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News.com.au
04-08-2025
- General
- News.com.au
New hunt for lost Nazi treasures begins in Poland
Precious works of art. The fabled Amber Room of Russia's Catherine Palace. Crates of gold. The hunt for lost Nazi treasure is back on in earnest. The world looked on in excitement when, in 2015, a pair of German amateur historians claimed to have identified the location of a buried Nazi armoured train, filled to the brim with precious materials and legendary objects looted from Poland and Russia. Suspiciously high-resolution underground scans 'proved' the find. But excavations found nothing. Now, a Polish shipping radio technician and history enthusiast thinks he has the answer. Jan Delingowski is convinced there is a secret, heavily camouflaged bunker buried near a former Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel) barracks near the town of Brusy in Poland's Pomerania region. 'For the past decade, he has been conducting a private investigation to determine the location of a mysterious treasure taken from Königsberg at the end of the war,' the Polish Wprost news service reports. Delingowski believes the Amber Room and a host of other treasures are sealed inside. And Poland's Pomeranian Provincial Conservator of Monuments authority has permitted him to start digging. Missing in action One of World War II's greatest mysteries is the fate of Russia's greatest treasure: The Amber Room. This 17-square-meter array of dazzling wall panels was commissioned by Frederick I of Prussia in 1701. His successor, Frederick William I, presented it as a gift to Tsar Peter the Great in 1716. Almost six tons of semitranslucent amber was combined in an ornate mosaic with precious stones and metals on gold-leaf backing. Known as the 'eighth wonder of the world', occupying Nazi forces packed the panels into 27 crates and carted them to the German city of Königsberg (now Russian Kaliningrad). It was put on display in Königsberg Castle. But its curator was advised to remove the panels once Russian bombing raids began targeting the city. Whether or not this happened is uncertain. But one mysterious exchange of messages between former Nazi officials has inspired decades of treasure hunters. A series of telegrams sent to SS Obersturmbannführer Gustav Wyst shortly after the fall of the Third Reich talk of efforts in 1945 to move a cargo from Königsberg on the western Baltic coast to Berlin ahead of advancing Soviet troops. It never arrived. Instead, it had to be hurriedly hidden at a location code-named 'BSCH'. One recent search centred on the allegedly buried Nazi armoured train. Another involved 'Project Riese (Giant)' – a mountain-bunker being built for Adolf Hitler near Ksiaz castle in Walbrzych, Poland. And they've been spurred on by evidence that the Amber Room may have survived. In 1997, German authorities were tipped off that someone was attempting to sell what they claimed to be a part of the famous artwork. They raided an office in Bremen where they found one of the mosaic panels. No further information was forthcoming. The seller was the son of a soldier. And he said he had no idea how his father had obtained it. Now, Delingowski has told a Polish YouTube history channel 'dedicated to the extraordinary mysteries of history, the exploration of abandoned places, and the mysteries of World War II' that he knows where it is. SS Seluth Poland, like many occupied countries, is still seeking thousands of artefacts taken from its museums and private collections by the SS. Much of this was assembled in the remote Polish city of Berlinka for safety. For its part, Germany is seeking the return of some 300,000 books, drawings and manuscripts – known as the Berlinka collection. This includes original handwritten music by Mozart, Beethoven and Bach that had been evacuated to Berlinka for protection. Delingowski says SS Obersturmbannführer Wyst's treasure also ended up in Poland. He says he learned of the bunker's existence from a former inmate of Poland's notorious Barczewo prison. Established by Germany's Gestapo during World War II, it was later used to house war criminals. One of these prisoners was Erich Koch, Germany's Supreme President of East Prussia during the war. He had been found guilty of assisting the Nazis in murdering about 400,000 'undesirable' Poles. Koch was sentenced to death. But this was never carried out. 'According to records from the Institute of National Remembrance, the Polish People's Republic Security Service and the KGB hoped that the Germans would reveal the location of valuable assets, including the missing Amber Room,' Wprost reports. Delingowski claims Koch told a fellow inmate about the fate of a treasure shipment from Berlinka shortly before he died in the 1980s. That inmate then told Delingowski the story. 'According to the prisoner's account, Koch revealed that art, jewellery, and Nazi gold were loaded onto trucks destined for Berlin but were diverted near Czersk and CzÅ‚uchów,' Delingowski said. The high-security Brusy SS camp had been a training facility for rocket technicians. These were destined for a top-secret V2 ballistic missile project at the nearby Heidekraut testing ground in the Tuchola Forest. Delingowski believes that 'BSCH' stands for 'Bruß Schutzraum'— a mound alongside a lake located within the former SS facility. Polish news reports state subterranean radar surveys have identified 'anomalies consistent with a concealed bunker'. Supervised excavations are due to start in August. 'Our goal is to uncover the truth behind these stories while protecting this historic landscape,' said a spokeswoman for the Pomeranian conservator.
The Irish Sun
01-08-2025
- The Irish Sun
Breakthrough in hunt for Hitler's gold with dig to begin for legendary £250m ‘Amber Room' treasure stolen by Nazis
A BREAKTHROUGH may have been made in the hunt for Hitler's legendary gold train - said to be packed with jewels, gold and the lost £250m Amber Room. Since 1945, governments, the Polish Army and treasure hunters have scoured the terrain searching for the train - and now they believe its location may be in northern Poland. Advertisement 4 Legend has it that the train holds up to £20bn worth of Nazi treasure, including the contents of the Amber Room (pictured in 1917) 4 Poland's deputy culture minister said in 2015 that he was 99 percent sure of the existence of the fabled Nazi train 4 Polish authorities have officially granted permission for a new search, according to Gdańsk's Office for the Protection of Monuments has reportedly approved drilling and archaeological surveys in Dziemiany - located in the Kościerzyna district of northern Poland. The search aim to uncover a suspected WWII-era bunker, which could conceal the fabled train and its valuable artefacts. Marcin Tymiński, spokesperson for the Pomeranian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments, said there might be a hidden German deposit in Dziemiany. Advertisement read more world news 'Some speculate it could even be the lost Amber Room,' he added. The Nazis established a military training ground in Dziemiany for SS units at the end of 1943, according to Jan Delingowski who is leading the treasure hunt. Delingowski, a former merchant fleet radio officer, has spent the last decade searching for the legendary train in the region of Kashubia. In an interview on the YouTube channel History Hiking on Sunday, he pointed to historical evidence linking the suspected treasure site to Nazi official Erich Koch, RMF24 reports, Advertisement Most read in The US Sun Erich Koch was a Gauleiter of the Nazis in East Prussia from 1928 until 1945. After WWII, Koch was tried in Poland and convicted in 1959 for war crimes - including responsibility for the deaths of around 400,000 Poles. Mystery of Nazi shipwreck that may hold £100million of Hitler's GOLD & the legendary 'Amber Room' treasure Koch was sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out - officially due to his poor health. However, according to declassified files from Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), cited by Rzeczpospolita, the real reason was that the communist-era Polish Security Service and the Soviet KGB hoped he would reveal the location of the Nazi gold train. Advertisement An inmate who met Koch in the 1980s claimed the Nazi official revealed the treasure's hiding place before his death. Citing the inmate's account, Delingowski says the convoy veered off the road 'somewhere between Czersk and Człuchów, heading toward the Oder'. 4 The hunt for the Nazi gold train has lasted decades Credit: Getty Images - Getty The crates are said to be stashed in a bunker disguised and hidden 'on a hill near a lake, at the site of former SS barracks'. Advertisement Previous explorations of the region led to the discovery of a brick tank, Wirtualna Polska reports. Based on the testimony and Delingowski's decade-long research, authorities have granted permission to investigate the site. The official decision reads: 'Based on findings from prior heritage surveys, there is reason to believe that a World War II-era slit bunker is located on the plot (...), which may qualify as a historical monument. "Furthermore, historic material - including archaeological artefacts - may be present inside and around it.' Advertisement The legend of the Nazi gold train THERE is an enduring urban legend that deep beneath the mountains of southwest Poland lies a Nazi gold train - also known as the Wałbrzych gold train. According to the legend, the train was loaded with precious jewels, gold and amber from the Amber Room of the Czars. The Amber Room, originally created for Russian Tsar Peter the Great in the 1700s, was looted by the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. It is considered the crown jewel of the missing Nazi treasure haul, often dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World" after being stolen from Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg. According to the legend, the train was hidden in a sealed tunnel or underground bunker or mine somewhere in the Central Sudetes. Since 1945, numerous searches - including operations by the Polish Army during the Cold War - have failed to uncover any trace of the train. Interest in the legend surged again between 2015 and 2018, when two Polish treasure hunters claimed they had discovered the train using ground-penetrating radar. This claim led to a high-profile excavation effort involving the Polish military, government officials and private backers. But the dig was eventually abandoned after the so-called anomaly turned out to be a natural geological formation. And so, the legend lives on - a group of enthusiasts has even built a full-scale replica of a Nazi armoured train, hoping to turn it into a tourist attraction.
Scottish Sun
01-08-2025
- General
- Scottish Sun
Breakthrough in hunt for Hitler's gold with dig to begin for legendary £250m ‘Amber Room' treasure stolen by Nazis
The man leading the hunt has spent the last decade searching for the legendary train GOLD RUSH Breakthrough in hunt for Hitler's gold with dig to begin for legendary £250m 'Amber Room' treasure stolen by Nazis Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A BREAKTHROUGH may have been made in the hunt for Hitler's legendary gold train - said to be packed with jewels, gold and the lost £250m Amber Room. Since 1945, governments, the Polish Army and treasure hunters have scoured the terrain searching for the train - and now they believe its location may be in northern Poland. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Legend has it that the train holds up to £20bn worth of Nazi treasure, including the contents of the Amber Room (pictured in 1917) 4 Poland's deputy culture minister said in 2015 that he was 99 percent sure of the existence of the fabled Nazi train 4 Polish authorities have officially granted permission for a new search, according to Wirtualna Polska. Gdańsk's Office for the Protection of Monuments has reportedly approved drilling and archaeological surveys in Dziemiany - located in the Kościerzyna district of northern Poland. The search aim to uncover a suspected WWII-era bunker, which could conceal the fabled train and its valuable artefacts. Marcin Tymiński, spokesperson for the Pomeranian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments, said there might be a hidden German deposit in Dziemiany. read more world news GOLD TRAIN Nazi gold train hunters uncover letter 'revealing location of Hitler's treasure' 'Some speculate it could even be the lost Amber Room,' he added. The Nazis established a military training ground in Dziemiany for SS units at the end of 1943, according to Jan Delingowski who is leading the treasure hunt. Delingowski, a former merchant fleet radio officer, has spent the last decade searching for the legendary train in the region of Kashubia. In an interview on the YouTube channel History Hiking on Sunday, he pointed to historical evidence linking the suspected treasure site to Nazi official Erich Koch, RMF24 reports, RMF24 reports. Erich Koch was a Gauleiter of the Nazis in East Prussia from 1928 until 1945. After WWII, Koch was tried in Poland and convicted in 1959 for war crimes - including responsibility for the deaths of around 400,000 Poles. Mystery of Nazi shipwreck that may hold £100million of Hitler's GOLD & the legendary 'Amber Room' treasure Koch was sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out - officially due to his poor health. However, according to declassified files from Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), cited by Rzeczpospolita, the real reason was that the communist-era Polish Security Service and the Soviet KGB hoped he would reveal the location of the Nazi gold train. An inmate who met Koch in the 1980s claimed the Nazi official revealed the treasure's hiding place before his death. Citing the inmate's account, Delingowski says the convoy veered off the road 'somewhere between Czersk and Człuchów, heading toward the Oder'. 4 The hunt for the Nazi gold train has lasted decades Credit: Getty Images - Getty The crates are said to be stashed in a bunker disguised and hidden 'on a hill near a lake, at the site of former SS barracks'. Previous explorations of the region led to the discovery of a brick tank, Wirtualna Polska reports. Based on the testimony and Delingowski's decade-long research, authorities have granted permission to investigate the site. The official decision reads: 'Based on findings from prior heritage surveys, there is reason to believe that a World War II-era slit bunker is located on the plot (...), which may qualify as a historical monument. "Furthermore, historic material - including archaeological artefacts - may be present inside and around it.'
The Sun
01-08-2025
- The Sun
Breakthrough in hunt for Hitler's gold with dig to begin for legendary £250m ‘Amber Room' treasure stolen by Nazis
A BREAKTHROUGH may have been made in the hunt for Hitler's legendary gold train - said to be packed with jewels, gold and the lost £250m Amber Room. Since 1945, governments, the Polish Army and treasure hunters have scoured the terrain searching for the train - and now they believe its location may be in northern Poland. 4 4 4 Polish authorities have officially granted permission for a new search, according to Wirtualna Polska. Gdańsk's Office for the Protection of Monuments has reportedly approved drilling and archaeological surveys in Dziemiany - located in the Kościerzyna district of northern Poland. The search aim to uncover a suspected WWII-era bunker, which could conceal the fabled train and its valuable artefacts. Marcin Tymiński, spokesperson for the Pomeranian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments, said there might be a hidden German deposit in Dziemiany. 'Some speculate it could even be the lost Amber Room,' he added. The Nazis established a military training ground in Dziemiany for SS units at the end of 1943, according to Jan Delingowski who is leading the treasure hunt. Delingowski, a former merchant fleet radio officer, has spent the last decade searching for the legendary train in the region of Kashubia. In an interview on the YouTube channel History Hiking on Sunday, he pointed to historical evidence linking the suspected treasure site to Nazi official Erich Koch, RMF24 reports, RMF24 reports. Erich Koch was a Gauleiter of the Nazis in East Prussia from 1928 until 1945. After WWII, Koch was tried in Poland and convicted in 1959 for war crimes - including responsibility for the deaths of around 400,000 Poles. Mystery of Nazi shipwreck that may hold £100million of Hitler's GOLD & the legendary 'Amber Room' treasure Koch was sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out - officially due to his poor health. However, according to declassified files from Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), cited by Rzeczpospolita, the real reason was that the communist-era Polish Security Service and the Soviet KGB hoped he would reveal the location of the Nazi gold train. An inmate who met Koch in the 1980s claimed the Nazi official revealed the treasure's hiding place before his death. Citing the inmate's account, Delingowski says the convoy veered off the road 'somewhere between Czersk and Człuchów, heading toward the Oder'. 4 The crates are said to be stashed in a bunker disguised and hidden 'on a hill near a lake, at the site of former SS barracks'. Previous explorations of the region led to the discovery of a brick tank, Wirtualna Polska reports. Based on the testimony and Delingowski's decade-long research, authorities have granted permission to investigate the site. The official decision reads: 'Based on findings from prior heritage surveys, there is reason to believe that a World War II-era slit bunker is located on the plot (...), which may qualify as a historical monument. "Furthermore, historic material - including archaeological artefacts - may be present inside and around it.' The legend of the Nazi gold train THERE is an enduring urban legend that deep beneath the mountains of southwest Poland lies a Nazi gold train - also known as the Wałbrzych gold train. According to the legend, the train was loaded with precious jewels, gold and amber from the Amber Room of the Czars. The Amber Room, originally created for Russian Tsar Peter the Great in the 1700s, was looted by the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. It is considered the crown jewel of the missing Nazi treasure haul, often dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World" after being stolen from Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg. According to the legend, the train was hidden in a sealed tunnel or underground bunker or mine somewhere in the Central Sudetes. Since 1945, numerous searches - including operations by the Polish Army during the Cold War - have failed to uncover any trace of the train. Interest in the legend surged again between 2015 and 2018, when two Polish treasure hunters claimed they had discovered the train using ground-penetrating radar. This claim led to a high-profile excavation effort involving the Polish military, government officials and private backers. But the dig was eventually abandoned after the so-called anomaly turned out to be a natural geological formation. And so, the legend lives on - a group of enthusiasts has even built a full-scale replica of a Nazi armoured train, hoping to turn it into a tourist attraction.
Scottish Sun
13-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
Nazi gold train hunters make breakthrough as they uncover letter ‘revealing location of Hitler's treasure haul'
The letter is said to include geodetic data, a tunnel layout and even a witness account TRAIN OF GOLD Nazi gold train hunters make breakthrough as they uncover letter 'revealing location of Hitler's treasure haul' HOPE has been reignited in the hunt for the legendary Nazi gold train, believed to be laden with treasures from the Amber Room and to have vanished in the final months of WWII. A detailed letter has been sent to Polish authorities claiming to finally reveal the alleged train's long-lost location. Advertisement 3 An anonymous tipster claims to have uncovered the location of the legendary Nazi gold train (pictured: investigations in Walbrzych, Poland in 2015) Credit: JANEK SKARZYNSKI 3 The train is rumoured to hold up to £20 billion worth of Nazi treasure - with the Amber Room of the Czars (pictured in 1917) believed to be the most valuable item Credit: Public Domain 3 Poland's deputy culture minister said in 2015 that he was 99 percent sure of the existence of the alleged Nazi train Credit: City of Osówka A man, who asked to remain anonymous, sent a detailed letter dated April 23 to Polish authorities. The tipper claims they have uncovered train wagons hidden in a tunnel near Wałbrzych, in southwestern Poland. The letter wrote: "Three railway wagons from the period of World War II, are hidden in a camouflaged tunnel. "Each wagon is approximately 12 metres long, four metres wide and four metres high. Advertisement Read more on WW2 HITLER FILES Argentina finds 80 BOXES of hidden Nazi files and vows to release secrets "The wagons are hidden behind a closed, sliding steel gate at the entrance to the tunnel." It added: "The wagons contain valuable precious metals, including gold. "Precise geodetic data will be made available to the mayor of Wałbrzych or his deputy in the form of attachments." City spokesperson Kamila Świerczyńska said: "A certain man, whose details I cannot disclose, made a procedural report of the discovery, referred to by the press as the gold train. Advertisement "The letter looks factual and specific. The letter indicates four attachments, such as a tunnel with a train inside." She added that the letter included a "table with geodetic data, terrain profile, including the tunnel layout, a map with track simulation and tunnel course, and account of a witness who lived in Wałbrzych during the war." Mystery of Nazi shipwreck that may hold £100million of Hitler's GOLD & the legendary 'Amber Room' treasure Anna Nowakowska, head of the Wałbrzych branch of the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments, said: "After analysing various sources and documents, the man came to the conclusion that he had located a tunnel with the so-called golden train inside." The legend dates back to the final months of WWII, when an armoured Nazi train is believed to have departed from the city of Wroclaw - then Breslau and part of Germany - loaded with looted treasures. Advertisement But the train never reached its reported destination of Wałbrzych. It was rumoured to have vanished into a secret underground tunnels built by the Nazis in the Owl Mountains region. This fresh tip, filled with technical data, maps and even a witness statement, has reignited hope. Local authorities say the anonymous man behind the claim has not yet applied for a permit to conduct an official search. Advertisement Officials are currently considering whether to launch an investigation. It comes as the alleged train was brought back into the spotlight in 2015 after two amateur treasure hunters, Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter, claimed they had found it using ground-penetrating radar. Nothing came of these investigations. Meanwhile, in 2023, the Jaćwież Historical and Exploratory Association discovered a hidden railway and a pair of train wheels near the Mamerki bunker in northwestern Poland. Advertisement The tracks were discovered five feet below the surface in the Warmia and Mazury province, which was the headquarters of Hitler's German Army Supreme Command, just a few miles from Hitler's Wolf's Lair bunker complex. The discovery of the hidden railway near the Mamerki bunker complex in Poland could be loosely connected to the famous gold train legend.
