Unearthing Hitler’s Secret Stash of Booze
Willkommen, can we pour you a drink? We have a lovely Hitler cognac that will blitz your socks off!
Restauranteur Silvio Stelzer of French cognac and Champagne belonging to history’s most hated man, one Adolf Hitler, under his restaurant — Zum Dreispitz — on the grounds of Moritzburg Castle, a mere 30-minute ride from Dresden, Germany.
Seltzer purchased a villa on the grounds of the historic site back in 2007, but it was only during a recent renovation that the discovery of six interconnected underground cellars — and the bottles — dating back to World War II was made. On Hitler’s commands, and as Europe starved in 1944, the S.S. hid war-time delicacies likealcohol, cheese, biscuits, tins of butter, salami sausage, coffee, chocolate and cigarettes in cellars that somehow escaped the post-war pillaging of the Red Army.
Though Hitler neither drank nor smoked, he kept his highest ranking officers happy with the best delicacies the Nazis could loot.
Now the question is, who gets to keep the newly-discovered bottles?
It’s definitely not going to Hitler’s heirs — and there are a few, some living in Long Island, New York — Bavaria seized all of Hitler’s estate after the end of WWII in 1945.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30