Troche

Troche needed only to put the word out among museum staff and their friends that anyone willing to speak with investigators would receive favorable employment consideration.

HITLER’S HOLY RELICS Sidney D. Kirkpatrick 2010

Horn was aware of much that Troche was telling him.

HITLER’S HOLY RELICS Sidney D. Kirkpatrick 2010

But what Troche claimed was altogether more frightening: that Hitler and his inner circle believed the artifacts themselves were invested with mystical significance.

HITLER’S HOLY RELICS Sidney D. Kirkpatrick 2010

Based on the things Troche had seen and heard from colleagues at the Germanic Museum, Hitler may well have timed the invasion of Austria for that very reason.

HITLER’S HOLY RELICS Sidney D. Kirkpatrick 2010

Private Dollar, seated with Troche at a desk in front of the MFAA offices, conducted the initial screenings.

HITLER’S HOLY RELICS Sidney D. Kirkpatrick 2010

Fantastic as this might be, the spear-shaped image on the Nazi map Troche showed him, the seeming congruity of the hidden vault directly under the castle chapel, and the timing of the Anschluss were evidence that this might actually be the case.

HITLER’S HOLY RELICS Sidney D. Kirkpatrick 2010

Messrs. Troche and Marchese then carried the mother out of the burning building.

Rescuers Pull Mother, Son From Fire 2010

Rob Bennett for The Wall Street Journal Stephen Troche Mr. Troche said, "When I pulled the mother up, the child was under the mother."

Rescuers Pull Mother, Son From Fire 2010

Either the bunker was not technically under his supervision, as both Private Hüber and Troche claimed, or the informants Horn interviewed that first day were not privy to high-level discussions.

HITLER’S HOLY RELICS Sidney D. Kirkpatrick 2010

The Holy Roman Empire treasure contained the very first and most important artworks the Nazis looted and the last, Troche said, they would give up to the Allies.

HITLER’S HOLY RELICS Sidney D. Kirkpatrick 2010