Nazi gold train

The so-called Nazi gold train and Wałbrzych gold train concerns a local legend of up to three Nazi German-era trains buried underground in Lower Silesia in January 1945 toward the end of World War II. The area is now part of southwest Poland, but was then part of southeast Germany. The train(s) are believed to be near the Polish city of Wałbrzych, which until 1945 was the German city of Waldenburg.

According to local legend, the train or trains left Breslau (now Wrocław) laden with gold and other treasures. They were driven into a system of tunnels under the Owl Mountains that were part of an unfinished Nazi secret Project Riese (German for "giant") near Wałbrzych. There they were buried in a warren of tunnels and mines created by the Nazis. The train(s) are rumored to hold up to 300 tons of gold, jewels, weapons, and masterpieces.

According to historians, it has never been proven the train(s) ever existed. In Poland's Communist era, the Polish army carried out fruitless searches.

2015 possible discovery

In late August 2015, news stories began circulating about two unidentified men who had obtained a death-bed confession about a buried gold train. The two men were later identified as Peter Koper of Poland and Andreas Richter of Germany, co-owners of the mine exploration company XYZ S.C. Using lawyers as an intermediary, the two men reportedly opened negotiation with the Polish government for a "finders fee" of 10 percent of the value of the train in return for information leading to its location. They said they would reveal the exact location once the documents were signed. Koper and Richter would later claim information was leaked by someone within the government. "The media uproar around the "gold train" was unleashed not by us, finders, but because of the leak of confidential documents that were filed in state offices."

On August 28, Polish Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Żuchowski announced that ground-penetrating radar images taken by Koper and Richter confirmed with 99 percent probability that a train of 100 meters in length had been found. However on August 31, Tomasz Smolarz, Governor of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, told reporters that "There is no more proof for this alleged discovery than for other claims made over the years," saying, "It's impossible to claim that such a find actually exists at the location indicated based on the documents that have been submitted." Smolarz qualified that he had not seen the images reported by Żuchowski. On September 4, Koper and Richter went public for the first time, breaking their previous anonymity. They announced that the precise location of the train had been given to Polish authorities. In bid to assuage doubters, they also released images they had taken with a KS-700 Ground Penetrating Radar system that appeared to show a 50-meter deep man-made shaft with something in it. The Polish authorities sectioned off a section of woodland in the area where the train is believed to be, as well as deploying police and other guards in order to prevent access to the numerous treasure hunters, including some Germans, who have arrived armed with detection equipment. In late September, the Polish military, acting at the request of the regional governor, began to clear the surface of trees and search for booby traps and mines. The military confirmed on October 4 that no explosives or other dangers existed, down to a meter depth, and handed the site back to local authorities who would decide what to do next. In mid-November two different teams were cleared by city authorities in Wałbrzych for the oncoming tasks at the area believed to host the train. Forthcoming work at the area included drilling and the use of ground-penetrating radar. The first team cleared for further work were a private team led by the two men Peter Koper of Poland and Andreas Richter of Germany. The second team were specialists from the University of Science and Technology in Kraków. If the teams can produce convincing results, excavation of the site will begin in the Spring of 2016. On November 8 investigators from the first team started surveying the area using magnetic field detectors, thermal imaging cameras and radars.

Location

The train is believed to be next to a 4-kilometre (2.5-mile) stretch of track on Polish State Railways' Wrocław–Wałbrzych line. Some sources state that it is at "kilometre 65", while others give the location as between kilometre 61 and 65.

Second location

On September 11, a Polish man, Krzysztof Szpakowski, held a news conference announcing that he found a massive underground shelter built by the Nazis capable of holding thousands of people. He said the shelter was part of the "Riese" system and it could contain anything, though he was dubious it contained a "gold train." Walbrzych regional authorities said they were seeking state funds for exploration. On October 10, authorities began drilling bore holes to lower cameras to explore the site.

See also

• Gold laundering
• Gold train
• Hungarian Gold Train

External links

• "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about a Nazi Gold Train But were Afraid to Ask..". Association for Research into Crimes against Art. Blogspot. 2015-09-21. http://art-crime.blogspot.it/2015/09/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know.html.  — includes chronological history of story with hyperlinks to original sources of information.
• "Gold Train Rush part II: the search intensified". W-WA Jeziorki. Blogspot. 2015-08-29. http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2015/08/gold-rush-part-ii-search-intensifies.html.  — includes maps of possible locations