The role of Rothschild in the Second World War. Did Hitler belong to the Rothschild dynasty? Origin - Jewish

According to his passport, Adolf Hitler is a Jew!

This passport, stamped in Vienna in 1941, was found among declassified British documents from the Second World War. The passport was kept in the archives of a special British intelligence unit that directed espionage and sabotage operations in Nazi-occupied areas. European countries. The passport was first released on February 8, 2002 in London.

Spread of A. Hitler's passport.
On the cover of the passport there is a stamp certifying that Hitler is a Jew. The passport contains a photograph of Hitler, as well as his signature and a visa stamp allowing him to settle in Palestine.

Origin - Jewish
On the birth certificate of Alois Hitler (Adolf's father), his mother, Maria Schicklgruber, left his father's name blank, so he for a long time was considered illegitimate. Maria never discussed this topic with anyone. There is evidence that Alois was born to Mary from someone from the Rothschild house.
“Hitler is Jewish on his mother’s side. Goering, Goebbels are Jews." [“War according to the laws of meanness”, I. “Orthodox Initiative”, 1999, p. 116.]
Adolf Hitler himself did not have a mandatory document confirming his purebred Aryan heritage, while he himself insisted on the adoption of a law on this document.

In 2010, saliva samples from 39 relatives of Adolf Hitler were examined. Tests showed that Hitler's DNA has the E1b1b1 haplogroup marker. Its owners are, according to the scientific classification, speakers of Hamitic-Semitic languages, and according to the biblical classification - Jews, descendants of Ham, or more precisely, Berber nomads. Haplogroup E1b1b1 is determined by the Y chromosome, that is, it shows paternal inheritance. The study was conducted by journalist Jean-Paul Mulders and historian Marc Vermeerem, its results published in the Belgian magazine Knack (By Michael Sheridan. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had Jewish and African relatives, DNA test suggests. " DAILY NEWS". Tuesday, August 24th 2010.).

Ashkenazic means "Germany" in Hebrew, and the term "Ashkenazim" refers to all Jews who come from Europe.

Sepharad means "Spain" in Hebrew, and "Sephardi" refers to Jews who come from the Arab world.

The Purge of the Jewish Nation - Entrusted to Hitler

Hitler destroyed only those Jews whom the Jews themselves pointed out to him: the poor and those who refused to serve the global kahal.
While the Habers (Jewish aristocracy) quietly left for America and Israel. In the concentration camps, the SS men were helped by the Jewish police, consisting of young Habers, and Jewish newspapers were published praising the Hitler regime.
PR campaign "Holocaust" - entrusted to Hitler
The Ervays took full advantage of the fruits of the Second World War. Their main asset, their victory against the whole world, was the Holocaust project, which, according to the Jews, symbolizes and establishes the loss of 6 million Jewish lives by the Jewish people.
And, although this is a lie, Hitler’s merit in the formation of such a large-scale “Flag” is indisputable.
For example, in Israel, a fascist state, a law was passed establishing punishment for... doubts about the Holocaust.

It so happened that representatives of world Jewry fought on the fronts of World War II both against the fascists and for the fascists!

About 500 thousand fought against the Nazis on the side of the USSR Soviet Jews, approximately 150 thousand Jews fought on the side of Nazi Germany against the USSR.

It is also curious that during the Second World War, more than one person lived in the worldHitler, but at least two!

One Hitler was in Nazi Germany, the other was in the USSR!

The Nazi-fascists had their own Hitler - Adolf Aloisovich, born in 1889, the son of his father Alois Hitler (1837-1903) and mother - Klara Hitler (1860-1907), who bore the surname before her marriage Pölzl. I must note that there was one small piquant detail in the pedigree of Adolf Aloisovich. His father Alois Hitler was an illegitimate son in his parents' family. Until 1876 (until the age of 29) he bore the surname of his mother Maria Anna Schicklgruber(German: Schicklgruber). In 1842, Alois's mother, Maria Schicklgruber, married miller Johann Georg Hiedler, who died in 1857. Alois Schicklgruber's mother died even earlier in 1847. In 1876, Alois Schicklgruber gathered three “witnesses” who, at his request, “confirmed” that Johann Georg Hiedler, who had died 19 years earlier, was Alois’s real father. This perjury gave grounds for the latter to change his mother's surname - Schicklgruber - to his father's surname - Hiedler, which, when recorded in the “birth registration” book, was changed to Hebrew - Hitler. Historians believe that this change in the spelling of the surname Hiedler to Hitler was not an accidental typo. Adolf Hitler's 29-year-old father, Alois, thus distanced himself from kinship with his stepfather Johann Georg Gidler.

For what? Who was his real father?

In part, the answer to the last question is contained in the documentary presented below. AND Historians claim that Alois Schicklgruber (Hitler) was the illegitimate son of one of the financial kings from the Rothschild family!
If so, then Adolf Hitler, it turns out, was also related to the Rothschilds. Obviously, the Rothschild banking family knew this very well, which is why in the 30s of the twentieth century they provided generous financial assistance to Adolf Hitler in becoming the Fuhrer of the German nation.

U Soviet people, in the USSR, had its own Hitler— Semyon Konstantinovich, born in 1922, served as a private in the Red Army.

Semyon Konstantinovich Hitler, during the defense of height 174.5 of the Tiraspol fortification area 73 years ago, destroyed more than a hundred German soldiers with machine gun fire. After this, wounded and without ammunition, he left the encirclement. For this feat, Comrade Hitler was awarded the Medal of Courage. Subsequently, the Red Army soldier Hitler took part in the defense of Odessa. Together with its defenders, he crossed to Crimea and died on July 3, 1942, defending Sevastopol.

Reference:

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Well, fellow readers, in your opinion, I didnormalpreface?

JEWISH SOLDIERS HITLER

RIGGA RAIDS

He crossed Germany on a bicycle, sometimes doing 100 kilometers a day. For months he survived on cheap sandwiches with jam and peanut butter, and slept in a sleeping bag near provincial train stations. Then there were raids in Sweden, Canada, Turkey and Israel. The search trips lasted for six years in the company of a video camera and a laptop computer.

In the summer of 2002, the world saw the fruits of this asceticism: 30-year-old Brian Mark Rigg published his final work, Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and People Jewish origin in the German army."

Brian, an evangelical Christian (like President Bush), a native of a working family in the Texas Bible Belt, a volunteer soldier in the Israel Defense Forces and an officer in the US Marine Corps, suddenly became interested in his past. Why did one of his ancestors serve in the Wehrmacht and the other die in Auschwitz?

Behind him, Rigg had studied at Yale University, a grant from Cambridge, 400 interviews with Wehrmacht veterans, 500 hours of video testimony, 3 thousand photographs and 30 thousand pages of memoirs of Nazi soldiers and officers - those people whose Jewish roots allow them to repatriate to Israel even tomorrow. Rigg’s calculations and conclusions sound quite sensational: in the German army, up to 150 thousand soldiers who had Jewish parents or grandparents fought on the fronts of World War II.

The term "Mischlinge" in the Reich was used to describe people born from mixed marriages of Aryans with non-Aryans. The racial laws of 1935 distinguished between "Mischlinge" of the first degree (one of the parents is Jewish) and the second degree (grandparents are Jewish). Despite the legal "corruption" of people with Jewish genes and despite the blatant propaganda, tens of thousands of "Mischling" lived quietly under the Nazis. They were routinely drafted into the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, becoming not only soldiers, but also part of the generals at the level of commanders of regiments, divisions and armies.

Hundreds of "Mischlinge" were awarded Iron Crosses for their bravery. Twenty soldiers and officers of Jewish origin were awarded the highest military award of the Third Reich - the Knight's Cross. Wehrmacht veterans complained to Rigg that their superiors were reluctant to introduce them to orders and delayed promotion in rank, keeping in mind their Jewish ancestors.

FATES

The life stories revealed might seem fantastic, but they are real and supported by documents. Thus, an 82-year-old resident of the north of Germany, a believing Jew, served the war as a Wehrmacht captain, secretly observing Jewish rituals in the field.

For a long time, the Nazi press featured a photograph of a blue-eyed blond man in a helmet on their covers. Under the photo it said: “The ideal German soldier.” This Aryan ideal was Wehrmacht fighter Werner Goldberg (with a Jewish father).

Wehrmacht Major Robert Borchardt received the Knight's Cross for the tank breakthrough of the Russian front in August 1941. Robert was then assigned to Rommel's Afrika Korps. Near El Alamein, Borchardt was captured by the British. In 1944, the prisoner of war was allowed to come to England to be reunited with his Jewish father. In 1946, Robert returned to Germany, telling his Jewish dad: “Someone has to rebuild our country.” In 1983, shortly before his death, Borchardt told German schoolchildren: “Many Jews and half-Jews who fought for Germany in World War II believed that they should honestly defend their Fatherland by serving in the army.”

Colonel Walter Hollander, whose mother was Jewish, received Hitler's personal letter, in which the Fuhrer certified the Aryanity of this halakhic Jew. The same certificates of “German blood” were signed by Hitler for dozens of high-ranking officers of Jewish origin. During the war, Hollander was awarded the Iron Cross of both degrees and a rare insignia - the Golden German Cross. Hollander received the Knight's Cross in July 1943 when his anti-tank brigade destroyed 21 soviet tank on the Kursk Bulge. Walter was given leave; he went to the Reich through Warsaw. It was there that he was shocked by the sight of the Jewish ghetto being destroyed. Hollander returned to the front spiritually broken; personnel officers wrote in his personal file that he was “too independent and poorly controlled,” and canceled his promotion to the rank of general. In October 1944, Walter was captured and spent 12 years in Stalin's camps. He died in 1972 in Germany.

The story of the rescue of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson from Warsaw in the fall of 1939 is full of secrets. Chabadniks in the United States turned to Secretary of State Cordell Hull asking for help. The State Department agreed with Admiral Canaris, the head of military intelligence (Abwehr), about Schneerson's free passage through the Reich to neutral Holland. The Abwehr and the Rebbe found mutual language: German intelligence officers did everything to keep America from entering the war, and the rebbe used a unique chance for survival. Only recently it became known that the operation to remove the Lubavitcher Rebbe from occupied Poland was led by Lieutenant Colonel Abwehr Dr. Ernst Bloch—son of a Jew. Bloch defended the rebbe from the attacks of the German soldiers accompanying him. This officer himself was “covered” by a reliable document: “I, Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of the German nation, hereby confirm that Ernst Bloch is of special German blood.” True, in February 1945, this paper did not prevent Bloch from resigning. It is interesting to note that his namesake, a Jew Dr. Edward Bloch, in 1940, received permission personally from the Fuhrer to travel to the USA: he was a doctor from Linz who treated Hitler’s mother and Adolf himself in his childhood.

Who were the Wehrmacht's "mischlinge" - victims of anti-Semitic persecution or accomplices of the executioners? Life often put them in absurd situations. One soldier with the Iron Cross on his chest came from the front to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp to... visit his Jewish father there. The SS officer was shocked by this guest: “If it weren’t for the award on your uniform, you would quickly end up with me in the same place as your father.”

Another story was told by a 76-year-old resident of Germany, 100 percent Jewish: he managed to escape from occupied France in 1940 using forged documents. Under new German name he was drafted into the Waffen-SS - selected combat units. “If I served in the German army, and my mother died in Auschwitz, then who am I - a victim or one of the persecutors? The Germans, feeling guilty for what they did, do not want to hear about us. The Jewish community also turns away from people like me, because our the stories contradict everything we have come to believe about the Holocaust."

LIST of 77s

In January 1944, the Wehrmacht personnel department prepared a secret list of 77 high-ranking officers and generals "mixed with the Jewish race or married to Jews." All 77 had Hitler's personal certificates of "German blood". Among those listed—23 colonels, 5 major generals, 8 lieutenant generals and two full army generals. Today Brian Rigg states. To this list we can add another 60 names of senior officers and generals of the Wehrmacht, aviation and navy, including two field marshals."

In 1940, all officers with two Jewish grandparents were ordered to leave military service. Those who were “tainted” by Jewry only on the part of one of their grandfathers could remain in the army in ordinary positions. The reality was different—these orders were not carried out. Therefore, they were repeated in 1942, 1943 and 1944 to no avail. There were frequent cases when German soldiers, driven by the laws of “front-line brotherhood,” hid “their Jews” without handing them over to the party and punitive authorities. Such scenes as in 1941 could well have taken place: a German company hiding “its Jews” takes Red Army soldiers prisoner, who, in turn, hand over “their Jews” and commissars to be killed.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, a Luftwaffe officer and grandson of a Jew, testifies: “In my air unit alone there were 15-20 guys like me. I am convinced that Rigg’s deep dive into the problems of German soldiers of Jewish origin will open up new perspectives in the study military history Germany of the 20th century."

Rigg single-handedly documented 1,200 examples of "mischlinge" service in the Wehrmacht - soldiers and officers with immediate Jewish ancestors. A thousand of these front-line soldiers had 2,300 Jewish relatives killed—nephews, aunts, uncles, grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers and fathers.

One of the most sinister figures of the Nazi regime could add to the "list of 77." Reinhard Heydrich, the Fuhrer's favorite and head of the RSHA, who controls the Gestapo, criminal police, intelligence, counterintelligence, spent his entire (fortunately short) life fighting rumors about his Jewish origin. Reinhard was born in Leipzig (1904), in the family of the director of the conservatory. Family history says that his grandmother married a Jew shortly after the birth of the father of the future chief of the RSHA.
As a child, older boys often beat Reinhard, calling him a Jew (by the way, Eichmann was also teased at school as a “little Jew”). As a 16-year-old boy, he joined the chauvinistic Freikorps organization to dispel rumors about his Jewish grandfather. In the mid-1920s, Heydrich served as a cadet on the training ship Berlin, where the captain was the future Admiral Canaris. Reinhard meets his wife Erika and arranges home violin concerts of Haydn and Mozart with her. But in 1931, Heydrich was dismissed from the army in disgrace for violating the officer's code of honor (seducing the young daughter of a ship commander).

Heydrich climbs the Nazi ladder. The youngest SS Obergruppenführer (a rank equal to an army general) is intriguing against his former benefactor Canaris, trying to subjugate the Abwehr. Canaris's answer is simple: at the end of 1941, the admiral hid in his safe photocopies of documents about Heydrich's Jewish origin.

It was the chief of the RSHA who held the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 to discuss the “final solution to the Jewish question.” Heydrich's report clearly states that the grandchildren of a Jew are treated as Germans and are not subject to reprisals. One day, returning home drunk to smithereens at night, Heydrich turns on the light in the room. Reinhard suddenly sees his image in the mirror and shoots him twice with his pistol, shouting to himself: “You vile Jew!”

A classic example of a “hidden Jew” in the elite of the Third Reich can be considered Air Field Marshal Erhard Milch. His father was a Jewish pharmacist. Due to Erhard's Jewish origin, he was not accepted into the Kaiser's military schools, but the First World War began World War gave him access to aviation, Milch ended up in the division of the famous Richthoffen, met the young ace Goering and distinguished himself at headquarters, although he himself did not fly airplanes. In 1920, Juncker provided protection to Milch, promoting the former front-line soldier in his concern. In 1929, Milch became the general director of Lufthansa, the national air carrier. The wind was already blowing towards the Nazis, and Erhard provided free Lufthansa planes for the leaders of the NSDAP.

This service is not forgotten. Having come to power, the Nazis claim that Milch's mother did not have sex with her Jewish husband, and Erhard's true father is Baron von Beer. Goering laughed for a long time about this: “Yes, we made Milch a bastard, but an aristocratic bastard!” Another aphorism by Goering about Milch: “In my headquarters, I myself will decide who is Jewish and who is not!” Field Marshal Milch actually headed the Luftwaffe before and during the war, replacing Goering. It was Milch who led the creation of the new Me-262 jet and V-missiles. After the war, Milch served nine years in prison, and then worked as a consultant for the Fiat and Thyssen concerns until he was 80 years old.

GRANDCHILDREN OF THE REICH

Brian Rigg's work is subject to overexposure and distortion. Holocaust deniers really want to take advantage of the scientific results—European and Islamic historians trying to dismiss the phenomenon of the Holocaust or downplay the scale of the Jewish genocide.

To quote Rigg, such scientists change their emphasis in small things. It speaks, for example, about “Jewish soldiers” and even about “Hitler’s Jewish army,” while the author himself writes about soldiers of Jewish origin (children and grandchildren of Jews). The vast majority of Wehrmacht veterans reported in interviews that when they joined the army, they did not consider themselves Jews. These soldiers tried to refute Nazi race talk with their courage. Hitler's soldiers, with triple zeal at the front, proved that Jewish ancestors did not prevent them from being good German patriots and staunch warriors.

Hasan Huseyn-zadeh, a Muslim historian from Minnesota, lists in his review: "Jewish soldiers served in the Wehrmacht, SS, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. Dr. Rigg's work should be read by all who study or teach the history of World War II." The mention of the SS is not accidental - now “ducks” will fly in the media about the service of Jews in the SS, although Rigg gave a single example of such a person (and then with fake German documents). Readers will remain in their subconscious: “The Jews destroyed themselves while serving in the SS.” This is how anti-Semitic myths are created.

Dr Jonathan Steinberg, director of Rigg's project at the University of Cambridge, praises his student for his courage and overcoming the challenges of research: "Brian's findings make the reality of the Nazi state more complex."

The young American, in my opinion, not only makes the picture of the Third Reich and the Holocaust more comprehensive, but also forces Israelis to take a fresh look at the usual definitions of Jewishness. Previously, it was believed that in World War II all Jews fought on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition. Jewish soldiers in the Finnish, Romanian and Hungarian armies were seen as exceptions to the rule.

Now Brian Rigg confronts us with new facts, leading Israel to an unheard of paradox. Let's think about it: 150 thousand soldiers and officers of Hitler's army could be repatriated according to the Israeli Law of Return. The current form of this law, spoiled by a late insertion about the separate right of a Jewish grandson to aliyah, allows thousands of Wehrmacht veterans to come to Israel!

Left-wing Israeli politicians are trying to defend the grandchildren amendment by saying that the grandchildren of a Jew were also persecuted by the Third Reich. Read Brian Rigg, gentlemen! The suffering of these grandchildren was often expressed in the delay of the next Iron Cross.

The fate of the children and grandchildren of German Jews once again shows us the tragedy of assimilation. The grandfather’s apostasy from the religion of his ancestors boomerangs across everything to the Jewish people and for his German grandson, fighting for the ideals of Nazism in the ranks of the Wehrmacht. Unfortunately, galut flight from one’s own “I” characterizes not only Germany of the last century, but also Israel of today.

Now let's move forward to the present time.

A DPR militiaman speaks to the camera: “We are opposed by “Jewish fascists”. Now we are preparing to fire a salvo at the fascist, ugly, nationalist scum... Jewish! And their accomplices. Now there, on the other side, hundreds of Jews, Poles and foreigners like them are fighting,” reports “ militia."

“Shekelgruber” - in Russian, “collector of shekel” - a tax levied on Jews by the rabbinate and its masters for the purpose of general mafia redistribution in favor of those employed in low-income but significant industries for Jewry, and to pay for shabes goyim.

Shekelgruber is a position in the Jewish “community”. A. Hitler’s grandfather bore the surname Schicklgruber (a feature of transliteration: “e” or “and” can replace one another), which defines the essence of “Hitlerism”. When in the 19th century a steady tendency towards irreversible assimilation with the non-Jewish population began to appear among the Jews of Europe, this was a massive disregard for the words of the rabbis, for which the masters of Judaism established the punishment - death.

Since the world revolution according to the Marxist-Trotskyist doctrine of permanent revolution in order to complete global expansion was thwarted by the activities of V.I. Lenin (concluded the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, which defused the escalation of the revolutionary situation in Europe) and the succession of I.V. Stalin (since 1907, he claimed “creative Marxism”, i.e. developing, and not dogmatic), then the global healers launched an emergency scenario.

The half-truth about Jewry and its mission in world history, announced by Hitler, created a crowd for him, and the essentially false omissions accompanying it doomed the thoughtless crowd of the “master race” to defeat, disappointment and slavery to anonymous healers and programmers of the global scenario after the end of the emergency regime. Hitler's aggression against the USSR, in the best terms. global healers embodiment, allowed to be removed from state power in the USSR, the Stalinist wing of the party and transfer power to the unfinished Trotskyist opposition. After this, it would be possible to resume the process of permanent revolution, interrupted by the Brest Peace. But Stalinism in the USSR survived, for which reason the restoration of “socialism” in the Trotskyist way in the USSR had to be postponed until the start of perestroika, which significantly began in the year of the fortieth anniversary of the joint victory of Stalinism, Trotskyism and Western democracy over Hitlerism. This leads to the most unpleasant conclusion for Russian democratizers and the new generation of BOURGEOIS REBIRTHEN: THE HEALTHIERS OF GLOBAL POLITICS DID NOT HAVE AND DO NOT HAVE ANY INTENTIONS TO BUILD “CORRECT” CAPITALISM IN THE WESTERN STYLE IN THE USSR. With the fake planting of capitalism, they intended to arouse among the people hatred of the Western-democratic structure of the state, in order to bring the Trotskyists (Marxists - Zyuganovites and Co.) to power on the wave of hatred of capitalism, then “drop” Western-democratic regimes in the “correct” capitalist countries. As a result of this, the USA, Canada, Europe, many of their satellites and a significant part of the CIS would be part of an ideologically unified regional civilization. Essentially, Eurasianists are working for Trotskyism, as well as newspapers in opposition to the current regime in Russia: “Zavtra”, “ Soviet Russia”, “Truth”, “Duel” and smaller ones.

A. Hitler, as befits an executive shekelgruber, organized the collection of shekels from the disobedient. Throughout Europe, Jews paid this shekel with their lives. And besides, there were numerous additions to real victims. Hitler did not commit any crimes against the healers of global politics. For this reason, his name was not on the list of defendants in the Nuremberg war crimes trials, either in absentia or “posthumously.” And this absence of A. Hitler’s name among the accused is symbolic. In the historically unreliable film-symbol “The Fall of Berlin,” the script of which was edited by J.V. Stalin personally, he himself, in white robes, says directly: Hitler escaped from the judgment of the peoples. Do you want to believe J.V. Stalin, the significance of the surname “Shekelgruber” and its absence from the list of Nuremberg defendants. Believe it or not official version about the murder of A. Hitler and the identification of his burnt skull. This is the reader's right. But in 1989, a message slipped into the US press, with references to eyewitnesses, that Hitler, Eva, Hitler's adjutant left Germany in a timely manner, settled in Chile and lived among the Indians. Eva and the adjutant died in the mid-1950s during an epidemic, and Hitler was still alive in 1989. The Indians cared for and protected him; they called him Dr. Adolfo, and he treated their children, whom he loved very much. A repeated report of the same was published in Russia in the magazine “World News”, No. 4/5, 1995. Based on other publications about the disappearance of the living Hitler, one can come to the conclusion that it really took place under the guise of a global cover operation.

Shekelgruberism “Hitlerism” is a conscious product of the policy of the owners of supranational banking circles, who used Hitler in the implementation of their geopolitical program precisely by such methods, since from the moment of the publication of “Mein Kampf” they provided him with generous financial support without advertising it. That is, in banking circles they looked at Hitler as their “man.” The materials of a once-secret investigation conducted on the orders of the chancellor of pre-Anschluss Austria, Dollfuss, who was killed during a pro-Hitler coup attempt, were published in the United States. They report that during the investigation, the possibility of blood relations between A. Hitler and the Rothschild banking clan was established: A. Hitler is the illegitimate grandson of the Austrian Rothschild (R. Epperson “The Invisible Hand. An Introduction to the View of History as a Conspiracy”, USA, 1992; Russian edition of St. Petersburg, “Education and Culture”, 1996).

Shekelgruberism “Hitlerism” makes it possible to understand that the Old Testament-Talmudic doctrine of the permissible domination of the Jewish “elite” over the peoples of the Earth is a bluff that brings down those who think of themselves as a “master race” who believe in it, and carefree thoughtless consumers of their status (“God gave to be a Jew - you have to use") numerous “ben-Israel” - Jews - to a state similar to the animals that were once destroyed in the sacrifices of the Jerusalem Temple.

One day two tramps wandered into Vienna's Stadtpark. Seeing a passing carriage, one asked the other: “What kind of guy sat there?”

“Look at the livery,” replied another, “little Louis, Baron Rothschild, has been taken out to get some air.”

- Wow! – the first tramp noted respectfully. - Just a brat, and already Rothschild!

Who could have foreseen what awaited the little passenger? Who knew that there was a depression, Anschluss, Gestapo, prison and World War II ahead? The 19th century was over, and the 20th was on the threshold.

Years passed, Baron Louis grew up. When he turned twenty-nine, his father Albert died. This happened shortly before the start of the First World War. The tradition of the House of Austria was, and this distinguished it from other houses of Rothschild, that all power passed to one person.

The brothers Eugene and Alphonse devoted themselves to pleasant idleness, and responsibility for all Rothschild enterprises and banks in Central Europe fell on the shoulders of Baron Louis. Thus began one of the most poetic destinies in the history of the Rothschild family. The Austrian branch of the family suffered more than others from the blows of the harsh 20th century, and Baron Louis showed rare fortitude and withstood all the blows of fate with dignity.

The character of this extraordinary person manifested itself quite early. And it happened in New York, in the newly opened Manhattan subway. Rothschild agents in New York participated in financing the construction of the city's underground high-speed lines, which was carried out by the New York Interboro Rapid Transit company. Young Louis was sent to the United States to master the traditions of American business, he participated in the subway construction project, was present at the opening of one of the first lines and was among the first passengers on a test flight that turned out to be unsuccessful. There was a power supply failure and the train stopped. Not only the lighting failed, but also the ventilation. When the sweating and panting passengers were finally taken outside, only one of them did not take off his jacket and raincoat and did not loosen his tie. Of course it was Baron Louis. The rescuers said that he was absolutely calm and looked fit and fresh, not a drop of sweat on his forehead, one word - baron!

Usually those who had to deal with the baron's self-control could not understand what caused it. Either the baron was absolutely carefree, or simply cold as a fish and devoid of human feelings. But no matter what they say, the young head of the House of Vienna turned into a leader of the highest qualifications and a man of rare stamina. He was a real nobleman, the most outstanding of all the scions of the Rothschild family. Neither before him nor after him there was anyone like him. Fate decreed that Louis himself did not marry for a long time, and his married brothers did not leave any male descendants. Baron Louis became the last head of the House of Austria and the last romantic of the dynasty.

The Manhattan accident, that strange encounter between the last Rothschild and the first subway, was prophetic. Fate was preparing many trials for him, and more than once he would have to confront the challenge of modernity, and each time the baron would be as cold and calm as in a stuffy subway car.

Nature generously endowed Baron Louis with everything necessary so that he could play his role well. A slender, blond handsome man, the epitome of an Anglo-Saxon aristocrat, he regularly attended the synagogue. He could be not only simple and modest, but also withdrawn, distant and arrogant. The Baron suffered from a mild but chronic heart disease (what purebred aristocrat does without a piquant flaw?), Despite this, he was amazingly energetic. The Baron was well prepared for his future duties. A tough polo player and a remarkable horseman, he was one of the few people allowed to ride the white racehorse Lipizzaners, one of the best stallions of the time, owned by the State Riding School (even during the Republic, this privilege was only granted to the best riders from high society) . The Baron was also an excellent specialist in anatomy, botany and graphic arts.

And of course, the baron was a lover. A perfect lover, loving and loved. The prettiest women in Vienna came to his huge palace on Prinz-Eugene Strasse and his dark-red silk office in Rengasse. For the convenience of visitors, the office had three doors, one of which was secret. It was so well disguised that only the owner himself, his secretary and those who had to use it knew about its existence.

Not only beautiful ladies entered the palace through secret doors. Often these were couriers with news, and sad news at that. The baron navigated his ship through the sea, which became increasingly stormy and dangerous. Until 1914, the Bank of Vienna was the main financier of a huge empire, it controlled financial flows, it was the nerve center of the financial world of South-Eastern Europe. After 1918, Austria shrank, now occupying only a small fraction of its former territory. Inevitably, the Austrian Rothschild company also shrank.

Bank "S.M. Rothschild and Schene was the leading private bank in Austria, and the economic situation of his small homeland largely depended on its policies. Showing loyalty, the bank bought government securities worth about a million Austrian crowns, despite the fact that inflation was rapidly devouring these investments. In the mid-1920s, Rothschild did not, like his most serious Viennese rival Castiglione, undermine the government by speculating on the fall of the Austrian crown. But despite Rothschild's support, the crown fell. The Castigliones rose to the top and threatened to push the Rothschilds into the shadows.

Castiglione continued to play on the fall of the franc. Their allies continued to dump French currency on the market. The exchange rate of the franc fell sharply, and the rates of the pound and dollar soared. What about Rothschild? Experts have already predicted the fall of the House of Austria. The silk-covered office in Rengasse became completely quiet. Suddenly the franc began to appreciate rapidly. The Castigliones were thrown out of business, and the financial world stood in shock. Baron Louis, smiling coldly as always, went to Italy to play a little polo.

What happened? The old, old story that the Rothschilds had already played out in 1925 was repeated. Various mixed banks in England, France and Austria have secretly spread their tentacles throughout the world. Led by the French House (the director of the Bank of France was Baron Edouard Rothschild), they organized a secret international syndicate. It included J. P. Morgan in New York and Baron Louis Rothschild, who ran the Kreditanstalt bank in Vienna. At the same time, around the world, the Rothschild syndicate began to lower the exchange rate of the pound and increase the exchange rate of the franc. As in the past, no one could withstand such financial pressure, managed so quickly and skillfully. Baron Louis returned from Italy, where he played polo. He was tanned and smiling. He just smiled.

But fate was preparing serious trials for him. If in the 20s the economic situation of Austria was difficult and deceptive, then in the 30s the situation, at first unstable, became tragic. In 1929, the depression struck. The young, still fragile republic was not ready for such a test. The depression paralyzed business life in Austria. The Depression crippled banking. The depression was approaching Louis Rothschild's palace.

In 1930, the Bodencreditanstalt bank, the country's leading lending institution, Agriculture, was in a desperate situation. Louis, as usual, did not panic and showed icy calm: he was hunting deer in one of his reserves. The government was less restrained. The Federal Chancellor personally came to Rothschild. As the chancellor later recalled, he literally forced the baron to accept the obligations of the dying Bodencreditanstalt bank. The Baron agreed, but remarked: “I will do what you ask, but you will bitterly regret it.”

Bank Kreditanstalt, the largest people's bank in Austria, assumed responsibility for the debts of Bank Bodenkreditanstalt. (The president of the Kreditanstalt bank was Louis von Rothschild.) And soon all of Austria had to regret this decision. As a result of excess lending, a year later, Kreditanstalt Bank was also forced to suspend payments. Now I'm already staggering financial system the entire country, and the Austrian government had to quickly use state treasury funds to save the situation. The House of Rothschild also donated thirty million gold shillings to help the Kreditanstalt bank stay afloat.

This was a serious blow to the funds of the House of Austria, although he secretly received substantial assistance from the French Rothschilds. The Baron had to sell some of his country estates and move from a huge mansion on Prinz-Eugene Strasse to a small house located nearby.

Louis was still the richest man in Austria. His own bank, S.M. Rothschild and Schene” remained reliable and, by Austrian standards, was considered a real giant. The Baron was still one of the largest landowners in Central Europe, and he retained control of his impressive investments in the textile, mining and chemical industries.

In the north, squads of stormtroopers beat the drums, and he calmly gave orders from his office, upholstered in red silk, from his jaws ready to close, fearless under the looming sword of fate.

This is how the last great gentleman of Central Europe, Baron Louis von Rothschild, met the end of his life. The period between 1931 and 1938 resembled the final act of a luxurious production: the first blow did not reach its target, and the terrible ending was still hidden from the audience. Peace reigned in the baron's house; it was kept by the butlers and enlivened by funny incidents.

In 1936, Edward VIII abdicated the throne for Mrs Simpson. The day before taking this decisive step, the king spoke on an international telephone with one of the most famous divorcees. The British government prepared a shelter for Edward at the Zurich Hotel, but Wallis Simpson - it was with her that the king spoke - was categorically against this choice. A hotel was a poor defense against the sensation-hungry press, she said, and the telephone line between London, where Edward stayed, and Cannes, where Wallis herself lived, was not guaranteed to be tapped.

“David,” Wallis, fearing eavesdropping, spoke in hints, “why don’t you go to where you caught your runny nose last year?”

Mrs. Simpson was referring to Ensfeld Castle, located in the vicinity of Vienna and owned by Eugene von Rothschild, brother of Louis and an old friend of Edward and Mrs. Simpson. Here David could enjoy complete privacy, play golf on the baron's grounds and speak his favorite Austrian dialect. Once here he managed to cope with a slight illness, but now he had to survive the most serious crisis.

“I will do so,” replied King Edward.

The next day, December 11, Edward was no longer king. Less than forty-eight hours had passed when the gates of the Rothschild estate swung open and let a black limousine through. The man sitting in it had just given up the crown himself great empire for the most romantic reason. All five continents watched with curiosity the events in the house of Eugene Rothschild. Ensfeld became no less famous than Mayerling. This event immediately became overgrown with rumors and funny gossip. They said, for example, that the former king, who turned into the Duke of Windsor, held luxurious receptions in the castle, and sent bills for his entertainment to hospitable hosts. When they saw the bills from the ex-monarch, the accountants' faces stretched out, and the baron brothers, Eugene and Louis, soon got tired of it. They resolved the situation decisively and unconventionally, as befits the Rothschilds, by appealing to the village council with a request to elect the Duke as the honorary head of Ensfeld. The council, of course, did not refuse, and now all bills were sent for payment directly to the honorary head, Edward.

But these are just rumors. The Duke lived a quiet and secluded life, played golf, and his entire schedule was built around six-thirty in the afternoon. It was at this time that a special meeting room was cleared for him (Eugene had something like his own telephone substation), all local lines were cleared, and Edward could calmly talk with Wallis, who was still in Cannes.

Nevertheless, the presence of an almost mythical guest at the estate affected the manners of high society in Central Europe. When the Duke decided to join the Rothschilds and their guests at another dinner party, everyone was shocked. The former king wore a black tie with a soft, rather than hard, starched collar, as was customary. This fact provoked something like an explosion in the field of tailoring. In addition, Edward introduced another innovation. According to Baron Eugene, it was he who invented the brunch, which smoothly turns into lunch. The literal translation of the name he invented sounds like “breakfast-lunch,” that is, a late and very hearty breakfast. The Duke preferred to start the day with just such a meal, but at noon, when everyone gathered for second breakfast, he no longer ate anything. The Duke's initiative was enthusiastically taken up by the refined Austrian nobility.

IN last time Austria enjoyed imperial splendor, and for the last time a representative of the Austrian branch of the Rothschilds was able to provide hospitality commensurate with his name.

The Ensfeld holidays became a serious contribution to strengthening the prestige of the Rothschild family; Louis himself seemed to become the personification of feudal traditions. But it’s difficult to call his behavior standard.

In 1937, shortly after the Duke left Ensfeld, the Baron was visiting his friend. Lunch was in full swing when a plaintive meow was heard outside the window. Rothschild opened the window, climbed out onto the windowsill, walked around the wall along the ledge, picked up the frightened kitten and jumped back into the room. Everything happened so quickly that there was no time to stop it.

Louis had accomplished similar feats before. He was always remarkably strong physically and was distinguished by rare self-control. His father, Albert Rothschild, was the first to conquer the Matterhorn peak, and Louis himself climbed many mountain peaks and, if no peak in this moment I didn’t have it at hand, I used city buildings for my mountaineering exploits.

In 1937 he was already fifty-five; the cornice along which he walked was at the level of the fifth floor, and, besides, it was already dark.

- Baron, this is a job for fire brigade. Why risk your life? – one of the guests asked him.

“It’s a habit, my dear,” answered the baron with his usual cold smile.

Everyone understood what this meant. The German armies concentrated on the border. Most of those who found themselves in the same position as Louis considered it best to leave. His brother Eugene moved to his Parisian home. The eldest, Alphonse, disappeared across the Swiss border. But Louis continued to stay in Vienna.

With cold recklessness, Louis walked towards his fate. Oddly enough, business life at the bank was busier than ever. His secretaries still worked diligently in his silk-lined office in Rengasse. As before, on Wednesdays the curator of the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum had breakfast with the baron and held a kind of art seminar for him. As before, on Friday mornings, the professor of the botanical garden came to the baron, loaded with new curious specimens of plants. As before, on Sundays the director of the Anatomical Institute visited the baron and discussed with him various diagrams and books on biology.

Monsieur Baron still rode his faithful Lipizzaners twice a week. Life went on as usual, but the baron's friends at the jockey club shook their heads. Louis Rothschild, head of the House of Austria and the living embodiment of a Jewish capitalist, aroused the Fuhrer's special hatred. Why should the Baron stay? Why turn yourself into a living target?

This behavior was justified for two reasons. And both were dynastic. One of them was hidden from society, only Louis’s employees knew about it, and it became public knowledge much later. Another reason was known and obvious to everyone. As head of the House of Austria, Louis was constantly in the spotlight. Even a hint of his departure could completely destroy the financial machine of Austria, which was already working intermittently. The head of the House of Rothschild (we have already encountered similar cases) is, first of all, a principle, and then a person.

The Baron was famous for his desire for perfection in everything; for him, the principle turned into dogma. He did not move closer to the border. At Hitler's request, the Austrian Chancellor traveled to Berchtesgaden, and at the same time Louis left Vienna to ski in the Austrian Alps. However, when a courier from the French House of Rothschild arrived in Kitzbüchel on March 1, 1938, warning him of danger, Louis postponed his ski trips and returned to Vienna. He had no intention of fleeing to Zurich.

On Thursday, March 10, the baron received a final warning from Switzerland by telegraph. The next morning, German troops rushed across the border. The ship of state was inevitably going down, and no principles could save the situation. On Saturday around noon, Louis and his valet Edward arrived at Vienna airport, they were about to fly to Italy. The pretext was the need to visit a polo team that belonged to the baron. At the control, already two steps from the plane, the checking SS officer recognized the baron and confiscated his passport.

“Then,” the valet recalled, “we went home and waited.”

The wait was short. In the evening, two men with swastikas on their armbands appeared in front of the Rothschild palace, as well as in front of hundreds of other Jewish houses.

The butler could not allow such a violation of etiquette as an arrest. First he must find out if Monsieur Baron is at home. A couple of minutes later the butler returned and told the visitors that Mister Baron was absent. Stunned by this reception, the warriors muttered something incomprehensible and disappeared into the night.

But on Sunday they returned again, this time accompanied by six thugs in steel helmets and with pistols, to give a fitting rebuff to the machinations of high society. Monsieur Baron invited the elder to go into the office and informed him that after lunch he was ready to follow him. Those who came were confused, consulted and reached a verdict: let him eat.

The Baron ate for the last time amid splendor and luxury. Surrounded by guards, playing with pistols, standing not far from the table. The footmen bowed as they brought in dishes of food, and the room was filled with the aroma of sauces. The Baron leisurely finished his meal; after the fruit, as always, I rinsed my fingers in a special cup; wiped his hands with a damask napkin; enjoyed the obligatory afternoon cigarette; took heart medication; approved the menu for the next day and only after that nodded to those who came and left with them.

Late at night it became clear that he would not return. Early in the morning, the conscientious valet Edward packed the owner's unique bed linen, his toiletry set, carefully selected underwear and outerwear, several books on the history of art and botany - the usual set that the baron took with him when he had to accept another tedious invitation to a weekend party. end. Everything was put into a pigskin suitcase, with which Edward appeared at the police headquarters. He was driven away, and he was forced to leave under the evil laughter of the police.

The appearance of the valet played a role. The Nazi interrogator was intrigued, and he devoted his first interrogation of Louis to satisfying his easily understandable curiosity.

- So, then you are Rothschild. Well, how much money do you have?

Louis replied that if his entire staff of accountants were brought together and provided with the latest information on the world stock and commodity markets, they would need to work for several days to give a relatively accurate answer.

- Good good. How much is your palace worth?

Rothschild looked at the inquisitive gentleman in surprise and answered the question with a question:

– How much does the Vienna City Cathedral cost?

This was an accurate assessment.

“And you are impudent,” the investigator roared. To some extent, he was right.

The guard sent the baron down to the basement. Louis had to carry sandbags. Communist leaders worked side by side with him and became his comrades in misfortune.

“We got along well,” Louis recalled, “everyone agreed that our basement was the most declassed basement in the world.”

Other unusual events also occurred. Rothschild's manager in Switzerland began receiving letters with strange content. Their authors were ladies - three of the most famous whores of Central Europe, closely associated with the Nazi police in Vienna. The ladies offered themselves as intermediaries when discussing the ransom. The Rothschilds have long been famous as skillful diplomats; they could negotiate with anyone - and would have come to an agreement even with such unusual partners, if fate had not decreed otherwise.

At the end of April, people in Berlin finally paid attention to what kind of bird was sitting in their cage. The Baron was freed from both the communists and the sandbags and placed in a special cell in the Vienna headquarters of the Gestapo, next to the imprisoned Austrian chancellor. You could say Louis got a promotion. From a simple police prison he ended up in the most secret dungeon of the Reich, where he was guarded by 24 young men, shod in boots and belted with leather belts. The Baron called them “my grenadiers” and did not let them down. During his imprisonment, he turned into a boring professor, teaching his uncouth guards geology and botany.

Soon a new emissary appeared in Switzerland, the successor of the famous ladies. His name was Otto Weber, and he introduced himself as the “partner” of Dr. Gritzbach, personal adviser to Hermann Goering. It became clear who now ordered the music. Gradually, the outlines of the terms of the agreement began to emerge. Mister Baron will be able to gain his freedom if Marshal Goering receives $200,000 as compensation for his troubles, and German Reich will become the owner of all other assets of the House of Austria. Most of all the Germans were interested in the Czech Vitkovitz, where the largest developments in Central Europe were located iron ore and coal.

The news was not good. The highest ransom ever demanded for the baron world history. Negotiations on the part of the Rothschilds were conducted in Zurich and Paris by Eugene and Alphonse, and they had a trump card in store. It turns out that everything was wonderful: Vitkowitz, owned by the Austrian Rothschild, somehow magically turned into English property. In pre-war 1938, this meant that he was out of Goering's clutches.

This is exactly what Louis' office was doing in 1936 and 1937. Everything was done before it was too late. All the baron’s activities were concentrated around this transformation. He was assisted by a careful, experienced bank clerk, old man Leonard Keesing. Together they managed to transfer about twenty-one million dollars under the protection of the national flag of the United Kingdom. The financial operation, similar to the plot of a spy novel, was carried out in the best traditions of the Rothschild family.

How did Louis Rothschild manage to achieve this? He was well aware that it was impossible to transfer such huge enterprises as Witkowitz from the ownership of one state to the ownership of another until agreement was reached at the highest level of government. Therefore, Rothschild began by very carefully convincing the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia in 1936 of the need to transfer Vitkowitz. After all, if the developments remain under Austrian control, this will jeopardize the security of Czechoslovakia itself in the event that Vienna falls under German rule. At the same time, and in deep secrecy, the Austrian Chancellor was hinted that the Czech government, known for its anti-Austrian and anti-German sentiments, might go ahead with the nationalization of Vitkowitz if it remained the property of Austria. Thus, both Vienna and Prague, for completely different reasons, agreed to Rothschild's proposal.

This was followed by the legal and financial arrangements for the transfer of property, carried out with rare skill. Experts successfully used the fact that the Rothschilds were not the only shareholders of Witkowitz, although they owned the majority of the share capital. The owners of the remaining, smaller part were the large Austro-Jewish von Gutmann family, which was on the verge of ruin. To pay their debts, the Gutmanns were forced to sell their share of shares. At the same time, it was necessary to completely overhaul Witkowitz's existing corporate structure and create a new, unified structure. Under the guise of this reorganization, the multimillion-dollar enterprise, as if by chance, changed its owner country.

All this sleight of hand would be completely useless if additional precautions were not taken. If Louis had transferred the share capital owned by the Rothschilds directly to an English holding company, then in the event of war with Germany, such property would fall under the provisions of the Trade with States at War Act with Great Britain, since the transaction clearly had a German imprint. Louis foresaw this danger already in the peaceful 30s, which is why he carried out a multi-stage deal. First, the capital was transferred to Switzerland and Holland, which were supposed to either remain neutral or become allies of Great Britain in case of war. And after that the final deal was carried out.

Witkowitz became a branch of Alliance Insurance, one of the largest London companies, under the jurisdiction of Great Britain and under the protection of His Majesty's Government. But the most curious thing is that most of the capital of this company belonged to the very Rothschilds who sold Witkowitz.

Napoleon and Bismarck fought unsuccessfully against the Family. Goering was not the largest, but quite a serious opponent of the clan. However, he was not successful either. The Reichsmarshal was forced to retreat. But it was not Jewish cunning that stopped him, but his own Aryan comrade-in-arms. Heinrich Himmler took the stage.

At the beginning of 1939, Otto Weber, who represented Goering's interests, was arrested.

Obviously, the Nazis were settling an internecine conflict that arose over the division of Rothschild wealth. Berlin changed the negotiating team.

Now all issues related to the ransom were decided by Himmler rather than by Goering. The Rothschild family continued to insist on their terms, despite the change in the enemy team. The family was ready to exchange all the Rothschild assets in Austria for the safety of Baron Louis. Control of Witkowitz is transferred to Germany only after the Baron's release, with the Rothschilds receiving three million pounds from Germany as compensation.

Berlin was indignant. Berlin threatened. In fact, German troops had already occupied Vitkowitz - Czechoslovakia was captured. But the German lawyers understood perfectly well that the British flag and international law still stood between them and the legal ownership of the coveted Vitkowitz.

Nazi newspapers did not skimp on articles exposing the Rothschilds, who were called nothing less than the scourge of humanity, and in the meantime a new method of working with prisoners was put into use. One day, a high-ranking visitor appeared in Louis's cell. The door opened and Heinrich Himmler entered. He wished Mister Baron good morning; he offered Monsieur Baron an expensive cigarette; he asked if Monsieur Baron had any wishes or complaints; then got down to business. Once alone great person visited another great man, why don't they settle the trivial differences between them?

However, Mr. Baron, a passionate smoker, was not interested in cigars this time. He was cold and curt.

When Herr Himmler finally took his leave, Rothschild's position regarding the rights to Witkowitz had not changed one iota.

Then a shower of gold rained down on the baron's tiny cell. An hour after Himmler’s departure, the baron’s “grenadiers” brought in first a heavy, pompous clock from the time of Louis XIV, and then a huge vase from the time of Louis XV; the prison bed was covered with an orange velvet blanket, and colorful pillows were placed on top of it. And finally, a radio appeared on a stand covered with what looked like a silk skirt.

So Himmler tried to create a homely atmosphere in Rothschild’s cell. And his initiative brought results. The Baron had stoically endured the ugliness of the things around him for many weeks, but now his self-control had deserted him.

– The cell resembled a Krakow brothel! – he recalled many years later. And this was one of the few times when the baron allowed himself to speak out so sharply.

At the insistence of the prisoner, the guards removed all this “incomparable beauty.” An exception was made only for the radio, which the baron personally stripped from his loud attire. It is quite possible that this fiasco forced the SS to abandon further attempts to soften the baron. Several days passed. Around eleven in the evening, Louis Rothschild was told that his terms had been accepted and he could leave.

“It’s too late now,” said the baron, leaving his jailers in complete confusion, “none of my friends will be able to meet me, and the servants have been sleeping for a long time.”

The Baron said he would leave in the morning. For the first time in the history of the Gestapo, one of the prisoners who had received freedom asked for overnight accommodation in a cell. The prison management decided to consult with Berlin on long-distance communications. The baron spent his last night in prison as a guest.

A few days later he landed in Switzerland. And two months later, in July 1939, the Reich undertook to purchase Witkowitz for £2,900,000.

But war broke out almost immediately, and this deal was never completed. Formally, Vitkowitz is still English property today. After the Czech communists came to power, Vitkovic was nationalized. However, in 1953 London signed a trade agreement with Prague. One of the clauses guaranteed the return of confiscated property of British subjects, including Vitkowitz. Prague fulfilled the agreement. Following this, legislation passed through Parliament would enable an English corporate agent (such as Alliance Insurance) on behalf of non-British owners (such as former Austrian and now US citizen Rothschild) to obtain compensation due to them.

As a result of these activities, the Rothschild family, still one of the richest in the world, received restitution payments of one million pounds from the communist government of Czechoslovakia.

After the war, Louis lived like a fairy-tale prince should after he killed the dragon. He settled in America. The Viennese baron became a truly rich Yankee (he no longer allowed himself to ride the subway), first a brilliant bachelor, and then an elderly but happy husband. In 1946, he married Countess Hilda von Ausperg, one of the most attractive representatives of the Austrian aristocracy.

The couple visited Austria during the famine years, shortly after the collapse of Nazi Germany. The news of the baron's return instantly spread throughout Vienna. A crowd of people gathered around the hotel where he was staying. The Viennese asked for bread - and Rothschild gave it to them. In a generous gesture, Louis transferred all his property in Austria to the Austrian government. At the same time, the government had to fulfill the condition set by Rothschild, which was to create a pension fund. A special law was issued according to which Louis Rothschild's assets were placed under the management of a powerful, specially created state pension fund. In this way, the baron provided each of his former employees and servants with a regular income, as well as the same pension benefits, guarantees and privileges enjoyed by retired Austrian civil servants.

The baron then returned to his extensive farm in East Barnard, Vermont. The New England mountains reminded him of the Alps, and the sarcastic nature of the Vermonters matched his own. The Baron was visited by professors of fine arts and botany from Dartmouth. His brother, Baron Eugene, came from his estate in Long Island, who lived until the 60s and even married the star of the English stage, Jean Stewart. Baroness Hilda not only grew a beautiful garden on the baron's lands, she managed to create a happy and warm home for him. The Baron never thought that he would love a calm family life. But he loved her. The Rothschilds held dances to open air, and the baron danced on the platform in front of the barn with the same cold grace with which he once waltzed across the parquet floors of Vienna. He passed away in his eighties, as befits a great ruler: he sailed in Montego Bay under a beautiful blue Caribbean sky.

The Second World War had a profound impact on the Rothschilds in both England and France. When German tanks rolled into Paris in 1940, the French Rothschilds were in danger. The eldest, Edward, Robert and Maurice (grandsons of the founder of the French dynasty, James), managed to escape. Their wanderings, accompanied by much trouble, ended in the United States or England.

The famous rascal Maurice proved himself to be an excellent businessman. Having fled to England, he took with him a bag of jewelry worth approximately a million dollars. He sold most of them, and then for several years constantly monitored his broker by telephone, who placed the funds received from the sale. When Maurice returned to France after the war, it turned out that his bag had become a fortune, impressive even by Rothschild standards.

The older members of the clan saw the better side of war, if there is such a thing as war. best side. The young, who helped the old to forge the well-being of the family, saw her terrible face, as did soldiers around the world. Robert's sons, Elie and Alain, were among the defenders of the Maginot Line, and both were captured by the Germans. No special measures were applied to them, which was possibly due to the outcome of Louis's case as a hostage. In the autumn, when France fell, Edward's son, Guy, fell into the Dunkers trap. He managed to escape and reached New York in 1941. When did the armed forces begin to form? free France, Guy went to England. Along the way, while crossing the Atlantic, his ship was torpedoed. The guy floated out. He had to stay in the water for about three hours, after which he was picked up by a British torpedo bomber. Guy carried out many of de Gaulle's confidential instructions (and has since been in close contact with the general close relations); Guy participated in the two-month defense of the front line after D-Day and ended the war as aide-de-camp to the military governor of Paris.

No less striking, but more characteristic of the Family were the military adventures of another Rothschild.

“We know how to manage the state of affairs,” Baron Philippe Mouton Rothschild used to say. – Throughout our lives, we manage events and use an unconventional approach - a breakthrough! - an eternal headache for military bureaucrats.

(Philip was the great-grandson of the same Nathaniel who moved from England to France. Thus, his descendants were English according to the family tree, but French by citizenship.)

Philip accurately described his lifestyle. In 1940, he was recovering from a serious injury he received while skiing. The Germans entered Paris. Philip fled to Morocco but was arrested by the Vichy government, which was acting at the behest of the German Armistice Commission. In prison, Philip continued to manage the state of affairs: he organized language schools and gymnastics sections; Among the fellow prisoners whom he managed to subdue was also Pierre Mendes France. Philip was returned to France and released from prison, then he fled to Spain with smugglers. Together they made a forty-two-hour trek through the Pyrenees, during which Baron Rothschild invited his companions to make a number of improvements in the safe operation of smugglers. Having adequately coped with the difficulties of the transition, already in Spain he helped several prisoners escape; penetrated into Portugal, and from there by steamship to England. There he joined de Gaulle. In London he was placed at the Free French Officers' Club, which was located at 107 Piccadilly, the mansion of his great-aunt Hannah. Here he was familiar with every corner - and he immediately began to completely reorganize the placement of officers. At the same time, Philip did not bother to inform the French military administration, which, of course, could not but cause criticism. During D-Day, Philip did dull logistical work.

Baron Philip's organizational skills attracted the attention of the British, and in the first months after the invasion he was put in charge of working with the civilian population in the area around Le Havre. Philip was awarded the Military Cross and the Legion of Honor.

Among the English Rothschilds, two were of conscription age at the beginning of the war. This is Edmund (grandson of the sentimental Leo) and Lord Victor (grandson of Natty). Each of them inherited a fair share of family willfulness. Edmund, a major in the artillery, served in the Italian and North African campaigns. In the 60s he headed the Bank of England. His behavior in the army was typical of all Rothschilds who found themselves in military service.

“Eddie was one of our best officers,” said one of his front-line friends. “But what he never learned was how to navigate the chain of command.” No matter which of our fellow soldiers gets into trouble, say, a person’s mother has died and he urgently needs to file for dismissal, he urgently needs money, no one has asked for assistance through official channels. No, everyone went straight to Eddie. Everyone, even those who served in other units, knew perfectly well that he would take a Rothschild checkbook out of his pocket or grab the telephone receiver. To help out his old comrade, he could calmly call Buckingham Palace.

“Eddie,” I told him, “you shouldn’t do this. This guy is just an asshole. We need to write a paper on his case and send it to higher authorities with your recommendation.”

“So what will these authorities of yours do with my paper?” - he asked.

At that moment, when Eddie did anything in the civilian sphere, he simply did not understand that anyone could be a higher authority in relation to him.

“They showed themselves excellent at the command level,” said another witness to the military life of Family members. “But once below that level, they can cause trouble.” You understand, they were born and raised as field marshals, and it is very difficult for them to be simple majors. We would have avoided a lot of trouble if the Rothschilds had been given high military rank automatically.

One day, this tribe of stubborn field marshals was faced with a stubbornness rivaling their own. The events took place in Robert's magnificent palace at 23 Avenue Marigny in Paris. Today his eldest son Alen lives there. Unlike all the other palaces belonging to the Family across the Seine, this one managed to survive the entire war virtually undamaged. Goering always allowed his fellows to feel free in the Rothschild mansions, and in Robert’s palace he placed the headquarters of the commander of the air force in France. Surprisingly, after these uninvited guests, the palace remained in almost the same condition in which they found it. Goering himself, who never denied himself the pleasure of appropriating valuables belonging to the Rothschilds, often visited house 23 on Avenue Marigny, but did not touch anything there. The palace was not damaged during the shootings that accompanied the liberation.

The troubles started later. A young English lieutenant colonel was settled in the palace, and he brought with him a laboratory that turned out to be more dangerous than Goering. The Englishman began conducting experiments with highly dangerous explosives, and all this is very close to priceless paintings and rare furniture. Baron Robert has not yet returned. His helpless employees watched the flashes in awe and listened to the hum of the equipment. It was very difficult to evict the lieutenant colonel. This was not some idle slacker, but one of the most skilled experimenters of the British Empire. For his bomb disposal techniques, he received one of Britain's most honorable awards, the George Medal, the American Bronze Star and the American Order of Merit. But Baron Robert's employees were frightened not so much by this as by the fact that this lieutenant colonel was none other than Lord Victor Rothschild.

The officials responsible for housing the Allies in Paris decided that it would be a good idea to place the lieutenant colonel in his cousin's house. But they could not foresee with what zeal he would set to work, and completely failed to take into account the tenacity with which the members of the Family pursued their goals. It took the combined efforts of the British High Command and the American Army's Monuments, Arts and Archives Division to move the industrious Lord to more suitable quarters.

Lord Rothschild's stay on the Avenue Marigny was the final act of the play that took place in art world during the war. After the fall of France, the Rothschilds, like many Jews, were forced to flee, leaving behind all their property. The most valuable assets of the fleeing families were their vast art collections, valued at millions of dollars. How could they be protected from Nazi robbers?

The Rothschilds took care to protect their treasures long before World War II, with typical foresight. Back in 1873, after the fall Paris Commune, Baron Alphonse decided that his huge art collection needed special protective measures. For each piece of painting, sculpture or tailoring, padded, lightweight, portable containers were made. For each new acquisition, a suitable container was immediately made, so during the First World War and the unrest provoked by the Popular Front in the 1930s, the collections of the private Rothschild museums simply disappeared quietly during the crisis.

But this was just the beginning, something like a trial test of strength. When German tanks entered Paris in the summer of 1940, the greedy enemy began to systematically seek out the most valuable canvases and sculptures that belonged to the Rothschilds.

Sometimes the Nazis were fooled. Many paintings were transported to the embassies of Spain, Argentina and other countries, where they were carefully guarded during the occupation. Several of the most valuable paintings remained in storage throughout the war. secret room at the palace on Avenue Marigny. The employees who knew about this secret storage facility did not say a word, and the Germans never received any information. Goering often walked past the bookcase that separated him from the portraits that his agents were chasing throughout France, and did not even suspect that the coveted paintings were literally at hand.

But most of the Rothschild treasures could not be saved. All precautions were in vain. For example, a vast collection of valuable works was transferred to the Louvre Museum and thus received protection as national property of France. A useless ploy. The art belonging to the Family was so well known, and the Führer was so fond of art, that he issued a special decree regarding nationalized art objects previously owned by the Rothschilds. In one document later captured by the Allies, Nazi Germany's Commander-in-Chief, Keitel, instructed the Nazi military government in occupied France as follows:

“In addition to the Fuhrer’s order to search ... in the occupied territories for valuables of interest to Germany (and to protect the above-mentioned valuables through the Gestapo), it has been decided:

All agreements on the transfer of private property to the French state or similar acts concluded after September 1, 1939 are considered inconsistent with the law and invalid (... for example, property located in the Rothschild palace). The transfer of ownership based on the above-mentioned acts for the above-mentioned valuables subject to search, confiscation and transportation to Germany is considered invalid.”

Reichsleiter Rosenberg received clear and precise instructions from the Fuehrer, who personally supervised the confiscations. Rosenberg was obliged and received the right to select, transport to Germany and protect cultural property. The decision about their future fate was made by Hitler himself.

Hitler's chief marauder, Alfred Rosenberg, performed his duties perfectly. Baron Edward hid most of his collection in a stud farm at Haras-de-Mautry in Normandy. Baron Robert set up a hiding place at Laversine Castle near Chantilly, in Marmande, in southwestern France. Rosenberg discovered both caches, as well as many others. Soon, entire trains filled with priceless art objects from the Rothschild collections were heading to Germany.

After the liberation of France, all the country castles and town houses of the Rothschilds, with the exception of the palace on Avenue Marigny, were completely free of even traces of any works of art. The process of restoring the collections began immediately after the expulsion of the Nazis and continued for many years. It was an exciting detective story.

The new Sherlock Holmes was James J. Rorymer, then an officer in the arts division of the 7th US Army, who later became director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He arrived in Paris immediately after liberation and immediately interviewed many people who might know something about the whereabouts of the missing works of art. From a crowd of supposedly insiders, each of whom claimed that he had the key to the solution and only he knew where the priceless Goya was hidden, Rorimer chose a girl named Rose Walland. Rose was an art historian and in this capacity helped the Nazis classify their loot. But she was also a member of the French Resistance and therefore collected all the information available to her about the movement of art objects. It was she who told Rorimer that all the information about artistic values ​​and, most likely, part of these values ​​themselves are located in Neuschwastein Castle, near Fussen, in Bavaria.

When Bavaria fell nine months later, Rorimer, without hesitating a moment, went straight to the castle in a jeep. Neuschwastein was built by Ludwig of Bavaria (the Mad) in a pseudo-Gothic style. Like an ominous phantom, he towered on top of the rock, creating a picturesque backdrop for the continuation of the story. Rory-mere crossed two courtyards, linked by intricate passages, and climbed a spiral staircase, ideal for attack by masked conspirators. Finally he reached the room he needed. It was here that there was a center where all the information about the treasures looted by Hitler was collected.

The methodical Germans acted in full accordance with their excellent reputation. The room was filled with neatly arranged drawers of filing cabinets and filing folders. The Nazis carefully preserved and used the catalogs of each of the 203 private collections they requisitioned. It took Rorimer, one of the greatest experts in the field of art history, a whole day to roughly estimate the value of the find. He discovered 8,000 negatives and about 22,000 individual index cards for confiscated art. The surname Rothschild was mentioned more often than any other. They owned approximately 4,000 works.

Another important discovery was made in the same room. Rorimer removed the charred remains of a Nazi uniform from a coal oven, in which he discovered a half-damaged document with Hitler's signature and several rubber stamps. These charred stamps turned out to be the key that allowed us to solve the mystery of the largest organized robbery. On the stamps, Rorimer discovered ciphers indicating the location of all other secret storage facilities. A small room in an Alpine castle held the key to countless and priceless treasures. To ensure that no one dared to break into this vault during his absence, Rorimer sealed the door with the Rothschild seal. The inscription on it read: “Semper Fidelis,” which in Latin means “ALWAYS FAITHFUL.”

Then a systematic survey of the castle began. In the kitchen, behind the stove, Rorimer discovered Rubens's "The Three Graces" from the collection of Maurice Rothschild and several other masterpieces. But not all of the Family's treasures were hidden so carefully. In one of the halls of the castle there were rows of fireplace screens taken from the Rothschild houses, representing unique examples of tapestry art. Another room was filled to the ceiling with Rothschild furniture dating back to the eras of Louis XV and Louis XVI, stacked on special racks. The castle also housed boxes of Renaissance jewelry from the Rothschild collections and a collection of 18th-century snuff boxes belonging to Maurice Rothschild.

Other treasures were hidden in monasteries, castles and even mines. Tapestries, carpets and textiles were discovered in the Carthusian monastery, most of which belonged to the Rothschilds. These most valuable samples were simply dumped on the floor of the Buxheim Chapel. In a salt mine near Alt-Aussee, in Austria, a huge number of sculptures, paintings and several libraries were discovered, stored there on the orders of the Fuhrer. Some of these treasures also belonged to the Rothschilds.

Of course, some of the caches were moved just before the collapse of Nazi Germany. The search for a number of works turned into lengthy, difficult and sometimes dangerous undertakings. But, generally speaking, most of the Family’s collections were discovered fairly quickly, and works by great masters flocked to France from all over Germany. A special center was set up in Paris with its own coordinating committee, where Rothschild employees identified the returned works. The Rothschild butlers spent weeks trying to figure out which house a particular work had come from: this Watteau belonged to Baron Louis, and this Picasso belonged to Baron Ely, and whose Tiepolo was it, Baron Philippe or Baron Alain?

On this aesthetic note, the Rothschilds' participation in World War II ended.