November 29
In early April 1945 the little German village of Merkers fell to the lead elements of General Patton’s 3rd Army. Soon after, two military policemen stopped a pregnant French woman on the road to Merkers and gave her a ride into town. As they passed the entrance to a mine, the woman told them that this was the place where the Nazis stored their treasure. The soldiers passed this comment up the line, setting off an amazing chain of events.
It was soon discovered that the mine did indeed hoard the wealth of the Third Reich. There were more than eight thousand bars of gold bullion, more than two thousand bags of gold coins from various nations, and billions of Reichmarks stored in boxes. More than four hundred paintings were found, including works by Rembrandt, Raphael, van Dyck, Monet, Manet, and Renoir. In a separate cache, more than two hundred suitcases, trunks, and boxes were found containing jewelry, watches, dental work, gold and silver items of all kinds, and currency. This was identified as S.S. loot from private dwellings throughout Europe and from concentration camp victims.500
The contents of the Merker mine were removed to Frankfurt, Germany, where the long postwar process of restitution began. A Tripartite Gold Commission was established to get this wealth back into the hands of its rightful owners. In 1998 the Commission performed its final act by turning over its last stock of gold to the Nazi Persecution Relief Fund for Holocaust survivors.
There has probably never been a more pointed demonstration of the futility of amassing great material wealth in this life. Jesus warned that we should not store up treasures on Earth. Lasting wealth is found only in our spiritual lives. By making daily deposits of prayer and service to God, we build our accounts in his kingdom and accumulate the wealth that only comes from a relationship with him.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
November 30
The
There is great comfort in the thought that the years of darkness and danger in which the children of our country have grown up are over and, please God, forever. We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on justice and established in good will. To that, then, let us turn our thoughts on this day of just triumph and proud sorrow; and then take up our work again, resolved as a people to do nothing unworthy of those who died for us and to make the world such a world as they would have desired, for their children and for ours.
This is the task to which now honour binds us. In the hour of danger we humbly committed our cause into the Hand of God, and He has been our Strength and Shield. Let us thank him for His mercies, and in this hour of Victory commit ourselves and our new task to the guidance of that same strong Hand.501
God’s hand was evident in many events of World War II and in the lives of many who endured it. If we ever wonder if God is still on our side as a nation, we should note the words of one of our great presidents, Abraham Lincoln: “It is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”502
You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people.
Allied commanders toast victory. (National Archives)
December
VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC
On October 20, 1944, a radio broadcast rang out through the Philippine Islands from the beaches of Leyte: “This is the Voice of Freedom, General MacArthur speaking. People of the Philippines! I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil.” With these uplifting words the campaign to liberate this vital island chain began. Within two months Leyte was taken, and then, in January 1945, MacArthur’s forces invaded the main island of Luzon. Fighting would continue against fierce enemy resistance throughout the islands until the final surrender of Japan.
Also in October 1944 one of the greatest naval battles in history was fought as three Japanese fleets converged on Leyte Gulf in an all-out effort to destroy the landing forces assembled there. Over a three-day period the U.S. fleet sank thirty-six enemy warships, rendering the Imperial Japanese Navy largely ineffective as a fighting force. On the last day of the battle, the Americans had their first taste of a new enemy “tactic,” the suicide bomber. The aircraft carrier
By early 1945 American war planners finally faced the ultimate question of the Pacific war: how to bring about the surrender of Japan. Up until that time, the fanatical and suicidal resistance encountered in every battle seemed to prove that an invasion of the Japanese home islands would be required by the fall of the year. As these plans were formulated, two key intermediate objectives were identified: Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Both were needed for air and naval bases closer to Japan, and both were heavily defended. By this time the Japanese had developed new tactics that put their main defenses well away from the beaches, with deep bunkers and interconnecting tunnels practically impervious to air and naval bombardment.
Instead of taking five days as estimated, the conquest of Iwo Jima took almost a month. Admiral Nimitz,
