The Reluctant Nazi

By: Pablo Zaragoza

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In Adolf Hitler’s early rise to power, he stirred the souls of impressionable youth in alehouses of Munich and beyond. One such young man, Hans Reinhard Richter, ignored is brother’s warnings about the madman and immersed himself in Hitler’s promise for a greater Germany. “I put on my black shirt and marched.” He joined the Nazi Party and quickly rose in ranks to answer to the likes of Himmler and Göring. As an SS officer himself, Hans was charged with overseeing coal mines, reconfiguring them as gold depositories. He fulfilled his superiors’ orders to steal from banks, museums, and even concentration camp victims to build vast wealth for the party.

After his first wife, an SS spy, died during childbirth, Hans married Irma. By that time, both had become increasingly disillusioned with empty promises of Hitler and his henchmen. They embarked on a dangerous mission to siphon off a portion of the gold, gems, and valuable art they had stolen for the Nazis. Hans and Irma opened accounts under fictitious names and hid their stashes in banks across Europe. Once Hitler initiated the Final Solution, Hans broke with Nazi Germany and courageously joined, first, the OSS and then the CIA to investigate reported sightings of Hitler in South America.

Did he find the Führer, or did he reach a dead end?