Search resumes for Nazi gold train that might not even exist

[webfact]

Search resumes for Nazi gold train that might not even exist 
VANESSA GERA, Associated Press

 

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Explorers in Poland began digging Tuesday for a legendary Nazi train said to be laden with treasure and armaments.

 

They're not dissuaded by decades of fruitless searches, a scientific determination that no train is there and warnings by historians that such a train might not even exist.

 

The search in southwestern Poland attests to the power of a local legend claiming a Nazi "gold train" disappeared in a mountain tunnel as the Germans escaped the advancing Soviet army at the end of World War II.

 

As the dig got underway, a yellow excavator moved earth along railroad tracks above the spot where two explorers —Andreas Richter, a German, and Piotr Koper, a Pole — believe the train is buried. Richter and Koper, joined by several other volunteers, expect the search to last several days.

 

The two men claimed last year to have located the elusive train with radar equipment deep in the bowels of the earth in the city of Walbrzych, sparking a gold rush to the castle city and the surrounding area.

 

A government official initially said he was "99 percent sure" the train was there, helping to feed the frenzy. The arrival of treasure hunters and curiosity seekers from across Europe gave a welcome financial boost to the coal mining region of Silesia, which has struggled since unprofitable mines in the area were closed after the fall of communism.

 

Late last year, geological experts from a university in Krakow, using magnetic equipment, found no train on the spot.

But the explorers refused to give up.

 

Andrzej Gaik, a spokesman for the search team, said six independent companies using various radar devices have detected anomalies indicating the shape of a tunnel underground on an elevated area running along railroad tracks.

 

"The results of the ground-penetrating radar examinations are very promising," Gaik said. "It's so exciting and we count on success."

 

Historians say the existence of the train, which is said to have gone missing in May 1945, never has been conclusively proven. Polish authorities nonetheless have seemed eager to pursue any chance of recovering treasures that have sparked the imaginations of local people for decades.

 

At the height of the frenzy last year, the World Jewish Congress reminded Poland's authorities that, in the case of a discovery of a treasure-laden train, any valuables belonging to Jews killed in the Holocaust must be returned to their rightful owners or their heirs.

 

Legend holds the train was armed and loaded with treasure and disappeared after entering a complex of tunnels under the Owl Mountains, a secret project known as "Riese" — or Giant — which the Nazis never finished.

 

The area belonged to Germany at the time, but has been part of Poland since the borders were moved in the postwar settlement.

 

A man credited with being the main living source of the legend is a retired miner, Tadeusz Slowikowski. He heard from a German man in the 1970s of a train that left the German city of Breslau (today Poland's Wroclaw) in the spring of 1945, as the Soviet army approached. He said the man told him the train disappeared before ever making it to Waldenburg (now Walbrzych) some 65 kilometers (45 miles) to the west.

 

However, a local historian, Pawel Rodziewicz, told The Associated Press last year that documentation leaves no doubt that gold in Breslau was evacuated to the German central bank in Berlin and elsewhere, so there would have been no reason to take any to Waldenburg, where the approaching Soviets could find it.

 

He thinks it is impossible that a secret railway tunnel could have been built into the hill near railroad tracks in frequent use. No documents have ever been found to indicate such a project was undertaken, while documents exist even for the most top-secret projects of the Third Reich, including some for the subterranean tunnels beneath the Ksiaz Castle in Walbrzych, Rodziewicz argued.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-08-17

[webfact]

Treasure hunters excavate site of a buried Nazi “gold train”

 

 

WARSAW: -- A team of treasure hunters searching for a Nazi “gold train” have started excavations on the sight where the legendary train supposedly vanished in southwest Poland near the Czech border 1945.

 

Six independent companies using radar technology have detected the evidence of a tunnel on the site.

 

Andrzej Galik is a member of the search team:” I have to admit the results of the 
ground-penetrating radar examinations are very promising. There is no coincidence every radar showed anomalies indicating the existence of a tunnel.”

 

The search continues despite scientists saying late last year that there is “no evidence” that the train exists. Treasure hunters have been searching for the train for decades.

 

The research team have 10 days to complete the dig, local media reported.

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-08-17

[taichiplanet]

since Tourism Authority of Thailand is so desperate (eg Poke Go) maybe they can come up with a fable of a Japanese treasure train that went missing in Thailand!

[KKr]

And people keep on buying the map and a share in the proceeds ..... 

[SOTIRIOS]

...they did extensive research......and they have clearly located 'something'....

 

..stopping them now would only allow others to reap the benefits....

[toofarnorth]

A German  and a Pole have started digging. Just a rumor ?  " Well you started it " as Basil Fawlty would say.

[klauskunkel]

...and found some Pokemons along the way

[Andaman Al]

I have seen some pretty convincing documentaries on this. Good luck to them!

[Grouse]

Nah, I saw this in a movie.

 

The Americans took it right after they won the war

 

?

[Thorgal]

2 minutes ago, Grouse said:

Nah, I saw this in a movie.

 

The Americans took it right after they won the war

 

?

 

Yep, DeGaule had to ask a few tons of French gold back to the US immediately after the war.

 

While French president Sarkozy sold it not long after he won the election...

[boomerangutang]

A bit off topic, but true story:  about 36  years ago, a friend of a friend got an idea in northern California.  That's very near where, in 1848, gold was first discovered at Sutter's Creek.  The old guy who found the first nugget, if he'd kept his secret for a week or so, would have been a multi-millionaire, but he spilled the beans .....or the gold nuggets, as it were.

 

Fastforward to around 1980:  The friend of a friend took a chance and bought an abandoned mine near a creek bed.  He hired 3 guys and, with some investment in equipment and time, they all became multi-millionaires.  They called it the 16 to 1 mine (16 tons of rock to 1 ton of gold).  Last time I checked, they were still working in there.

[Andaman Al]

13 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

A bit off topic, but true story:  about 36  years ago, a friend of a friend got an idea in northern California.  That's very near where, in 1848, gold was first discovered at Sutter's Creek.  The old guy who found the first nugget, if he'd kept his secret for a week or so, would have been a multi-millionaire, but he spilled the beans .....or the gold nuggets, as it were.

 

Fastforward to around 1980:  The friend of a friend took a chance and bought an abandoned mine near a creek bed.  He hired 3 guys and, with some investment in equipment and time, they all became multi-millionaires.  They called it the 16 to 1 mine (16 tons of rock to 1 ton of gold).  Last time I checked, they were still working in there.

Nice story, but.............     The richest Gold mines - in South Africa,  produce 0.3 ounces of gold per ton of rock. 1 Ton of gold for sixteen tons of rock would see the guys richer than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined.  16 to 1 was actually a figure given in the early days to represent the value of silver to Gold. i.e 16 ounces of silver was worth one ounce of Gold. I recall that the original 16 to 1 mine in California is still running.

[boomerangutang]

6 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

Nice story, but.............     The richest Gold mines - in South Africa,  produce 0.3 ounces of gold per ton of rock. 1 Ton of gold for sixteen tons of rock would see the guys richer than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined.  16 to 1 was actually a figure given in the early days to represent the value of silver to Gold. i.e 16 ounces of silver was worth one ounce of Gold. I recall that the original 16 to 1 mine in California is still running.

 

You could be right.  I just got a kick out of the name and the bravado.  It's like a young couple where the gal says "my boyfriend is the best blues guitarist."  (I've actually heard a chick say that).

 

I never took the 16 to 1 literally.

[Andaman Al]

6 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

 

You could be right.  I just got a kick out of the name and the bravado.  It's like a young couple where the gal says "my boyfriend is the best blues guitarist."  (I've actually heard a chick say that).

 

I never took the 16 to 1 literally.

 

Shame though, I was going to ask you if I could invest 

[Wilsonandson]

 

Edited August 17, 2016 by Wilsonandson

[Kiwiken]

One has a shovel the other a pick