Pegasus Research Consortium

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/poland-looking-into-report-of-nazi-treasure-train-found/ar-BBlSjgN

Reuters
Alexandra Hamilton
1 day ago


Poland looking into report of Nazi treasure train found
Two people in Poland say they have found a Nazi German train cloaked in mystery since it was rumoured to have gone missing near the end of World War Two while carrying away gems and guns ahead of advancing Soviet Red Army forces.

Local authorities in Poland's southwestern district of Walbrzych said they had been contacted by a law firm representing a Pole and a German who said they had located the train and were seeking 10 percent of the value of the findings.

"Lawyers, the army, the police and the fire brigade are dealing with this," Marika Tokarska, an official at the Walbrzych district council, told Reuters. "The area has never been excavated before and we don't know what we might find."

Local news reports said the train in question went missing in 1945, packed with loot from the-then eastern German city of Breslau, now called Wroclaw and part of Poland, as the Red Army closed in at the end of World War Two.


© National Archives/Getty Images Workers inspect gold bars taken from Jews by the Nazis and stashed in the Heilbronn salt mines in Germany, May 3, 1945. The treasures were uncovered by Allied forces after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
One local media report said the train was armoured and belonged to the Wehrmacht (Nazi Germany's military).

Radio Wroclaw cited local folklore as saying the train entered a tunnel near Ksiaz Castle in the mountainous Lower Silesian region and never emerged. According to that theory, the tunnel was later closed and its location long forgotten.

According to Radio Wroclaw, the 150-metre-(495-foot)-long train was carrying guns, "industrial equipment", gems and other valuable treasure. Tokarska said she did not have any details on the location or the contents of the missing train.

Some sceptics say there is no evidence that it ever existed.

"A handful of people have already looked for the train, damaging the line in the process, but nothing was ever found," Radio Wroclaw quoted Joanna Lamparska as saying, describing her as a connoisseur of the region's history.

"But the legend has captured imaginations."

Trains were indeed used to spirit Nazi loot back to Berlin as U.S.-led Allied and Soviet forces surged towards the German capital from the west and the east in the winter and spring of 1945.

In the case of the so-called "Gold Train", Nazi forces sent 24 freight carriages from Budapest towards Germany filled with family treasures including gold, silver and valuable paintings seized from Hungarian Jews and estimated to be worth up to $200 million.

The train was intercepted by U.S. soldiers, who, according to a later U.S. investigation, helped themselves to some of the loot. (Reporting by Alexandra Hamilton; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Mark Heinrich)



.......................


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/20/fortune-hunters-flock-to-polish-town-after-alleged-find-of-nazi-gold-train

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Thursday 20 August 2015 18.01 EDT



German and Pole, who claim to have made the find, are demanding 10% fee in exchange for whereabouts of legendary train and contents



Part of a subterranean system build by Nazi Germany where, according to Polish lore, a train loaded with gold and weapons vanished at the end of second world war. Photograph: AP

-western Poland is in a state of high suspense following claims made by two men that they have found a Nazi train packed with gold. Local authorities in Wa?brzych said they were investigating the reports, as fortune hunters from around Europe were making their way to the town in the hope of enjoying some of the potential spoils – or at least witnessing the discovery of what could yet turn out to be a spectacular historical find.

The men, reported to be a German and a Pole, have appointed a lawyer to negotiate with the authorities for a 10% finder's fee for the train and its contents. Local news site Wiadomo?ci Wa?brzyskie said the train contained up to 300 tonnes of gold, as well as a batch of diamonds, other gems and industrial equipment. The men said only once they have secured their fee in writing will they reveal the whereabouts of the train.

"This is a find of world significance, on a par with [discovering] the Titanic," said Jaros?aw Chmielewski, the lawyer who has written to the parish council on the men's behalf, to Radio Wroclaw.
According to local legend, an armoured train packed with treasure from the then German city of Breslau (now Wroc?aw in Poland) was driven into a tunnel in a hillside near a medieval castle near Wa?brzych as the Red Army was approaching and the Allies were carrying out air strikes in the final days of the war.

Authorities seemed to be taking the claims seriously on Thursday evening, according to local media, despite warnings from some historians that they may be dealing with a hoax. Many in the city believe there may well be truth in the claims, not least because they would confirm rumours that have circulated for the past 70 years of the existence of gold and treasures in the tunnels and shafts of the mining region.

There are widespread reports that Nazis hid the spoils – many of which were stolen from Jewish families – in the final days of the war, when there was no chance to transport them west.

The council confirmed receipt of the letter, a copy of which was published on the local news portal. Local media reported that meetings have taken place between representatives of the police, fire brigade and military. Experts have warned that the train may be full of explosives and may also be mined. "We are on alert should we need to take any specific security measures," a police spokeswoman told Polish TV station TVN24.

"If the train does actually exist, there's a significant chance it is mined," council chairman Jacek Cichura told the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. "It could also contain a large amount of methane gas".



In 1945, an estimated 100 tonnes of gold bullion was found hidden in a salt mine near Merkers, south-west Germany. It is said 300 tonnes of gold is on the train. Photograph: Byron H. Rollins/AP

Gazeta Wyborzca referred to an anonymous source who described to the paper how the treasure hunters had used ground-penetrating georadar technology to locate the train. According to the source, the train was found 70 metres below ground. Other reports have placed the train more specifically under a disused railway station in Walim, a small rural community nine miles south-east of Wa?brzych. Radio Wroc?aw said it was 150m (494ft) long.

In May, a cloak-and-dagger drilling operation apparently took place in the village, leaving six large drill holes in the ground, according to mayor Adam Hausman, despite the fact that no excavation licence had been issued.

Speculation that Walim is the site of the treasure has only intensified thanks to witnesses who vividly recall seeing a convoy bearing the insignia of the Third Reich back in 1945.

But even Chmielewski, who admits he knows nothing about the train itself, has warned of hyping the find too much. "No one knows what's inside the train. I'm quite surprised that everyone talks of gold the whole time. It could be that it simply contains quite pedestrian industrial materials," he said.

Local amateur historians have been wading in, but can only really confirm the locals' belief that two trains laden with gold existed. "It's an old perennial to say you know where the train is, but so far no one has ever managed to prove the existence of these trains," local historian Joanna Lamparska told TVN24. But she said that treasure or no treasure, if a German train was indeed uncovered, it would be an unbelievable discovery.

Previously, talk of Nazi treasure in Walbrzych led to speculation that the long-lost Czarist Amber Room, which treasure hunters have sighted in plenty of other locations was to be found in the region, more specifically, in a tunnel leading to Walbrzych castle. Despite searches, nothing has ever been found.

Andrzej Gaik, who takes tourists on guided tours of the old castle, said for years he had clung to the belief that the "golden train", as locals refer to it, existed, and even went on a search for it himself, but in vain. He voiced his scepticism that there was anything in the latest reports. "I don't believe that anyone has ever come close to finding the train," he told Polish television.

But the men's claims, even if they are never verified, will only help to fuel the insatiable quest of second world war treasure hunters who seek to uncover the loot reportedly stashed away by Hitler's henchmen. Hunts have extended over the decades to caves, lakes, dungeons and bunkers across the former Third Reich, although finds are extremely rare.




http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/19/pole-german-claim-found-missing-nazi-loot-train
Pole and German claim to have found missing Nazi loot train

.........................................


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33994483

Nazi gold train 'found in Poland'
19 August 2015

Two people in Poland say they may have found a Nazi train rumoured to be full of gold, gems and guns that disappeared in World War Two, Polish media say.

The train is believed to have gone missing near what is now the Polish city of Wroclaw as Soviet forces approached in 1945.

A law firm in south-west Poland says it has been contacted by two men who have discovered the armoured train.

Polish media say the men want 10% of the value of the train's contents.

Local news websites said the apparent find matched reports in local folklore of a train carrying gold and gems that went missing at the end of World War Two near Ksiaz castle.




The claim was made to a law office in Walbrzych, 3km (2 miles) from Ksiaz castle.
?Myth-busting the 'Nazi gold train'

Walbrzych's local leader Roman Szelemej said he was sceptical about the supposed find but would monitor developments.

"Lawyers, the army, the police and the fire brigade are dealing with this," Marika Tokarska, an official at the Walbrzych district council, told Reuters.

"The area has never been excavated before and we don't know what we might find."

Two news websites in Walbrzych said the train that was found had guns on turrets along its side. One website, walbrzych24.com, said (in Polish) that one of the men was Polish and the other German.

They were liaising with officials in the city, who have since formed an emergency committee led by the mayor to investigate the claims, the website says.

Another site, Wiadomosci Walbrzyskie, said (in Polish) the train was 150m long and may have up to 300 tonnes of gold on board.

Joanna Lamparska, a historian who focuses on the Walbrzych area, told Radio Wroclaw the train was rumoured to have disappeared into a tunnel, and that it had gold and "hazardous materials" on board.

Previous searches for the train in the same area had proved fruitless, Radio Wroclaw said.

..............................


http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/20/europe/poland-nazi-train-mystery/


http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/08/19/uk-poland-germany-treasure-idUKKCN0QO1HX20150819

I guess that is a yes :P

(http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--5jjLwDFa--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/1393929394992639886.jpg)

QuoteWe'll believe it when we see it, but two men, one a Pole and one a German, say they know the location of a heavily armored Nazi train that was rumored to be hidden away in a tunnel during the dying days of the Second World War—a train that could contain upwards of 300 tons of gold.

As CNBC reports, the unidentified men are confident enough in their discovery that they're filing for a 10% cut of the treasure's value. The men will not disclose the location of the train until they receive the official assurance from the Walbrzych District Council in southwest Poland. CNBC has confirmed that the district council was contacted by a law firm working on the pair's behalf, and that it was taking the proposal "very seriously."

The train is supposedly hidden away somewhere in Lower Silesia in southwest Poland.

In an email to CNBC, an official wrote: "We know that is a military train with guns on it. We can suppose that inside could be also other weapons or even dangerous materials. Even methane gas [could be] inside of the tunnels."

"We inform about finding by the shareholders [of an] armored train from WWII," reads the legal letter sent to the Walbrzych council. "The train is likely to contain additional equipment in the form of self-propelled guns positioned on platforms with a total length of about 150 meters. The train also contains valuable, rare industrial materials and precious ores."

So basically we have a couple of guys who think they've found an armored Nazi train, and owing to 70-year-old rumors of a mythical Nazi train filled with gold, precious stones, and weapons, they're hedging their bets by making the legal claim. Given that rumors like this were rampant in the closing days of the war, I'd be surprised if this train had anything of value inside. It's pure speculation at this point, and we're only going by the unsubstantiated claims made by this hopeful pair.

And that's assuming this isn't some sort of prank. If true, however, it would be an astounding discovery. Australia's News.com.au explains the story of the mystery train:

It was the last days of the war. The Russian Red Army was closing in on the city of Wroclaw. German forces were in full retreat.

During the Nazi occupation, a massive treasure of gold, gems, art and historical artefacts had been stripped from Polish museums, galleries and private collections. Then there were the gold reserves of the Wroclaw bank.

Now this untold wealth was at risk of falling into Russian hands.

So, a train — one of many clad with heavy armour and bristling with guns to withstand Allied air attacks — was sent to Wroclaw in May 1945 to remove the loot.

Among the treasures was said to be 23 boxes of gold bullion.

The 150m long assembly of armoured locomotive and carriages was spotted leaving along a south-western rail line.

It was never seen again.
There are actually two gold train stories; one says the train is under a mountain, while the other claims it's somewhere around Walbrzych.

Yet, there's absolutely no documented evidence to support this claim. In the years following the war, historians have not found anything to prove that such a train ever existed. It's important to point out, however, that so-called "gold trains" did exist, including the Hungarian Gold Train. What's more, Germans did build a complex system of tunnels in the area as part of Project Riese.

We'll certainly be watching this unfolding story.

http://io9.com/long-lost-nazi-train-packed-with-1b-in-gold-allegedly-1725328062

I am following this story also. Great movie material.

a 10% cut :) I doubt if they get that deal:)

1% would be a 100 million also. Its enough for me.

:P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aRor905cCw

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/poland-almost-certain-it-has-located-buried-nazi-train/ar-BBmcjs4

Reuters
Alexandra Hamilton
4 hrs ago



© AP Photo The potencial site where a Nazi gold train is believed to be hidden, near the city of Walbrzych, Poland.


WARSAW, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Poland said on Friday it was almost certain it had located a Nazi train rumored to have gone missing near the close of World War Two loaded with guns and jewels.

Photographs taken using ground-penetrating radar equipment showed a train more than 100 meters (330 feet) long, the first official confirmation of its existence, Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said.

The vehicle was armored, suggesting it was carrying a special cargo, "probably military equipment but also possibly jewelery, works of art and archive documents," he told journalists in Warsaw.

"I am over 99 percent sure that such a train exists," he said, though experts would only be certain once they managed to uncover the vehicle.

In reaction to the finding, the World Jewish Congress said on Friday that any valuables found on the train must be returned to their rightful owners.

"To the extent that any items now being discovered in Poland may have been stolen from Jews before they were sent to death ... it is essential that every measure is taken to return the property to its rightful owners or to their heirs," WJC head Robert Singer said in a statement issued in New York.

BURIED TRAIN

Polish authorities started looking for the train this month, tipped off by a German and a Pole who said through lawyers that they had found it in the southwestern district of Walbrzych and expected 10 percent of the value of the findings as a reward.

Rumors have circulated for decades that a Nazi train loaded with weapons and loot had disappeared into a tunnel near Poland's border with Germany in 1945 as the Soviet Red Army closed in.

Zuchowski said the initial source of the stories was a man who said he had helped hide the train. "On the death bed, this person communicated the information together with a sketch, where this might possibly be," he said, without going into more details.

Zuchowski said experts were now working out how to get to the vehicle. The culture ministry said on Thursday there could be explosives at the site and urged "foragers" and World War Two enthusiasts to keep away.

Local media have broadcast images of digging equipment and other gear, though it was impossible to confirm the location.

Local news reports say the train went missing in 1945, carrying loot from the then-eastern German city of Breslau, now called Wroclaw and part of Poland.

According to local folklore, it entered a tunnel in the mountainous Lower Silesian region and never emerged. The tunnel was later closed and its location forgotten.

(Addtitional reporting by Marcin Goettig and Wiktor Szary; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Larry King)

Quote from: space otter on August 29, 2015, 04:16:20 AM
In reaction to the finding, the World Jewish Congress said on Friday that any valuables found on the train must be returned to their rightful owners.

Wow its not even dug up yet and the Jews are claiming the gold?

Go figure

Lolz

lets hope they make a nice video when entering the train for the first time and make it public.

this is starting to look like a movie plot..



http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/gold-hunters-blocked-from-site-of-alleged-nazi-gold-train/ar-AAdNe9V

Associated Press
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press
2 hrs ago


1 of 3 © AP Photo/STR
Railway guards patrolling tracks to prevent gold hunters and history buffs from getting harmed by passing trains near the site where two men allegedly found a Nazi gold train hidden underground near Walbrzych, Poland, on Monday, Aug. 31, 2015. Authorities have ordered visitors barred from the area for safety reasons.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish authorities have blocked off a wooded area near a railroad track after scores of treasure hunters swarmed southwest Poland looking for an alleged Nazi gold train.

The city of Walbrzych and its surrounding wooded hills are experiencing a gold rush after two men, a Pole and a German, informed authorities through their lawyers that they have found a Nazi train with armaments and valuables that reportedly went missing in the spring of 1945 while fleeing the Red Army.

Inspired by a local legend since World War II, people with metal detectors and ground-penetrating equipment are combing the area and its still-used railway tracks. Some of them have arrived from Germany.

The gold fever intensified after deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said last week he had seen contours of the train on an image from a ground- penetrating device.

The alleged site is somewhere between the 61th and the 65th kilometer of the tracks that wind their way between Walbrzych and Wroclaw.

Provincial governor Tomasz Smolarz said Monday that police, city and railway guards are now patrolling the area and blocking treasure hunters to prevent any accidents with trains running on the tracks.

"A few hectares (acres) of land are now being secured. People have been barred from the woods" surrounding the site, he said.

"Half of Walbrzych's residents and other people are going treasure hunting or just for walks to see the site. We are worried for their security," police spokeswoman Magdalena Koroscik told The Associated Press. People walking down the tracks can't escape "a train that emerges from behind the rocks at 70 kph (43 mph)."

A man taking a selfie on the tracks reportedly narrowly missed being hit, she said.

Smolarz is also asking the military to examine the site with earth-penetrating equipment to look for any hidden train.

Authorities said numerous previous reports of a find have only yielded rusty pieces of metal.



3 of 3 © AP Photo/Str
FILE - This Aug. 28, 2015 file picture shows a general view of the city of Walbrzych, Poland, near which a Nazi gold train is believed to be hidden. Polish authorities have blocked off a wooded area near a railroad track after scores of treasure hunters swarmed southwest Poland looking for an alleged Nazi gold train. The city of Walbrzych and its surrounding wooded hills are experiencing a gold rush after two men, informed the authorities through their lawyers that they have found a Nazi train with armaments and valuables that reportedly went missing in the spring of 1945.

declare it a hoax and they'll go away..right..?  ?   ?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/polands-cbank-head-calls-story-of-nazi-train-find-a-hoax/ar-AAdSemV
Reuters 1 hr ago





© AP Photo,str This file photo from March.2012, shows a part of a subterranean system built by Nazi Germany in what is today Gluszyca-Osowka, Poland. According to Polish lore, a Nazi train loaded with gold, and weapons vanished into a...
Poland's central bank governor Marek Belka said on Wednesday that the story of an alleged finding of a Nazi train in Poland that could contain jewels was in his opinion a hoax.

Asked if potentially the gold found in the train could add to the bank's reserves, Belka said: "I think nobody (at the central bank) even thought to devote a second to this issue. This is some hoax."

Poland's Deputy Culture Minister said last week he was almost certain Poland had located a Nazi train rumored to have gone missing near the close of World War Two loaded with guns and jewels. (Reporting by Jakub Iglewski and Pawel Sobczak; Writing by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Marcin Goclowski)

Yup  works for UFO's :P

Declare it a hoax... sneak the gold out into the vaults and everyone forgets about it in three or four months :D

bwhahahahahaha it's gonna be a movie for sure..


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/men-claiming-discovery-of-nazi-gold-train-go-public/ar-AAdXa7f?li=BBgzzfc
AFP
2 hrs ago



© AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski A view of a tunnel and shelter approximately 50 meters under Ksiaz Castle that the Nazis were building for Hitler's safety and that were part of a giant system of tens of kilometers of tunnels. in Walbrzych, Poland...
Two treasure hunters claiming to have discovered a Nazi "gold train" went public Friday for the first time but failed to reveal evidence for the alleged find they insist is "irrefutable".




The men, who identified themselves as Piotr Koper, a Pole, and German national Andreas Richter, told Poland's TVP public broadcaster they would only communicate via their lawyers from now on.

Authorities in Poland's southwestern province of Lower Silesia where the armoured train is allegedly buried cast doubt on its existence earlier this week insisting there was no credible evidence for it.

The Polish military has since deployed technicians to check the area in question.

"We have irrefutable evidence it exists," Koper told TVP Friday, adding that "we aren't responsible for the media circus surrounding the train."

He insisted that evidence the pair had presented confidentially to local authorities on August 18 had later been leaked to the media.

The men, who under Polish law are entitled to a 10 percent finders fee, say they have enough funding to independently excavate the train and its presumed treasures.

They vowed to use part of the finder's fee earned from the discovery to set up a museum at the site.

Lower Silesia Governor Tomasz Smolarz said Monday it was "impossible to claim that such a find actually exists at the location indicated based on the documents that have been submitted."

This came just days after senior culture ministry official Piotr Zuchowski said he was "more than 99 percent sure" an armoured train had been found based on ground-penetrating radar images.

Zuchowski also claimed that someone who had been involved in hiding the train, presumed to be over 100 metres (330 feet) in length, had disclosed its location before dying.

Police have blocked off the presumed location of the train along a stretch of active railway tracks in a bid to prevent accidents as a curious public swamps the area near the city of Walbrzych.

Global media have become fascinated by the prospect of a railway car full of jewels and gold stolen by the Nazis.

The World Jewish Congress has asked that any valuables found that once belonged to victims of the Holocaust should be returned to their owners or heirs.

Rumours of two special Nazi trains disappearing in the spring of 1945, towards the end of World War II, have been circulating for years, capturing the imagination of countless treasure hunters.

The lore is fuelled by a massive network of secret underground tunnels near Walbrzych -- including around the massive Ksiaz Castle -- that Nazi Germany built and where legend has it the Third Reich stashed looted valuables.

;D  oh yeah a movie cometh

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/polish-military-urges-caution-in-search-of-rumored-nazi-gold-train-site/ar-AAe5vpX
Los Angeles Times
Carol J. Williams
3 hrs ago


Polish military experts planning to examine the site where a Nazi "gold train" may have gone missing during World War II have urged authorities to first clear the thickly forested area in case it contains booby traps or volatile weapons.

New theories that the train may contain dangerous cargo have surfaced in recent days as the wooded foothills of the Owl Mountains have become the center of fevered attention for history buffs, treasure hunters and tourism promoters.

Authorities in the Lower Silesia region have warned from the outset of the purported discovery of the legendary treasure train that if it does exist, it may have been fixed with explosives or mounted guns to protect its cargo.

The British tabloid newspaper Daily Mail added to the fears of what might be discovered in the excavation when it published an article Tuesday quoting unidentified sources familiar with the recent find as speculating that the train might have been carrying the bodies of slave laborers who died building a network of tunnels for the Nazis during World War II.

Two treasure hunters set off an international frenzy in mid-August when they reported to authorities in the Lower Silesian castle town of Walbrzych that they had located a more than 300-foot-long train buried in a tunnel near the rail line that leads from the regional capital, Wroclaw.

Piotr Koper, a Pole and history enthusiast from Walbrzych, and Andreas Richter from Germany offered to lead authorities to the buried train in exchange for 10 percent of the value of its cargo.

Polish law stipulates that any valuables found on national territory belong to the state, TheNews website reported Tuesday. But national officials have apparently signed off on the requested finders' fee as an army demining team has been examining a wooded area near Walbrzych, local media have been reporting since Friday.

Lt. Col. Artur Golawski, spokesman for the army operations command, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the initial investigation of the suspected train site found fallen trees that needed to be removed before the soldiers could complete a thorough inspection and assessment of any dangerous materials that might be buried there.

Lower Silesia was part of Germany before the Nazi defeat in 1945 and Wroclaw, then known as Breslau, was an important military staging area for the Third Reich until Soviet Red Army forces began advancing on the Germans in the last months of the war.

The Nazis built a network of tunnels, bunkers and underground warehouses in what was known as Project Riese, the German word for giant. Some of the sprawling subterranean labyrinth was explored by Poland's postwar communist government but many of the potential hiding places for the rumored treasure train have been considered inaccessible for decades because of cave-ins, suspected mines or feared accumulation of hazardous gases.

Legend circulating in Lower Silesia since the war's closing days holds that the Nazis loaded a military train with looted gold, artworks and jewelry to evacuate it from the area and keep it from falling into the hands of the approaching Soviet forces.

Poland's deputy culture minister, Piotr Zuchowski, told journalists at a Warsaw news conference on Aug. 31, before Koper and Richter came forward, that he was "more than 99 percent certain" that the train exists. He said the finders had been tipped off to the location by a man who helped hide the train 70 years ago.

The culture official's enthusiastic account of the reported train discovery has inspired an invasion of treasure and curiosity seekers, as well as enterprising new attractions by tourism purveyors.

The Ksiaz Castle museum guides have laid on new tours of the underground tunnels that honeycomb the ground beneath the hilltop fortress and the Old Mine Science and Art Center is promoting special souvenirs and T-shirts celebrating "Explore Walbrzych" excursions, TheNews website reported.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/possible-nazi-tunnels-fuel-treasure-seekers-in-poland/ar-AAeVrmh?li=AAa0dzB

The New York Times
By JOANNA BERENDT
32 mins ago


© Kacper Pempel/Reuters Journalists in Walbrzych, Poland, visited an underground tunnel built by the Nazis during World War II. The local authorities are trying to verify whether a similar tunnel complex nearby was also built by Nazis.
WALBRZYCH, Poland — The gold diggers have arrived here in Lower Silesia.

They have stormed the Ksiaz Castle. Upended earth and artifacts. Emptied store shelves of metal detectors.

In normal times, this province in southwest Poland has an unassuming charm and struggles financially. But since two groups of explorers claimed to have discovered evidence related to a local legend — a Nazi train loaded with treasures, supposedly hidden here — nothing has been the same.

"The thaw for unearthing the secrets of our region has begun," Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, governor of Walbrzych County, told reporters two weeks ago.

The legend could be the basis for a movie: Hidden in the forested mountains near here is a secret underground city built on Hitler's orders. As the Soviet Army advanced in the closing days of World War II, the Nazis fled, leaving behind a train loaded with gold, gems and armaments.

For more than 70 years, the legend endured, though many historians scoffed at it. But in late August, two explorers, Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter, claimed to have found what they believed to be the mysterious "gold train."


© Kacper Pempel/Reuters Polish soldiers checked for booby traps near the purported site of a train rumored to be filled with gold that the Nazis abandoned near the end of World War II.
Then another local explorer, Krzysztof Szpakowski, declared that he, too, had made a discovery less than 15 miles from the train site — a multilevel complex of tunnels in the Owl Mountains that could be part of the biggest underground infrastructure built during the war on Hitler's orders. The purpose of the project, known as Project Riese, German for "giant," is shrouded in secrecy to this day.

Verification of both discoveries, according to the local authorities, is months away. The sites could be booby-trapped with mines. Explosives experts from the Polish Army started examining the train site on Monday and will not finish before the end of the week.

Bartosz Rdultowski, an author of books on the mysteries of Lower Silesia, said he, like many historians, was skeptical about the reports.

"How many times we've heard it?" he said. "In the late '90s, the government issued an order to blow up half a mountain near Piechowice in Lower Silesia because one guy said that the train was there. Well, it wasn't."

"And these tunnels? They could be part of any old mines," Mr. Rdultowski said. "Before the war, there were about 200 of them here."

Still, he said, that does not mean there is nothing to explore in the area, which is "definitely one of the most interesting regions in Europe for treasure hunters."

Many seem to agree.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of fortune hunters from all over Poland have swarmed the province, hoping to stumble across precious artifacts, often not abiding by the law, searching and digging under cover of darkness without required permits.

Numerous archaeological sites, including old cemeteries and the site of a Napoleonic battle in 1807 in the nearby city of Struga, have been dug up and vandalized, said Barbara Nowak-Obelinda, the conservator of monuments in Lower Silesia.

More than 120 media organizations from around the world have besieged the picturesque Ksiaz Castle, four miles from the site where the train was said to have been detected, said Andrzej Gaik, a castle guide.

The treasure hunt has worried local officials and has already claimed a victim: a 35-year-old man who the authorities said died when he fell while trying to break into a tomb near the city of Walbrzych three weeks ago. The tomb belonged to the von Kramst family, German owners of a Silesian textile empire, and was rumored to be full of treasure.

"This gold rush madness got to a point where we had to do something to scare off other amateur treasure seekers," said Ms. Nowak-Obelinda, who filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office against two groups of explorers who had not obtained permits to use ground-penetrating radar in their searches. "Every morning I have new complaints from our archaeologists that more sites were vandalized during the night."

Elzbieta Mirkowska, 74, lives just over a mile from the site where the train is said to be.

"I've been hearing about this train for at least half a century," Ms. Mirkowska said. "After all this time, it would be lovely to finally dig this thing out."

"But these fortune seekers are a bit much," she said. "They used to be everywhere, walking with little metal detectors. Fortunately, now they are more scared and do it mostly at night."

Historians say the Third Reich used the castles and mansions here as a treasure chest for the artworks, jewels and gold plundered in this part of Europe. Some researchers even believe that Nazis may have hidden in the area the Amber Room looted from St. Petersburg, Russia, or "Portrait of a Young Man" by Raphael.

After decades of largely fruitless searches by the Polish authorities and amateur explorers, some local officials are optimistic that the region could be on the verge of unlocking some of its mysteries.

Walbrzych used to be known for its mining industry, but its three mines were closed in the 1990s, and unemployment here surged to 28 percent from 15 percent in five years.

The city sits in a picturesque valley in the wooded Owl Mountains, near numerous mineral springs, and it is one of the few Polish cities that survived World War II almost intact, allowing it to preserve its unique mixture of Prussian, Bohemian and Austrian heritage. But for decades it was not popular with tourists, unlike the nearby city of Wroclaw, which many tourists consider one of the most historic and beautiful cites in Europe.

Now it seems that in recent weeks, Walbrzych has finally stepped out of Wroclaw's shadow.

"If the city wanted to pay for this kind of prime-time advertising, we estimate that we would have to spend 100 million zloty," about $26 million, said Anna Zabska, director of the Old Mine Science and Art Museum, which started producing T-shirts, mugs and flashlights with the image of the legendary train.

For weeks, herds of curious onlookers have been lingering by the green viaduct near the site where the train is reported to be, even though it is heavily guarded by railroad security guards and police officers day and night.

Maciej Nowak and Jaroslaw Piwowarczyk, history enthusiasts from Krakow, made a quick stop here to see the site.

"I'm a skeptic," Mr. Nowak said as he looked toward the railway security guards. "But just how great would it be to again live in a world where legends come back to life?"

This week some pictures popped op in certain media of the alleged Nazi train.
They look very convincing at first site, but are most probably fake (as a good photoshop)?
On the images there are silver bars, and not gold. Also the blanket seems very clean.

(http://i.imgur.com/DIpDh0El.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/LVF2ZzJl.jpg)

More pictures here: http://www.mmowg.net/nazi-gold-train-revealed/ (http://www.mmowg.net/nazi-gold-train-revealed/)

cheers

The tunnel looks too clean.
Trains in 1945 burned coal.  The tunnel would be coated with black coal suet and the bottom deck would be littered with cinders and trash.
There is a lack of surface rust on the rails.
The concrete walls look to be a decorative finish which I doubt would be on a main line tunnel in Poland constructed in  the mid 20th century.
The camouflage tarps look like they are plastic and were just removed from their packages.

Fake? Probably, but I would like to know where the photographs were made.

Does anyone recognize the symbol on the train?

(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r66/armap/Image2.jpg~original)

That may be a clue. :)

ArMaP 
that small pic is too dark but I am thinking it is the triangle under the line and setting sun symbol on the side of the train  which looks way too pristine to have been there long

and I agree with the list from SerpUKhovian


and I can't see what is written in the triangle




but the germans were into astrology so here's my two cents

this is the symbol for libra


(http://www.whats-your-sign.com/images/xZodiacSymbolsLibra.jpg.pagespeed.ic.qhuMOKBhgU.jpg)

this is the elemental symbol for air  (which rules libra)

(http://www.whats-your-sign.com/images/xZodiacSymbolsElementAir.jpg.pagespeed.ic.O4ZN-fm6Zs.jpg)

Duration (tropical, western) 23 September – 23 October (2015, UTC)
Sign ruler?: ?Venus

does it mean anything at all...maybe  a symbol of the guy doing the photoshop..or a group who are out to mess with your brain
or nothing at all


I vote for someone/s just messing around  :( 

Another strange thing is the focus on the first photo, as it looks like the ceiling is out of focus but the whole train is in focus.

(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r66/armap/635811248035551067-1020x543.jpg)

can anyone make out the dates (?) in the bottom corner ?

Quote from: space otter on October 26, 2015, 12:10:00 AM

can anyone make out the dates (?) in the bottom corner ?

On the image on my previous post it looks like 05.09.2015.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/nazi-gold-train-investigators-start-excavating-site-in-poland/ar-CC6h1t?li=AAa0dzB

The Guardian

Alex Duval Smith in Lower Silesia
1 hr ago




Excavators are set to start examining a railway embankment in south-western Poland to establish how to dig out a legendary "gold train" that is thought to have been buried there in the dying days of the Third Reich.

The existence of a Nazi gold train, its whereabouts and its cargo – possibly stolen valuables and artworks – remain one of the great unsolved mysteries of the second world war.

"In the past 70 years, three cold war secret services – the United States, the Russian, then the Polish – carried out searches,'' said Piotr Koper, a 44-year-old builder who claims to have found the suspected armoured train with a fellow treasure hunter. "We succeeded because we are local people.''

Some historians believe up to three trains laden with arms, art, gold and archives vanished in a 18 sq mile (30 sq km) radius near the present Czech border as the Red Army advanced in 1945. The strategic area includes Hitler's command post at the grandiose Ksiaz castle (formerly known as Fürstenstein) and Project Riese, a suspected secret weapons programme.

Project Riese was a network of underground tunnels and chambers dug out beneath the Owl Mountains by an estimated 30,000 prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners. The earth embankment that will be surveyed this week by teams including one from Krakow's mining academy rises up alongside the existing Wroclaw-Walbrzych railway line.
The underground galleries of Nazi Germany's 'Project Riese' construction project under the Ksiaz castle in Walbrzych, Poland. Photograph: Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images
It will be checked with magnetic field detectors, thermal imaging cameras and radars. The site, on the outskirts of Walbrzych, has been under police guard since August when Koper and his friend, German-born Andreas Richter, showed the authorities images they had taken with a £7,000 ground-penetrating radar kit.

"Four years ago, we were given information by a witness who was in Walbrzych at the time the train disappeared in April 1945. Radar technology has become affordable so we were able to check the information,'' said Koper, who would not reveal if he knew anything about the hiding places of the other two supposed trains.

"The Nazis dug out the embankment, created a junction and laid track to divert the train off to the side. Then they parked the train, which is 90 metres long, removed the rails and put back the soil,'' said Koper.

Since August, the Polish military has cleared vegetation from an area the size of a football pitch. Soldiers have swept for mines and analysed the ground for the presence of poison gas. During the holocaust, Zyklon B – for use in gas chambers – is believed to have been transported on the line.

The treasure hunters' images show only the outline of what appears to be a train. "We do not know what is inside, only that it is armoured, which suggests a precious cargo,'' says Koper. ''There could be gold but that is not what interests us. In fact, we were looking for a tunnel when we found the train.''

The men have hired a lawyer and applied to the Polish treasury for a reward of 10% of the eventual value of the train and its contents. "We have worked four for years to get to the bottom of legends that have flown around our city for 70 years. It has become a fascination,'' says Koper who adds that he and Richter are well out of pocket for having self-funded all their research.

But others in Walbrzych, a depressed coal mining town with smog-stained blocks of flats and 20% unemployment, are already cashing in. Initial reports of the discovery, in August, brought a stream of tourists bearing metal detectors.

Walbrzych now has a Gold Train Car Wash, a Gold Train Skoda dealership, a 'Gold' bar and a line in souvenirs including fridge magnets, stickers, bags and gold ingot paperweights. At the city's museum, there is a waiting list for Gold Train mugs.

"I'm no Indiana Jones,'' said the district governor, Jacek Cichura, "but my colleagues in the rest of Poland now call me the Gold Governor. We are in a special economic zone. Life is tough. The young people are leaving to work abroad. But the gold train has brought a tourism boom.''

The influx of visitors is being felt across the district - from the towering Ksiaz Castle to the mist-clad Owl Mountains 10 miles (15km) to the south. According to local legend, the Führer's castle lair is linked by at least one secret tunnel to Walbrzych and onwards to Project Riese's underground network. Riese means giant in German and this was where Hitler's ''Wunderwaffe'' (magic weapons) were supposedly under development.

It is unclear to what extent the underground mega city and arms factory actually functioned and how much of what we know is simply surviving propaganda. But for the past 12 years, carpenter Krzysztof Szpakowski, 56, has dowsed his way to uncovering thousands of metres of passages dynamited into the pine-clad Owl Mountains. Some tunnels are flooded but in others he has found German machine guns and prisoner-of-war graffiti.

An eclectic mix of visitors – from militaria maniacs to bat fanciers – signs up for his guided tours. But Szpakowski himself has the exploration bug. He broke his arm last week when he slipped in one of the Riese's dank, eerie tunnels.

"This was a closed military area – first Russian, then Polish – until 1991. The soldiers were looking for something. When I was a teenager we knew something had gone on here. But there was no one to ask because all the (German) residents were shipped out of the area and replaced by Poles after the Potsdam Agreement.''

Szpakowski, Koper and Richter collaborate in their treasure-hunting by lending each other equipment. But they have different views of what is on board the "gold train''. Szpakowski believes it contains top secret strategic equipment.

He said: ''The Nazis wanted to develop an atomic bomb. They were working on anti-gravity propulsion. There is something on that train that was intended for Riese. We only know 5% of what went on in this part of the world,'' he said.




....................................

and for those curious about history



https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/potsdam-conf

Milestones: 1937–1945


The Potsdam Conference, 1945

The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. After the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had agreed to meet following the surrender of Germany to determine the postwar borders in Europe. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, and the Allied leaders agreed to meet over the summer at Potsdam to continue the discussions that had begun at Yalta. Although the Allies remained committed to fighting a joint war in the Pacific, the lack of a common enemy in Europe led to difficulties reaching consensus concerning postwar reconstruction on the European continent.

Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin and President Harry Truma

(https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.history.state.gov/milestones/truman-stalin.jpg)

The major issue at Potsdam was the question of how to handle Germany. At Yalta, the

Lets see what theyh find, and if they publish it.

btw, the images are faked. Cant find the site that fast. But its a nice HOAX.

Lunica
I don't think that is a faked photo.. so much as just a tunnel aready known under the castle..
which is how it is labeled

and with as much publicity as they have already I think we will hear more..maybe we will even hear the truth..but who knows  ::)

Quote from: space otter on November 08, 2015, 02:44:19 PM

Lunica
I don't think that is a faked photo.. so much as just a tunnel aready known under the castle..
which is how it is labeled

and with as much publicity as they have already I think we will hear more..maybe we will even hear the truth..but who knows  ::)

Sorry, I ment the photos I posted earlier of the so called train with the silver bars.  8)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/no-evidence-of-nazi-gold-train/ar-BBnA2dP?li=BBnbfcL
BBC News
7 hrs ago



There is no evidence that a Nazi train rumoured to be carrying gems and gold has been found in Poland, experts say.

Researchers presenting findings about the alleged discovery in the Polish town of Walbrzych said there might be a tunnel but no train.

However, one of those who claimed to have found the train said he still believed it was there.

It was claimed that the train was hidden underground near Wroclaw as Soviet forces approached in 1945.

The Nazis had many miles of tunnels constructed near Walbrzych during World War Two.

In August, Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said that ground-penetrating radar images had left him "99% convinced" that a German military train was buried near Walbrzych.

He said images appeared to show a train equipped with gun turrets.

But on Tuesday, Professor Janusz Madej from Krakow's Academy of Mining said its geological survey of the site had found no evidence of a train.

"There may be a tunnel. There is no train," he told a press conference in Walbrzych.

Local folklore said an armoured train had been carrying gold from what is now the Polish city of Wroclaw as the Soviet army closed in at the end of World War Two.

It was said to have gone missing near Ksiaz castle, 3km (two miles) from Walbrzych.

Earlier this year, Piotr Koper, from Poland, and Andreas Richter, from Germany, told authorities that they knew the location of the train.

Through lawyers, they said that they wanted 10% of the value of anything that was found.

At the news conference on Tuesday, Mr Koper questioned the survey methodology and said he still believed the train was there.


.............................................



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35104117

Nazi gold train: 'No evidence' of discovery in Poland

(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/D61C/production/_87221845_030117730.jpg)
EPA

Geologists examined the site where the train was rumoured to be buried

There is no evidence that a Nazi train rumoured to be carrying gems and gold has been found in Poland, experts say.

Researchers presenting findings about the alleged discovery in the Polish town of Walbrzych said there might be a tunnel but no train.

However, one of those who claimed to have discovered the train said he still believed it was there.

It was claimed that the train was hidden underground near Wroclaw as Soviet forces approached in 1945.

The Nazis had many miles of tunnels constructed near Walbrzych during World War Two.




In August, Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said that ground-penetrating radar images had left him "99% convinced" that a German military train was buried near Walbrzych.

He said images appeared to show a train equipped with gun turrets.

But on Tuesday, Professor Janusz Madej from Krakow's Academy of Mining said its geological survey of the site had found no evidence of a train.

"There may be a tunnel. There is no train," he told a press conference in Walbrzych.


(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/17308/production/_85248949_028637547.jpg)
AFP

Many tunnels dating from World War Two have been found near Walbrzych

Local folklore said an armoured train had been carrying gold from what is now the Polish city of Wroclaw as the Soviet army closed in at the end of World War Two.

It was said to have gone missing near Ksiaz castle, 3km (two miles) from Walbrzych.

Earlier this year, Piotr Koper, from Poland, and Andreas Richter, from Germany, told authorities that they knew the location of the train.

Through lawyers, they said that they wanted 10% of the value of anything that was found.

At the news conference on Tuesday, Mr Koper questioned the survey methodology and said he still believed the train was there.

Information about the train's location was reported to have come in a deathbed confession from a person who claimed they had helped to conceal it.

Between 1943 and 1945, the Nazis forced prisoners of war to dig more than 9km of tunnels near Walbrzych that were apparently to be used as factories. Some are now tourist attractions.

(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/D112/production/_87222535_polandwalbrzych404.png)


More on this story
Poland's 'Nazi gold train' find: Myth and reality 
20 August 2015

good episode of Josh Gates tonight about this..and no they didn't find it but very interesting  trip into the mountian from the other side
the condition of the tunnels is awesome and knowing it was done with slave labor blows you away at the horror of it all






here's the info if you can catch it i think it was worth the hour

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/expedition-unknown

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/expedition-unknown/episodes

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/expedition-unknown/episodes/nazi-gold-part-1

Josh Gates travels to Europe to expose the last, and darkest, secrets of the Nazi empire.

TUNE IN FOR THIS EPISODE
WEDNESDAY
June 15
9pm | 8c

THURSDAY
June 16
12am | 11c

SATURDAY
June 18
11am | 10c

WEDNESDAY
June 22
8pm | 7c

THURSDAY
June 23
3am | 2c

WEDNESDAY
July 13
10pm | 9c



http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/expedition-unknown/video/expedition-unknown-full-episodes