In 1945, four members of the United States Army—Captain Kathleen Nash (later Durant), Colonel Jack Durant, Major David Watson, and Technician Fifth Grade Roy Carlton—stole valuables worth an estimated $36 million (2021 value) from Schloss Friedrichshof, a 19th-century castle in Hesse, Germany. The stolen items, which included jewellery, ornate tableware, family bibles, and snuff boxes belonging to the House of Hesse, had been hidden in the castle during World War II to protect them from bombing raids.
The valuables were inventoried, individually wrapped, and stored in a zinc-lined waterproof wooden box, which was buried beneath concrete and concealed by a false wall in the basement of the castle on October 31, 1944. American forces reached the castle on March 29, 1945, and requisitioned it for use as an officers' club in April. Captain Nash was placed in charge of the mess section and the safekeeping of the castle’s contents. Despite heightened security, multiple thefts occurred prior to November. Durant was assigned to Germany in August, with Watson later appointed as his quartermaster.
In November, the box was discovered—either by Carlton or Nash’s assistant—and moved to Nash’s room, where she opened it and removed the contents. She informed Durant, who then asked Watson to research regulations on abandoned German property. Watson was fully involved by November 8, and the three met to decide the fate of the valuables. Initially planning to keep only a few items, they ultimately chose to take everything.
The discovery was reported to the Hesse family the following day. On November 10, Heinrich Lange, manager of the Schloss Friedrichshof estate, requested Nash to formalize the discovery and arrange its return, but no action was taken. By January 1946, the family reported the suspected theft to the US Army office responsible for protecting German artifacts. A direct appeal to the Army's Criminal Investigation Division in mid-April led to an investigation that lasted until June, resulting in the arrests of Nash and Durant in Chicago and Watson in Frankfurt. Carlton avoided trial by agreeing to testify.
All except Carlton were sentenced to hard labor: Nash received five years, Watson three, and Durant fifteen years as the ringleader. Nash briefly won an appeal but was re-imprisoned after the government successfully challenged it. Watson was paroled in 1947 and received a presidential pardon from Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957. Durant’s appeals failed, and he served his full sentence. Over half of the stolen jewels and most of the precious metals were never recovered, and many of the returned items had significantly depreciated in value.
Background
Princes Philipp and Christoph of Hesse
Schloss Friedrichshof belonged to the House of Hesse-Kassel, the head of which at the time was Prince Philipp of Hesse. Both he and his brother, Prince Christoph of Hesse, had close relationships with Hermann Göring in the 1930s. Philipp joined the Nazi Party on October 1, 1930, while Christoph joined the party the following year and later the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1932, reaching the rank of Oberführer by 1939. Christoph began working in the Forschungsamt by 1934, taking charge of it by 1935. In 1935 he was given a reserve commission in the Luftwaffe, volunteering to serve actively at the start of the war in September 1939 and briefly flying reconnaissance missions on the Eastern Front in June 1941 before an order which forbade German princes from taking part in combat was signed that year. He took part in various campaigns, twice in Sicily and once North Africa, and was later killed in a plane crash on October 7, 1943.
While the Nazi sympathies of both men is debated by historians, Philipp was an open admirer of Adolf Hitler. Philipp served in World War I, briefly participating in combat in Ukraine in 1918. He joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) some time prior to 1931, when he actively began participating in marches with the group. He joined the Nuremberg Rallies from 1933 until 1938, reaching the rank of Obergruppenführer in 1937. He later received the Golden Party Badge in 1939. He also served as a liaison between Benito Mussolini and Hitler, becoming a major link between the two during the Anschluss and the Munich Agreement of 1938, and the occupation of Czechoslovakia and the Invasion of Poland the following year. Between 1939 and 1940, he worked to keep the two apart, advocating for peace.
His relationship with Göring had deteriorated by 1939, with his relationship with Hitler deteriorating following Philipp's frank assessment of Italy and issues with Mussolini. Hitler summoned him to Berchtesgaden in April 1943, forcing Philipp to travel with him where he went, placing him under what was essentially house arrest. He was allowed to leave to visit his family during his son's operation in July that year, though was recalled urgently three days prior to the arrest of Mussolini. Hitler tried to use Philipp as a bargaining chip, formally arresting him on September 8, 1943. He was brought before Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo, where he was stripped of his party membership, his rank in the SA and an honorary commission with the Luftwaffe, after which he was imprisoned at Flossenbürg concentration camp until mid-April 1945; he was then transported frequently, first to Dachau, then to multiple camps to avoid his capture by the advancing Allied forces.
He was captured by British forces when Germany surrendered and transferred to Camp Ashcan, Luxembourg. He returned to Germany in August that year before being imprisoned in Darmstadt in 1946. Multiple charges were levied against him, though he was found guilty of none until his denazification trial the following December; after three days, the board placed him into Category II, the second highest of five categories. He appealed this from 1948–1949 and had his category reduced to Category III, which he appealed again the following year and again was reduced to category IV.
Schloss Friedrichshof and officer's club The castle was built in the 19th century by Victoria, Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria. She had modelled it after Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Prior to the castle's occupation by American forces in 1945 and spurred on by the worsening bombardment of the Frankfurt area – where large portions of their valuables had been stored in various banks – the Hesse family decided to hide their most valuable possessions, including tiaras, necklaces and bracelets encrusted with valuable gems, gold cutlery, family bibles and snuff boxes, in Schloss Friedrichshof. In all, the valuables were estimated to be worth over $2.5 million at the time, or $36 million in 2021. They were individually packaged and inventoried before being placed in a zinc-lined and waterproof wooden box. On the evening of October 31, 1944, the family's staff buried the box in the basement, covering the spot with cement and installing a false wall.
American forces arrived at Schloss Friedrichshof on March 29, 1945; elements of George S Patton's U.S. Third Army arrived in April and announced that the castle was to be requisitioned by American forces. It was to serve as one of 14 officers clubs in the Frankfurt area that Major Joseph Hartley was assigned to form. The residents, which included Philipp's mother and sister in law Sophia, were given four hours to pack and leave, with male family members being arrested. The rest were forced into cottages on the grounds. Upon realising the running of the castle would be too much for him to handle, Hartley assigned Women's Army Corps Captain Kathleen Nash to manage the mess section of the officer's club, ensure the safekeeping of the contents within the castle, and given the authority to use items within the house as required.
Within her first week, a painting and a sculpted marble hand disappeared. Nash informed authorities, with an investigation being launched by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID). Several other objects disappeared during her time as well, with Nash reporting the thefts multiple times to CID. A check-in desk was set up at the castle, with a former servant of the house being placed at the door to spot attempted thieves; despite this, small items continued to disappear.
She eventually met Colonel Jack Durant, an Army Air Forces staff officer who had been assigned to Germany in August 1945 as executive officer to the deputy chief of staff of the Army Air Forces in Europe. Reportedly, they became quick friends, drinking heavily together. They were later joined by Major David Watson, who had previously served in Northern Ireland and France before becoming quartermaster officer under Durant and assigned to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF).
British interest
While these events were ongoing, Margarethe's English relatives were becoming anxious that letters between the royal families and papers stored in Hessian castles could be revealed, including those that used Philipp as an intermediary between Adolf Hitler and the brother of King George VI, then Edward, Duke of Windsor, who would later become the British monarch for a brief period in 1936. In a biography of Stewart Menzies, then chief of MI6, authored by Anthony Cave Brown, these letters had "a basis of fact". According to historian John Costello, a military intelligence officer under SHAEF and assigned to Patton's command stated that he had discovered evidence of these letters between the Duke of Windsor and Hitler, which he stated he had found in a villa, then serving as an American officer's club, which was owned by a close relative of the Duke. Not long after, British authorities collected the letters. One of the officers sent to retrieve the letters was Major Anthony Blunt, seconded from MI5. He would later be revealed as a Soviet mole in the 1960s.
Blunt and Sir Owen Morshead, then the King's librarian, arrived at the castle in early May 1945 with a royal warrant from King George VI requesting the documents. Met by Nash, who was reportedly unimpressed by their credentials and likely unaware of the Hesse's ties to the Windsor's and other European nobles, initially refused their request to dine at the club as they had not booked ahead. After three days, the pair returned to England and headed to Windsor Castle with the documents. Prince Wolfgang of Hesse believed that this visit resulted in the Hesse's valuables being stolen, believing that Nash likely told Durant of the British delegation's visit to the castle and that Durant may have surmised that there may have been other valuables in the castle.
Theft The officer's club was successful by November 1945. Nash reportedly had heard a rumour from a castle bartender that treasure had been buried within the castle. The exact circumstances of how the box was discovered differs between sources, with one stating that Technician Fifth Grade Roy Carlton, one of Nash's staff, found two wires running into what appeared to be a solid foundation wall. Upon dismantling the wall with a sledgehammer, a secret room was revealed. Another pairing of accounts stated that a German had known of its location, with Nash permitting her assistant to search for the treasure, the result of which was the discovery of the false wall, which the assistant broke through. The three accounts similarly state that the room was searched, upon which time a fresh patch of concrete was found on the floor. It was dug up, revealing the box.