About the Author Stephen L. Wynn lives in Chisago City, Minnesota, is a member of a writer's group, enjoys reading murder mysteries, and enjoys writing during the long cold winter season.
Download or read book Lost Gold of the Dark Ages written by Caroline Alexander and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2011 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a history of England from the departure of Roman forces in 450 A.D. to the Norman invasion of 1066, focusing on the gold and silver artifacts of the Staffordshire Hoard found in 2009 to highlight the events and art of the period.
Download or read book Saving Italy The Race to Rescue a Nation s Treasures from the Nazis written by Robert M. Edsel and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-05-06 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Monuments Men: "An astonishing account of a little-known American effort to save Italy's…art during World War II." —Tom Brokaw When Hitler’s armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind’s greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire. On the eve of the Allied invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower empowered a new kind of soldier to protect these historic riches. In May 1944 two unlikely American heroes—artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt—embarked from Naples on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of missing art, including works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli. With the German army retreating up the Italian peninsula, orders came from the highest levels of the Nazi government to transport truckloads of art north across the border into the Reich. Standing in the way was General Karl Wolff, a top-level Nazi officer. As German forces blew up the magnificent bridges of Florence, General Wolff commandeered the great collections of the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace, later risking his life to negotiate a secret Nazi surrender with American spymaster Allen Dulles. Brilliantly researched and vividly written, the New York Times bestselling Saving Italy brings readers from Milan and the near destruction of The Last Supper to the inner sanctum of the Vatican and behind closed doors with the preeminent Allied and Axis leaders: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Churchill; Hitler, Göring, and Himmler. An unforgettable story of epic thievery and political intrigue, Saving Italy is a testament to heroism on behalf of art, culture, and history.
Download or read book The Rape of Europa written by Lynn H. Nicholas and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-12-22 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award The real story behind the major motion picture The Monuments Men. The cast of characters includes Hitler and Goering, Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall--not to mention works by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. And the story told in this superbly researched and suspenseful book is that of the Third Reich's war on European culture and the Allies' desperate effort to preserve it. From the Nazi purges of "Degenerate Art" and Goering's shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of the Mona Lisa from Paris and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy, The Rape of Europa is a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with a compelling drama.
Download or read book Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Old Wyoming written by W. C. Jameson and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: W.C. Jameson, an expert on treasure hunting, now turns his attention to Wyoming s lost fortunes. With his gift for storytelling, he relates intriguing legends and historical accounts of lost gold, buried payrolls, and hidden strongboxes. Jameson takes us on an adventure to the four corners of Wyoming to investigatae tehe Snake River Pothold Gold, the Hallelujah Gulch Robbery Loot, the Lost Treasure of Big Nose George, the Lost Cabin Gold Mine, and twelve other action packed tales. Jameson has written more than 60 books on treasure hunting and served as an advisor to Walt Disney Productions on the National Treasure movies starring Nicholas Cage. An amateur treasure hunter in Texas testified in court that he had found a multi-million dollar lost treasure by using only a copy of one of Jameson s books and Google Earth for directions.
Download or read book Gold Warriors written by Peggy Seagrave and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1945, US intelligence officers in Manila discovered that the Japanese had hidden large quantities of gold bullion and other looted treasure in the Philippines. President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These, combined with Japanese treasure recovered during the US occupation, and with recovered Nazi loot, would create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism. This 'Black Gold' gave Washington virtually limitless, unaccountable funds, providing an asset base to reinforce the treasuries of America's allies, to bribe political and military leaders, and to manipulate elections in foreign countries for more than fifty years.
Download or read book Nazi Plunder written by Kenneth D. Alford and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2003-04-03 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II was the most devastating conflict in human history, but the tragedy did not end on the battlefields. During the war, Germany -- and, later, the Allies -- plundered Europe's historic treasures. Between 1939 and 1945, German armed forces roamed from Dunkirk to Stalingrad, looting gold, silver, currency, paintings and other works of art, coins, religious artifacts, and millions of books and other documents. The value of these items, many of which were irreplaceable, is estimated in the billions of dollars. The artwork alone, looted under Hitler's direction, exceeded the combined collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the Louvre. As the war wound to its conclusion in 1945, occupying forces continued the looting. The story of these celebrated works of art and other vanished treasures -- and the mystery of where they went -- is a remarkable tale of greed, fraud, deceit, and treachery. Kenneth Alford's Nazi Plunder is the latest word on this fascinating subject.
Download or read book Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Arizona written by W. C. Jameson and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2010-01-19 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arizona's history is liberally seasoned with legends of lost mines, buried treasures, and significant deposits of gold and silver. The famous Lost Dutchman Mine has lured treasure hunters for over a century into the remote, treacherous, and reportedly cursed Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. Gold and silver bars discovered in Huachuca Canyon by a soldier stationed at nearby Fort Huachuca just before World War II remain inaccessible despite years of laborious attempts at recovery. Outside the town of Yucca, bandits eager to make a fast getaway buried a strongbox filled with gold, unaware they wouldn't survive the pursuit of a law-enforcing posse to recover their plunder. And somewhere in the Little Horn Mountains northeast of Yuma lies an elusive wash containing hundreds of odd gold-filled rocks. Selected from hundreds of tales passed down from generation to generation since the days of the gold-seeking Spanish explorers, the tales included here are among the most compelling that Arizona has to offer.
Download or read book No Traveller Returns Lost Treasures written by Louis L'Amour and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2018-11-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louis L’Amour’s long-lost first novel, faithfully completed by his son, takes readers on a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas. Fate is a ship. As the shadows of World War II gather, the SS Lichenfield is westbound across the Pacific carrying eighty thousand barrels of highly explosive naphtha. The cargo alone makes the journey perilous, with the entire crew aware that one careless moment could lead to disaster. But yet another sort of peril haunts the Lichenfield. Even beyond their day-to-day existence, the lives of the crew are mysteriously intertwined. Though each has his own history, dreams and jealousies, longing and rage, all are connected by a deadly web of chance and circumstance. Some are desperately fleeing the past; others chase an unknown destiny. A few are driven by the desire for adventure, while their shipmates cling to the Lichenfield as their only true home. In their hearts, these men, as well as the women and children they have left behind, carry the seeds of salvation or destruction. And all of them—kind or cruel, strong or broken—are bound to the fate of the vessel that carries them toward an ever-darkening horizon. Inspired by Louis L’Amour’s own experiences as a merchant seaman, No Traveller Returns is a revelatory work by a world-renowned author—and a brilliant illustration of a writer discovering his literary voice.
Download or read book The Ghost Army of World War II written by Rick Beyer and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A riveting tale told through personal accounts and sketches along the way—ultimately, a story of success against great odds. I enjoyed it enormously.” —Tom Brokaw The first book to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives—now updated with new material. In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs—artists, designers, architects, and sound engineers, including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey—landed in France to conduct a secret mission. From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Every move they made was top secret, and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. Hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, along with maps, official memos, and letters, accompany Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’s meticulous research and interviews with many of the soldiers, weaving a compelling narrative of how an unlikely team carried out amazing battlefield deceptions that saved thousands of American lives and helped open the way for the final drive to Germany. The stunning art created between missions also offers a glimpse of life behind the lines during World War II. This updated edition includes: A new afterword by co-author Rick Beyer Never-before-seen additional images The successful campaign to have the unit awarded a Congressional Gold Medal History and WWII enthusiasts will find The Ghost Army of World War II an essential addition to their library.
Download or read book Hidden Among the Stars written by Melanie Dobson and published by NavPress. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of Catching the Wind, which Publishers Weekly called “unforgettable” and a “must-read,” comes another gripping time-slip novel about hidden treasure, a castle, and ordinary people who resisted evil in their own extraordinary way. The year is 1938, and as Hitler’s troops sweep into Vienna, Austrian Max Dornbach promises to help his Jewish friends hide their most valuable possessions from the Nazis, smuggling them to his family’s summer estate near the picturesque village of Hallstatt. He enlists the help of Annika Knopf, his childhood friend and the caretaker’s daughter, who is eager to help the man she’s loved her entire life. But when Max also brings Luzia Weiss, a young Jewish woman, to hide at the castle, it complicates Annika’s feelings and puts their entire plan—even their very lives—in jeopardy. Especially when the Nazis come to scour the estate and find both Luzia and the treasure gone. Eighty years later, Callie Randall is mostly content with her quiet life, running a bookstore with her sister and reaching out into the world through her blog. Then she finds a cryptic list in an old edition of Bambi that connects her to Annika’s story . . . and maybe to the long-buried story of a dear friend. As she digs into the past, Callie must risk venturing outside the safe world she’s built for a chance at answers, adventure, and maybe even new love.
Download or read book Nazi Gold written by Douglas Botting and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-01-27 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1945, as Allied bombers continued their final pounding of Berlin, the panicking Nazis began moving the assets of the Reichsbank south for safekeeping. Vast trainloads of gold and currency were evacuated from the doomed capital of Hitler's 'Thousand-year Reich'. Nazi Gold is the real-life story of the theft of that fabulous treasure - worth some 2,500,000,000 at the time of the original investigation. It is also the story of a mystery and attempted whitewash in an American scandal that pre-dated Watergate by nearly 30 years. Investigators were impeded at every step as they struggled to uncover the truth and were left fearing for their lives. The authors' quest led them to a murky, dangerous post-war world of racketeering, corruption and gang warfare. Their brilliant reporting, matching eyewitness testimony with declassified Top Secret documents from the US Archives, lays bare this monumental crime in a narrative which throngs with SS desperadoes, a red-headed queen of crime and American military governors living like Kings. Also revealed is the authors' discovery of some of the missing treasure in the Bank of England.
Download or read book The Orpheus Clock written by Simon Goodman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The passionate, true story of one man's quest to reclaim what the Nazis stole from his family--their beloved art collection--and to restore their legacy. Simon Goodman's grandparents came from German Jewish banking dynasties and perished in concentration camps. And that's almost all he knew--his father rarely spoke of their family history or heritage. But when he passed away, and Simon received his father's papers, a story began to emerge. The Gutmanns, as they were known then, rose from a small Bohemian hamlet to become one of Germany's most powerful banking families. They also amassed a world-class art collection that included works by Degas, Renoir, Botticelli, and many others, including a Renaissance clock engraved with scenes from the legend of Orpheus. The Nazi regime snatched everything the Gutmanns had labored to build: their art, their wealth, their social standing, and their very lives. Simon grew up in London with little knowledge of his father's efforts to recover their family's possessions. It was only after his father's death that Simon began to piece together the clues about the stolen legacy and the Nazi looting machine. He learned much of the collection had gone to Hitler and Goring; other works had been smuggled through Switzerland, sold and resold, with many pieces now in famous museums. More still had been recovered by Allied forces only to be stolen again by bureaucrats-- European governments quietly absorbed thousands of works of art into their own collections. Through painstaking detective work across two continents, Simon proved that many pieces belonged to his family, and successfully secured their return-- the first Nazi looting case to be settled in the United States. Goodman's dramatic story reveals a rich family history almost obliterated by the Nazis. It is not only the account of a twenty-year long detective hunt for family treasure, but an unforgettable tale of redemption and restoration.
Download or read book Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea written by Gary Kinder and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-10-20 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Titanic meets Tom Clancy technology” in this national-bestselling account of the SS Central America’s wreckage and discovery (People). September 1875. With nearly six hundred passengers returning from the California Gold Rush, the side-wheel steamer SS Central America encountered a violent storm and sank two hundred miles off the Carolina coast. More than four hundred lives and twenty-one tons of gold were lost. It was a tragedy lost in legend for more than a century—until a brilliant young engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck. Driven by scientific curiosity and resentful of the term “treasure hunt,” Thompson searched the deep-ocean floor using historical accounts, cutting-edge sonar technology, and an underwater robot of his own design. Navigating greedy investors, impatient crewmembers, and a competing salvage team, Thompson finally located the wreck in 1989 and sailed into Norfolk with her recovered treasure: gold coins, bars, nuggets, and dust, plus steamer trunks filled with period clothes, newspapers, books, and journals. A great American adventure story, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea is also a fascinating account of the science, technology, and engineering that opened Earth’s final frontier, providing “white-knuckle reading, as exciting as anything . . . in The Perfect Storm” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). “A complex, bittersweet history of two centuries of American entrepreneurship, linked by the mad quest for gold.” —Entertainment Weekly “A ripping true tale of danger and discovery at sea.” —The Washington Post “What a yarn! . . . If you sign on for the cruise, go in knowing that you’re going to miss meals and a lot of sleep.” —Newsweek
Download or read book Lost Treasure written by Paul Mason and published by MacMillan Publishing Company. This book was released on 2005-07-30 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces the reader to hidden wonders that lie in mysterious places all over the world.
Download or read book The Monuments Men written by Robert M. Edsel and published by Center Street. This book was released on 2009-09-03 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book that serves as the basis for the acclaimed George Clooney major motion picture, The Monuments Men. At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuhrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.
Download or read book The Tiger Of Malaya written by Lt. Col. Aubrey Saint Kenworthy and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes over 30 illustrations As in Nazi occupied countries that were liberated by the Allies, horrible crimes had been uncovered, perpetrated in the name of superior culture on defenceless civilians and prisoners of war. As the emaciated American, British, Australian soldiers emerged from the prisoner of war camps with barbaric tales of torture, mistreatment and neglect, it was clear that justice must be sought. The U.S. Military fixed on two Japanese generals who were foremost in causing and ordering these outrages, the conqueror of Malaya Tomoyuki Yamahsita and the notorious “Death March” Masaharu Homma. Lt. Col. Kenworthy was a member of the U.S. military police assigned to the Philippines and saw at first hand the military tribunal ordered at the express command of General MacArthur. He was detailed to guard both Yamashita and Homma during the trial and was able to view their reactions to the detailed evidence that was used against them. He was determined to write this account of this momentous event, he recorded not only the evidence of the crimes but also the stoic calm with which the two generals faced the weight of Allied Justice. A fascinating sidelight on the ending of the World War Two.
