Unearthing Hitler’s Secret Stash of Booze

Image by Getty Images

By Maia Efrem October 8, 2015

Image by Flickr - Lars Schmidt

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.

Image by Getty Images

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.

Maia Efrem is the former research editor and assistant to the editor and was also responsible for the Forward’s annual Salary Survey. Previously she served as the editor of Blognik Beat, a blog written by students who emigrated from or have ties to the Former Soviet Union. Maia is a graduate of Hunter College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO