TV Hunt for Nazi War Loot Is a Live Bomb

How is it possible to trivialize the Holocaust, to turn the annihilation of 13 million people by Germany under Hitler into a comic, vulgar grab for viewers? This is how:

“Hunt for Stolen War Treasures . . . Live!”

In this syndicated abomination that aired Monday on KHJ-TV Channel 9, the genuine anguish and torment expressed by a few Holocaust victims was obscured by a presentation that at times matched the garish farce of “Springtime for Hitler,” the inspired production number in Mel Brooks’ first film, “The Producers.”

The difference is that Brooks meant to be funny.

As long as there are suckers, there will be con artists to exploit them. Hence, TV’s “live” search-for-booty business has been thriving since Geraldo Rivera got massive ratings for blowing up Al Capone’s so-called secret vault and finding nothing. Nothing!

“Hunt for Stolen War Treasures . . . Live!” added a twist: Nazis and the promise from squinting, bewildered-looking host Michael York to “expose those who live off of Hitler’s treasure.”

The evening’s payoff was supposed to be the opening of crates retrieved from Lake Wolfgang in Hallstatt, Austria, with York linking these crates to the Nazis’ widespread theft of priceless art, jewels and other valuables from their victims. He said that the treasures contained in the crates would be donated to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose archives were made available to this program, which was produced by Linda Yellen in association with Kushner-Locke Co. LBS Communications was the distributor.

Typically, the biggest carrot was the “live” label, the vow that whatever happened--or didn’t happen--would be seen instantaneously by viewers.

Actually, very little of the two-hour program was live, and even these segments--mostly York “live from Washington, D.C.,” as if that would make him somehow electrifying--were on tape for the West Coast showing.

“Live” was just one of the claims the program didn’t live up to as it traced Hitler’s plan to build a “master museum,” in a sense on the bones of his victims.

The “treasure trail” leads to the lakes of Austria, said York, live. That proved to be false.

“Later we will expose Odessa,” York declared, live, about the already exposed and widely written about secret escape group organized by the SS underground. Another false claim.

“Our investigators have traced some of the world’s most hated criminals to their secret hide-outs,” said York, live. Our investigators? Again a false claim: All viewers saw was old footage of Nazis who previously had been traced by others.

“Hunt for Stolen War Treasures . . . Live!” did accompany a survivor of the Sobibor death camp in Poland as he sought to find jewels he had buried in a forest before he and other prisoners made their famous escape from the camp. The gems were ones he had retrieved from the Nazis, who had confiscated them from the bodies of murdered Jews. He planned to give them to other camp survivors.

Instead of the jewels, however, he found only bones from mass graves of Sobibor victims long ago looted by nearby townspeople apparently looking for gold teeth.

The man broke down and sobbed. “This could be my mother. She was shot here,” he cried.

But this moving, heartfelt sequence was soon eclipsed, as York, live and very rattled, tried to break up an argument about Nazi art thievery between art historian Lynn Nicholas and “looted art expert” Sol Chaneles. York was seated between them, swiveling his head as if watching a tennis match.

He argued. She argued. He argued. She argued. York tried to talk. She continued to argue. York tried again. She kept going.

York broke in. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to. . . .”

He argued. She argued. He argued. She argued.

York tried to talk. “I. . . .”

He argued. She argued.

York tried again. “I’m afraid we’re out of time. . . .”

He argued. She argued.

As they continued in the background, York began babbling while having difficulty reading the TelePrompTer. “This debate . . . I have to say . . . a debate like this . . . it’s led to the flare . . . with every new discovery that’s made. . . . Indeed the reverberations . . . are . . . are . . . are . . . with us still. They can be felt all around the world. Anyway . . . forgive me for interrupting you because now. . . .”

Yes, now came the countdown for the opening of the “the lost crates of Lake Wolfgang.” Actually, one had already been opened on the program, and its contents--some swords and military medallions--shown to viewers . . . live.

But this was the crate that counted.

York had previously reported on the “curse of the Nazi treasure,” the mysterious disappearance of some of the divers who had attempted to retrieve crates. And one of the “Hunt for Stolen War Treasures . . . Live!” divers had met with disaster, too, suffering the bends while trying to retrieve this crate.

“Nazi secrets almost claimed another victim,” York declared. Oooooooooh.

On to bigger business, for the Nazi crate was now sitting on a table in a secret location in Hallstatt, live, in front of reporter Bruce Halford, an interpreter, a representative of the Austrian government and a big, red-bearded, beer-bellied Austrian named Gerhard who was wearing lederhosen and suspenders. Gerhard had recovered many crates from the lake himself, York said.

With thumping suspense music in the background, Gerhard began prying open the crate. “Do take care,” York urged from Washington.

At last, the crate was open, and inside were not art treasures stolen by the Nazis, not rare coins, not stolen gems, not gold, not Odessa secret documents. Inside were. . . .

Several artillery shells.

There was a pause. No one seemed to know what to do. York asked Gerhard if he could explain the shells. Gerhard shrugged and said something that was translated: “He’s seen things like this before.”

Cut to a commercial for allergy medicine.

Then York was back, live and ominous. “Instead of Nazi treasure, we’ve dredged up another grim reminder of Nazi murder. Yet . . . the mystery continues. . . .”

Mystery? York reported that another crate recovered from the murky depths of Lake Wolfgang had vanished. Did the Nazis have it? Did Odessa have it? Did Geraldo Rivera have it?

York asked Gerhard what would have been inside. Again the big man shrugged and said something that was translated: “Anything.”

“So . . . ,” said York.

So . . . we leave Hitler’s “deepest, most dangerous dumping ground” and move to other prospects. “We later hope to salvage a Nazi vessel that was torpedoed by the Russians after it had plundered the Black Sea coast,” York said.

You see, there’s this curse. . . .