IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 1153
Held at: Wiener Library
Title: Bad Aussee resistance movement and 'Operation Berhard'
Date(s): 1944-1956
Level of description: collection
Extent: 1 file
Name of creator(s): Dokumentationszentrum oesterreichischen Widerstandes
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Operation Bernhard was the name of a secret German plan devised during the Second World War to destabilise the British economy by flooding the country with forged Bank of England £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes.
Bad Aussee was the location of a salt mine where the Germans had stored a huge number of European art treasures which they had pillaged. After being dropped into the local area, Albrecht Gaiswinkler raised a force of around 300 men and armed them with captured German weapons. He spent the last weeks and months of the war harassing local German forces. When the Americans arrived, his information helped them capture several eminent Nazis. He and his colleagues had captured the salt mine, prevented the destruction of the artworks held there and were able to hand over 'a number of Nazi treasure hoards', including the Mona Lisa (probably a copy) and the Austrian Imperial Crown Jewels.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Bad Aussee resistance movement and 'Operation Berhard' collection, 1944-1956, (1153/1-5) comprises copies of original documents. The collection notably includes copy documents regarding the hiding of art treasures and gold in salt mines at Ischla (copy of original which dates 1944)(1153/1); a copy of an affidavit of Bernhard Krueger, (copy of original which dates 1956) (1153/2), that on the orders of Himmler he was responsible for the production of counterfeit currency using inmates from Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz.
The collection also includes a copy of a report by Hans Kurzweil entitled 'Bericht über die Geldfälscheraffäre im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen', (copy of original which dates 1956) (1153/3), in which he details his version of events and attempts to refute what he regards as the more sensational versions; copy transcript of an interview with a former Austrian resistance member, Frau Hauer-Frischmuth [1944-1956] (1153/4), including details of her activities as a courier whilst resident in the Seehotel, Bad Aussee and an account mainly concerned with the activities of the resistance movement at Bad Aussee [1944-1956] (1153/5), which was formed by Albrecht Gaiswinkler, Valentin Tarra, and Hans Moser.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: German
System of arrangement:
Chronological
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Dokumentationszentrum oesterreichischen Widerstandes
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Dokumentationszentrum des Oesterreichischen Widerstandes
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
Krueger's Men by Lawrence Malkin, 2006
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn
Date(s) of descriptions: January 2008