Lt. Joe Tom's Loot
Temple of Doom - Quedlinburg Abbey
Quedlinburg Abbey was taken over by Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS, in 1936 and made into a shrine to Heinrich der Vogelfänger (first king of a unified German state d. 936). 1
Himmler cached the Abbey’s treasures including illuminated manuscripts which were stolen from their hiding place by U.S. Army Lt. Joe Tom Meador. Meador returned to Whitewright, Texas after the War where he kept them. 2
The missing artifacts included the “Samuhel-Evangeliar”, a ninth century medieval manuscript written entirely in gold-the “Samuhel Gospels,” and the “Evangelistar aus St. Wiperti,” a sixteenth century prayer book-the “Prayer Book”. 3
West German lawyer and art historian, Willi Korte, showed up unannounced in Whitewright (1990). Striding in his best “High Noon” style into the First National Bank of Whitewright, Korte cold-cocked bank president John R. Farley with a one-liner as fraught with presumption as Stanley’s greeting to Livingstone. The bank, he told Farley, was sitting on a cache of priceless medieval artifacts stolen in 1945 from the German church of Quedlinburg by a citizen of Whitewright. Quedlinburg, he added, would be grateful for their immediate return.4
After a lot of legal wrangling with Joe Tom’s heirs who’d been selling off the loot5 they were returned to the Abbey (Stiftskirche St. Servatius) in 1993.
The article, “Temple of Doom: SS leader Heinrich Himmler transformed a fabled German cathedral into a Nazi shrine,” provides an overview of the Abbey during WWII.6
According to Leggat, “As long as the Communist East German regime remained unrecognized by the United States, there was no way the church could have sued for return of the objects in a U.S. court.” 7
It is a World Heritage site. 8
Fletcher, Zita Ballinger. 2020. “Temple of Doom: SS leader Heinrich Himmler transformed a fabled German cathedral into a Nazi shrine.” Military History 37 (4): 48–55.
Honan, William H. Treasure Hunt: A New York Times Reporter Tracks the Quedlinburg Hoard. New York: Dell Publishing, 1998.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jack Manning MEADOR, Jane Meador Cook, John Stephen Torigian, Defendants-Appellees. No. 97-40022. Decided: April 13, 1998.
Leggat, Jeremy (1990) A Looters Legacy. D.Magazine.
Ibid. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
Ibid., Fletcher.
Ibid., Leggat.
I believe two pieces of the treasures were never returned to Quedlinburg. Joe Tom Meador spent much of his time at an apartment in Dallas, where, in the big city, he could be open about his gay nature. According to witnesses, he would show friends the items which are still missing.