A phenomenal, inspirational, true, and touching story, The Final Audit presents the thought-provoking tale of one man's attempt to explain his existence to his children, embarking on a portrayal of his life with Gulliver as his guide and mentor. Author Carnie Matisonn shares his fascinating history, including his lifelong wish to trace valuable artwork stolen from his family by the SS in Nazi-occupied Norway during World War II.

His tale starts with an impoverished childhood in a family devoid and incapable of love, leaving a twelve-year-old boy to survive in a rickety caravan on his own during the post-World War II era. Despite his circumstances, Matisonn peppers his narration with dry humour and irony. He recalls life in the cosmopolitan mining city of Johannesburg during the 1950s and fighting anti -Semitism in an effort to improve his situation through education and a high work ethic. As he achieves huge highs and terrible lows in both his career and marriage, he remains focused on the missing artwork, inadvertently becoming involved with Mossad in an attempt to hunt down a Nazi war criminal.

Matisonn finds himself duped into smuggling a Nazi descendent into South Africa by helicopter, flying sorties for the police force, and racing against time to recover treasures of artwork hidden in the cliff s of the Atlantic seaboard with the tide rushing in.

Through ups and downs, excitement and hard work, triumph and tragedy, Matisonn shares the story of a truly amazing life.

THE FINAL AUDIT

By CARNIE MATISONN

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Carnie Matisonn
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-9484-7

Contents

The Norwegian Blitzkrieg...............................................................................1Where do you come from Papa?...........................................................................5The Birth of a Life Ethic..............................................................................10Confrontation with Neo-Nazis...........................................................................21My Brush with Incarceration............................................................................33From Mrs K's Pantry to the Doldrums of Denver..........................................................40My Side of the Railway Line............................................................................51Self-Actualization.....................................................................................53My Foray into Business.................................................................................59The Convergence of Sanction Busting with the Pursuit of Pillaged Art...................................67The Lineage of Harry Abbot.............................................................................78Pilot of Fortune.......................................................................................85In Collaboration with the Nazis........................................................................90The Reappearance of one of Mossad's Most Elusive Sayanim...............................................97Mossad Israeli Intelligence Service....................................................................104My Encounter with Harry................................................................................108St Paul de-Vence.......................................................................................119Confrontation with the Embodiment of Evil..............................................................129The Secrets of a double-dealing Nazi...................................................................148Nazi Support from American Corporates and Politicians..................................................155The Treacherous World of Devious Bedfellows............................................................160The Theatre of Life: Act One An Illusion of Reality....................................................173The Theatre of Life: Act Two A Melodramatic Microcosm of "The State of the Nation".....................181The Theatre of Life: Act Three From Paradise to Purgatory..............................................194The Theatre of Life: Act Four Chaconne of the Lilliputians.............................................209Destruction of "The Temple"............................................................................216The Enigmatic Harry....................................................................................223Several Years Later....................................................................................245Villains of the Rubik's Cube...........................................................................248But for the Love of a Child............................................................................253The Final Audit........................................................................................266About the author.......................................................................................278References.............................................................................................279

Chapter One

THE NORWEGIAN BLITZKRIEG

My great uncle lived in Norway, a reclusive man of whom little is known other than that he qualified as a lawyer and harbored a lifelong passion for art and literature.

He was believed to have disconnected from his family, for no discernable reasons and favored living his life through the fertile imaginations of talented artists and creative literary minds.

I never did get to know him.

The 21st of February 1941 was a dark, silent night. The streets of Oslo were covered in snow. The rooftops of the houses in my relative's modest neighborhood were an undulating sea of white snowflakes gathering beneath a black, starless sky.

Hitler's Storm Troopers had the run of the city and struck fear in the hearts of its inhabitants.

Without warning, there was a hammering on the door of my uncle's apartment. Seconds later, before he could dislodge the latch, the hinges separated from the frame as six German soldiers kicked the door open.

They had noticed a Mezuzah in the shape of a scroll affixed to the entrance of his home, which confirmed it was the residence of a Jew.

The frightened man was immobilized with shock as the officious trigger-happy thugs moved from room to room, ripping paintings off walls and tearing furniture apart in a spree of wanton avarice and destruction.

An SS officer drew his pistol and shouted to the others to throw my uncle into the street. They pushed him out of the house and kicked him off the veranda.

He crashed down the stairs and felt the repetitive blows of jackboots cracking his ribs as he writhed in agony.

It ended as abruptly as it had begun, with a single shot to the head.

Norway had been unprepared for the German military invasion when it started on the night of the 8th of April 1940. Consistent with Blitzkrieg warfare, German forces attacked Norway by sea and air as Operation Weserubung was put into action, its aim to secure ice-free harbors to control the North Atlantic and to guarantee the availability of iron ore from mines in Sweden that passed through Narvik. The major Norwegian ports from Oslo northward to Narvik were occupied by advanced detachments of German troops. At the same time, a single parachute battalion took the Oslo and Stavanger airfields and eight hundred operational aircraft overwhelmed the Norwegian population. Oslo's effective resistance to the sea-borne forces was nullified when German troops from the airfield entered the city.

The Norwegian King Haakon VII and part of his government left for England on the British cruiser HMS Glasgow to establish a government in exile. Hitler garrisoned Norway with about three hundred thousand troops for the remainder of the war, and obtained naval and air bases from which to strike at Britain should they deem it necessary. From the moment Norway was occupied, it lost all its major trading partners and Norwegians were quickly confronted with a scarcity of basic commodities, including food.

At the beginning of the occupation there were at least 2 173 Jews in Norway. No less than 775 were arrested, detained and deported. Of these, 742 were murdered in the concentration camps and 23 died as a result of extra judicial execution, murder and suicide, bringing the total Norwegian Jews dead to 765, which constituted 230 entire households.

My great uncle's only legacy appears to have been his portrait painted by Edgar Degas in late 1898 and the possibility of locating and identifying other paintings owned by him. These valuable items were removed from his home in Oslo by his murderers.

It was my personal crusade to find these long-lost treasures.

Chapter Two

WHERE DO YOU COME FROM PAPA?

It is 2010 and I am sitting in the lounge of my modest condominium in Miami, with my petite, beautiful and indulgent Oriental wife, Amoi and our two daughters, Yakira and Kiana, aged ten and fourteen respectively. I remain fit, strong, creative and productive,...