It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
"If we find the treasure it will probably be declared the property of the Federal Republic of Germany as legal successor to the Third Reich," said Haustein.
"It would be good if the state could hand it over to the Russians without preconditions and if the Russians could then hand over the art they looted from Germany. That would be a sign of national reconciliation. That's my goal."
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office), was a subordinate organization of the SS. The RSHA was created by Heinrich Himmler on September 22, 1939 through the merger of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, or Security Agency), the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo, Secret State Police), and the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police). The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the Reich" within and outside the borders of Nazi Germany. Included within the rubric of "enemies" were Jews, Gypsies and other "racially undesirables" as well as Communists and other secret organization members such as Freemasons
The first director of the RSHA was SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, who led the organization until his assassination on June 4, 1942. SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner replaced him for the remainder of World War II. The director of the RSHA oversaw the Einsatzgruppen death squads that followed the invasion forces of the German army into the eastern territories.
MOSCOW, February 22 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Culture Agency said on Friday that if the famous Amber Room stolen by the Nazis has been found, there should be no problems in returning it to Russia.
Germany's Spiegel Online reported on Tuesday that the 18th century chamber of amber panels, a gift from Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I to Russia's Peter the Great, may have been discovered by treasure hunters deep underground near the German border with the Czech Republic. The Amber Room has been missing since 1945.
"If, hypothetically speaking, the room still exists, there will be no difficulties from a legal point of view" in having it brought back, said the head of Russia's Culture Agency, Mikhail Shvydkoi.
However, he said he doubted the room would be found intact because amber, a fossil resin, decays in the dark.
"The Amber Room did not contain a single gram of gold. The metallic constructions were also not of precious metals," she said, adding that only the Florentine mosaic panels and bronze candelabrums were backed by gold leaf.
Additional news flowed today indicating drilling at the site would be halted for two weeks to allow a team of geophysicists to take measurements in the area. The hope is that geophysicists can get the dig back on track to find what is hoped to be a Nazi man-made cavern filled with gold, artifacts and, better, parts of the Amber Room.