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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The Polish province out of the crisis with the help of “Nazi gold”

Organizers search of the legendary “gold train” of the Nazis, lost somewhere in the mountains of Lower Silesia, announced the “promising discovery” – though not the treasure, but something that can confirm its presence. Meanwhile, there is a reasonable assumption that the whole story is really aimed at output of Silesia from the crisis, but not at the expense of the sale of gold.

The legend of the “gold train” lurking somewhere in the Owl mountains, Lower Silesia, appeared in Poland at the end of the Second world war. Allegedly in January 1945, the Germans, wanting to rescue the stolen gold and jewels from the advancing Soviet army, loaded the treasure on the train. The decree gave himself Obergruppenfuhrer Karl Hanke, Gauleiter of Lower Silesia, and organized a company restorer and art historian günter Grundmann. The composition formed in Breslau (now Wroclaw) and was sent to Waldenburg (now wałbrzych). The train was meant to carry three hundred tons of gold, jewels and art objects. But Wałbrzych train never arrived, lost somewhere in the tunnels dug by the Germans in the Owl mountains.

“The Polish Minister said that the treasures are the property of the Polish state, and no other countries, including Russia, to claim them you can’t. Then intervenes the world Jewish Congress”

After the war, lower Silesia was given to Poland, the Polish government began the search for a giant treasure. In the papers Grundmann was discovered lists many treasures and works of art, which he hid in the recesses on the whole territory of Lower Silesia before the arrival of the red army. But many masterpieces mentioned in the lists in the result have not been found. This fueled rumors of a lost in the tunnels part.

The question arises: why was it necessary to export gold from Wroclaw to Walbrzych small if it is much easier to transport it to underground storage facilities of the Berlin Bank? The answer to this question is not so far, but the legend continues to acquire new details. For example, a version that trains had two, maybe three. One of them is situated near a castle Ksenzov, the other below the town of Piechowice, the third somewhere else.

In August 2015, a somewhat forgotten legend has been revived. Two unidentified men, who refused to have their names disclosed to the press, informed the authorities of Walbrzych that they know the exact location of the “gold train”. Supposedly this information was obtained from the deathbed confession of a man who in his youth, he said, was involved in the download of mysterious composition. The applicants asked for legal permission to excavate and demanded 10 percent of the value of the treasure, despite the fact that, according to the Polish laws, such treasures are wholly owned by the state.

A few days later, the mayor of Wałbrzych told about this story in an interview with radio Wroclaw, the news was picked up by Reuters. So the plot of the “gold train” was in the English media, which caused a lot of noise. The city authorities consistently argued that the train is definitely within the boundaries of their urban settlement and in wałbrzych began to arrive, the treasure seekers from around the world. And Polish Deputy culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said that the data obtained from the radar, allow to assert, as if under the earth is indeed an armored train more than 100 meters in length. And don’t forget to mention that the treasure, if they find it, will be the property of the Polish state, and no other country, including Russia, to claim them you can’t.

Then intervenes the world Jewish Congress. There are well-founded suspicions that the gold stored in the train could belong to the Jews who perished at the hands of the German occupiers. And from the Polish government demanded to ensure that all the treasures of Holocaust victims were transferred to their heirs.

Meanwhile, it turned out that two mysterious people, presumably, who discovered the location of the gold train, it is the German Andreas Richter and the pole Peter Koper – owners of a mining company XYZ. They even launched a website with photos of what seemed to be hidden under the ground the train and began the countdown to the fateful excavations.

The search continued throughout the autumn, in Poland massed treasure hunters from around the world. The old-timers were interviewed, remembering how the prisoners were forced to dig tunnels in the Silesian mountains, and then there, in the mountains, and shot. Against this background, actively discussed the version that the train can be loaded with explosive or poisonous gas. When one of the diggers was killed, torn from the roof of the crypt, one a respectable local family, his friends, were brought to trial for the desecration of the graves.

This gold rush was actively discussed and covered not only the largest Polish media, but also the world’s leading mass media. The legend of the “gold train” first gained international prominence and started to unwind from the leadership of Poland. In ensuring the safety of the excavations was attended by units of the Polish army and firefighters. All the fun ended predictable. At the site there was a team of geologists and engineers from the Cracow University of science and technology. Subsequently, based on their research, the University produces a report according to which no armoured trains under the ground in Wałbrzych not. Any gravitational and magnetic anomalies recorded by the devices can indicate only that there exists some yet undiscovered tunnels.

It would seem that the legend of the gold train could pass to the archive. However, in the summer of 2016 cheerful Koper and Richter held a press conference and launched a new series of excavations. From 15 to 19 August, six involved companies independently from each other have conducted research under Valbiom, the only result which today has become a “promising finding” a layer of clay, which differs in characteristics from the local and could be brought from somewhere else. According to the diggers, the presence of this clay indicates the existence of yet undiscovered tunnel. That is exactly what we said in December, 2015 scientists from a Krakow University. The train Koper and Richter prefer to keep quiet, but the layer of clay already declared them “a promising discovery”.

The hype around the “gold train” has a simple economic explanation. It’s not the gold of the Nazis, who are still mythical, but a simple earnings on tourists. Shock therapy liberal reforms, bled Poland after the velvet revolution, in Lower Silesia was especially hard, almost all mines were closed. The small mining town of wałbrzych was doomed to unemployment and transmitted from generation to generation poverty. But the legend of the “gold train” has become a popular tourist attraction, that’s why it is so enthusiastically supported by the authorities of the city and the country, as well as the local population. In the end, the flow of materials in the English press made Lower Silesia is the best.

In fact, Koper and Richter opened a new tourist destination in a depressed area of Poland. And there is no doubt that next summer, in the midst of the holiday season they launch a new series of excavations. Diggers from all over the world will gather again in Warsaw, and the locals good money for the renting of rooms to rent and sell the latest in Walbrzych, a gift of chocolates in the form of gold ingots and t-shirts with the image of a Nazi “gold train”, which has not been seen and hardly ever will see.


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