Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 20, 2015 7:21:45 GMT -5
Legendary Nazi 'Gold Train' May Have Been Found in Poland
WARSAW – The tale of a legendary Nazi ghost train carrying gold which allegedly disappeared without a trace in the dying days of the Second World War has taken a new twist. Two men have filed a “finder's claim" with a district council in Poland for an “armored train” carrying precious metals, fueling speculation the mysterious train has been located. The claim was filed in the southwest Polish town of Walbrzych and could put an end to 70 years of rumor, myth and fruitless treasure hunts for the ghost train.
According to local media reports, two claimants – a Pole and a German – say they have found a 500-foot long “armored train” with gun platforms and a cargo of “precious metals.” The claim was lodged because under Polish law, treasure finders can keep 10 percent of the value of their find.
It is believed that toward the end of the war, as the Red Army closed in on the city of Wroclaw, Germans loaded a train with gold and other treasure and sent it southwest.
"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.”
According to local legend, the train vanished after heading into mountains straddling the current Polish-Czech border. “In the region we actually have two gold train stories,” Joanna Lamparska, a local historian, told Radio Wroclaw. “One is supposed to be under a mountain and the other somewhere around Walbrzych. But no one has ever seen documentary evidence confirming the existence of such trains."
Other historians point out that the Germans dug miles of tunnels in the southwestern mountains of what is now Poland in one of the biggest construction projects in the history of the Third Reich. The reason for the tunnels remain shrouded in mystery and some believers in the ghost train argue the Nazis may have excavated secret railway stashes and hidden the loot in one of them for safekeeping. The value of its cargo may also explain the lack of documentation of the train as the Germans could have put secrecy before paperwork, they say.
How the gold came into the possession of the Germans also remains unclear. It has been suggested the treasure is linked to the Nazis’ monumental wartime looting spree, which stripped museums and private houses of their artworks.
Walbrzych local government has refused to comment on the matter other than to ask the claimants to come forward and provide the location of the apparent find as it may have been boobytrapped with mines.
Taduesz Slowikowski, a treasure hunter who has searched for the missing train, said he was skeptical the alleged find in southern Poland would still contain the treasure. “They may have found the train, but not the gold,” he told Radio Zet, a Polish national radio station.
Source: Matthew Day, The Telegraph, August 19, 2015.