Daily Mail: Nazi Gold Train Found

[Deleted]

From the Daily Mail but I thought this was interesting. I wonder what art work is on it. I hope whatever it is can be restored.

*****

A Nazi gold train has been found in Poland after the man who helped hide it at the end of the Second World War revealed its location in a deathbed confession.

Two men, a German and a Pole, last week claimed they had found the train - believed to contain treasure - close to the small town of Walbrzych in south-west Poland.

Today, Poland’s Culture Ministry announced that a man who helped hide the train had revealed its location shortly before he died.


Speaking at a press briefing in the capital Warsaw this afternoon, Piotr Zuchowski, Poland’s National Heritage and Conservation Officer, said: 'Information about where this train is and what its contents are were revealed on the deathbed of a person who had knowledge of the secret of this train.'


He added that Polish authorities had now seen evidence of the train’s existence in a picture taken using a ground-penetrating radar.

He said the image - albeit blurred - showed the shape of a train platform and cannons.

Mr Zuchowski said the find was 'unprecedented', adding: 'We do not know what is inside the train.

'Probably military equipment but also possibly jewellery, works of art and archive documents.

'Armoured trains from this period were used to carry extremely valuable items and this is an armoured train, it is a big clue.'

He said authorities were now '99 percent sure the train exists' and whatever is on it will be returned to the rightful owners, if they can be found.

'We will be 100 per cent sure only when we find the train,' Mr Zuchowski added.

Walbrzych regional authorities will conduct the search using military explosives experts, in a procedure that will take 'weeks', he said.

However, the two men who claim to have discovered the train had demanded a ten per cent finders fee of the value of whatever may be on it.


Mr Zuchowski told reporters that the train was about 100 metres long but added: 'It is not possible to disclose the exact location of where the train can be found.

'The local government in Walbrzych knows where it is.'

He explained it is hidden along a 4km stretch of track on the Wroclaw-Walbrzych line.

Mr Zuchowski said the person who claimed he helped load the gold train in 1945 said in a 'deathbed statement' the train is secured with explosives.

The official declined to comment further about the man who said this but speculation is now rife that it was a former SS guard or a local Pole who stumbled upon the train before hiding it.

Deputy Mayor of Walbrzych, Zygmunt Nowaczyk told the press: 'The city is full of mysterious stories because of its history.

'Now it is formal information - we have found something.'

News of the discovery created such a flurry of interest from treasure hunters desperate to find the train that they were warned to stop looking because it could be mined and dangerous.


'There may be hazardous substances dating from the Second World War in the hidden train, which I'm convinced exists,' Mr Zuchowski had said.

'I am appealing to people to stop any such searches until the end of official procedures leading to the securing of the find. There's a huge probability that the train is booby-trapped.'

Rumours of a German train filled with gold, gems and armaments have been circulating since the end of the Second World War.

Legend has it the locomotive set off from the western city of Wroclaw (then known as Breslau) before mysteriously disappearing around Walbrzych (Waldenburg at the time) while fleeing the Red Army in 1945.

Fortune-hunters have looked for it for decades, and in the communist era the Polish army and security services even carried out apparently fruitless searches for it.


Local lore says Nazi Germany ordered the vast underground network, which snakes around the massive Ksiaz Castle, be built to hide Third Reich valuables.

German concentration camp inmates were used to build the huge tunnels - code-named Riese (Giant) - to use as production spaces for strategic weapons, as the site was safe from Allied air raids.

Located in the passages were underground Nazi shelters as well as one of Adolf Hitler's headquarters.

Portions of the tunnels are now open to tourists while the Polish Academy of Sciences stores seismographs in the deepest section.

But according to some reports there was also a two-kilometre (one-mile) sidetrack and its entryway was blown up when Nazi Germany surrendered.

The two men who claim to have found the train wrote in their statement to officials that it was armoured and filled with self-propelled guns, 'precious metals, valuable objects and industrial equipment'.



Jaroslaw Chmielewski, the lawyer of the two treasure hunters - who have remained anonymous - said the pair provided local authorities with a description of the train carriage.

One group of fortune hunters calling itself The Silesian Research Group insists that it in fact found the legendary train here over two years ago.

And it says the duo who filed a claim with local authorities for the treasure two weeks ago somehow pilfered their information.

One group member, who asked not to be identified after receiving threatening phone calls from a 'mysterious man', told MailOnline: 'About two or three years ago we carried out extensive research of the area using geo-radar and magnetic readings.

'We came across an anomaly about 70 metres below the surface and further investigation revealed this was most likely a train.

'It is well-known that the Nazis built a network of railway lines under the mountains.

'And we know that in May 1945 gold and other valuables from the city of Wroclaw were being transported to Walbrzych when they disappeared between the towns of Lubiechow and Swiebodzice.'



The researcher went on: 'During the war, there used to be an SS barracks here which was heavily guarded. And just behind the railway bridge was the entrance to the tunnel.

'We recorded our findings and marked the location on a map as well as storing the information on computer records.

'We were and are convinced that this is where the gold train is. But, soon after our discovery, the map and data for the area went missing.

'At first we thought it had been mislaid, but then we heard about the findings of these two people and we realised they must have got hold of our information.'

The researcher added that he had been 'warned off' talking about the subject or investigating it further.

He said: 'I received a phone call from a mysterious man who warned me to stay away from the story and to not get involved.

'A lot of dangerous people are interested in finding this train, this could have been a warning from one of them. This man who called me knows that I know something.'





Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3214265/Nazi-gold-train-Deathbed-confession-leads-treasure-hunters-secret-location-Polish-officials-claim-seen-proof-radar.html#ixzz3k8FE1TFm

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[ttt]

So much for the guys trying to extort their share of the loot!

[debatethis]

I really hope they find it.

And, side question: if they get a 10% finders fee, who gets the remaining 90%?

[anastasia517]

Aug 28, 2015 12:48:36 GMT -5 debatethis said:

I really hope they find it.

And, side question: if they get a 10% finders fee, who gets the remaining 90%?

If it is stolen things that are identifiable - like the paintings & artwork that was stolen - they would be returned to the owners or next of kin.  Otherwise, I have no idea.

[msmerymac]

Aug 28, 2015 12:48:36 GMT -5 debatethis said:

I really hope they find it.

And, side question: if they get a 10% finders fee, who gets the remaining 90%?

The original owners of the property. Which begs the question - how do you get 10% of an expensive work of art? 

[ttt]

Aug 28, 2015 12:48:36 GMT -5 debatethis said:

I really hope they find it.

And, side question: if they get a 10% finders fee, who gets the remaining 90%?

That's a really good question!

It doesn't sound like they're getting a fee, though, now that the location has been revealed by someone else. 

[Cicero]

If Otis treated like other found objects from the past 50 years or so, the government will get it. They will likely display it in a public museum and if the original owner's heirs know about it and have proof they can ask the government for its return.

[mrshandy]

Wow. That's fascinating. I hope they find it. I was a little confused how the deathbed confession worked into it. Who exactly did the person confess to?

[ttt]

Aug 28, 2015 12:55:57 GMT -5 Cicero said:

If Otis treated like other found objects from the past 50 years or so, the government will get it. They will likely display it in a public museum and if the original owner's heirs know about it and have proof they can ask the government for its return.

lol this took me a minute - I was like, who's Otis??

[Cicero]

Aug 28, 2015 13:00:59 GMT -5 ttt said:

Aug 28, 2015 12:55:57 GMT -5 Cicero said:

If Otis treated like other found objects from the past 50 years or so, the government will get it. They will likely display it in a public museum and if the original owner's heirs know about it and have proof they can ask the government for its return.

lol this took me a minute - I was like, who's Otis??

autcorrect hates me almost as much as Ted.

ETA: damnit. Tef.