GREECE: SCIENTISTS AND DIVERS BEGIN SEARCH OFF KALAMATA FOR LOST TREASURES TAKEN FROM GREEK JEWS BY A NAZI OFFICER DURING WWII

Record ID: 647192

  • Title: GREECE: SCIENTISTS AND DIVERS BEGIN SEARCH OFF KALAMATA FOR LOST TREASURES TAKEN FROM GREEK JEWS BY A NAZI OFFICER DURING WWII
  • Date: 11th August 2000
  • Summary: (PORT NEAR KALAMATA, GREECE, REUTERS, ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF BOATS TO BE USED FOR DIVE LOADED WITH EQUIPMENT (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. VARIOUS OF DIVERS PREPARING TO DEPART FOR DIVE (4 SHOTS) 0.32 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JIM VENERIS, RELATIVE OF MAN FUNDING THE PROJECT, SAYING: "We've got very good information where the targets are, so we will try these targets and then continue on from there. REPORTER ASKING: "Have you spoken to the locals, do they know anything?" VENERIS SAYING: "It's an old legend around here so where there is smoke there is fire. I am very certain we are going to find our targets." 0.53 4. SV: VENERIS SPEAKING TO REPORTERS 0.57 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREGOIRE KOULBANIS, SCIENTIST/DIVER WHO PARTICIPATED IN JACQUES COUSTEAU'S OCEANOGRAPHIC SEARCHES SAYING: "It's too early to say something. We must first make the investigation and afte that we can really say if we have to keep going or not. 1.12 6. TRAVELLING SHOT: VIEW OF PORT AS BOAT LEAVES 1.17 7. LV; MAIN DIVING BOAT CONDUCTION SEARCH IN THE WATER 1.23 8. MV: DINGY BRINGING STATE ARCHAEOLGIST TO THE DIVING BOAT 1.26 9. VARIOUS OF MAIN DIVING BOAT (3 SHOTS) 1.38 (ATHENS, REUTERS, ACCESS ALL) 10. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(Greek) PRESIDENT OF GREECE'S BORAD OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES MOSES CONSTANTINIS SAYING: "This treasure includes what we know Merten took. He took gold, it is known that the Jews of this period kept their wealth in gold. We believe there are gold coins, gold bars, as well as jewellry and diamonds that he took from the 65,000 Jews of Macedonia. REPORTER ASKING: "Do you know it's worth?" CONSTANTINIS SAYING: "This I don't know. Various information I am getting is that its worth is immense. The fact is it has to be a very large amount. It depends what he managed to accumulate in a hurry and take away before the allies had reached the beaches of Normandy. 2.36 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 26th August 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KALAMATA AND ATHENS, GREECE
  • Country: Greece
  • Reuters ID: LVACF3V6MQW0HP3XT6QJIJZN0B15
  • Story Text: Scientists and divers have begun searching the sea off
    southern Greece for lost treasure taken from Greek Jews by a
    Nazi officer during World War Two.



    The international team of experts and divers plans to
    explore the coast between the towns of Pylos and Kalamata for
    five days from Friday (August 11) to look for gold and jewels
    believed to be 80 metres under water.

    Estimates of the haul's worth have ranged from a few
    million to more than 2 billionusd, but no one is sure what is
    actually there.

    "Its worth is immense", said Moses Constantinis, president
    of Greece's Board of Jewish Communities, which is backing the
    search. "The (exact) amount depends on how much he managed to
    accumulate and whisk away before the allies reached the
    beaches of Normandy".

    Nazi officer Max Merten blackmailed the large Jewish
    community in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki,
    threatening them with concentration camps and execution unless
    they gave up their valuables.

    The city, once known as the Second Jerusalem for its
    thriving Jewish community, had about 60,000 of Greeces 75,000
    Jews before the war. Most of them died in Nazi camps.

    As the war was ending, Merten loaded the treasure on a
    boat and sank it off the Peloponnese coast before escaping to
    Germany in 1943, planning to come back and recover it.

    But upon his return in 1957 he was identified by one of
    his Jewish victims and arrested. Greece sentenced him for war
    crimes but after a 1959 amnesty he was deported to Germany,
    where he died in the 1970s.

    Merten shared his secret of the sunken treasure with a Greek
    inmate. The man, who remains anonymous, told the Jewish
    community and is funding the search. Jim Veneris, a relative
    of his who was present at the dive, said he believed they
    would achieve their target of finding the treasure.

    The team of experts includes Gregoire Koulbania, a
    scientist from Jacques Cousteaus oceanographic searches, a
    Greek state archaeologist, and Greek divers and sonar experts.

    The team was given the official go-ahead on Thursday (August
    10) after a month of bureaucratic delays.

    Constantinis said he was trying not to raise his hopes too
    high that the treasure would be found. He is also aware that
    the search was stirring uncomfortable memories in the Jewish
    community.

    He would not comment on how the treasure would be
    distributed, but said it belonged to the Jews of Greece. Only
    5,000 Jews remain in the country today.

    Local press reports said the treasure will be divided
    among the unidentified man funding the project, the Greek
    state and the Jewish community.
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