Car Belonging To Notorious Nazi To Be Restored In S. Florida
POMPANO BEACH (CBSMiami) – A specially designed Mercedes Benz that served both the head of the Luftwaffe and as a symbol of the Allied victory was recently discovered in North Carolina and will be brought to South Florida for restoration.
The car was specially designed to the specifications of Nazi commander Hermann Goering. The Mercedes Benz 540K Cabriolet B was captured on May 4, 1945, the same day Goering was captured by Allied troops.
According to the Times of Israel, the car was captured at Adolf Hitler's villa at Berchtesgaden and then repainted and turned into a U.S. Army car for a colonel in the 7th Infantry. The car was later sold as surplus to a Army staff sergeant and later sold to a man in North Carolina.
Ever since then, the car has been left in pieces after a failed restoration in the 1970's in North Carolina.
But recently, the car founds its way into the hands of Pompano Beach-based High Velocity Classics, Inc. The group said the car is one of only three in North America; the other two are in museums.
It's believed the car is one of the last ever made, according to the Times, as production of the model stopped in 1939.
High Velocity Classics is attempting to put the car back together after it was temporarily lost to history. One of the owning partners of High Velocity, David Rathbun, told the Times of Israel they will offer the car to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum or Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
The last Goering car that went to auction was sold for $24.55 million, according to the Times.
