- Title: POLAND-WW2/TRAIN Nazi ‘treasure’ train evokes local myths
- Date: 1st September 2015
- Summary: WALBRZYCH, POLAND (AUGUST 31, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SKYLINE VARIOUS OF RAILWAY TRACKS ON 61ST KILOMETRE OF LINE FROM WROCLAW TO WALBRZYCH, RUMOURED TO BE CLOSE TO LOCATION OF MISSING WORLD WAR TWO NAZI TRAIN FOREST ROAD LEADING FROM RAILWAY TRACK PEOPLE WALKING NEAR RAILWAY TRACK (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) PRESIDENT OF WALBRZYCH, ROMAN SZELEMEJ, SAYING: "People came to the Walbrzych city council who announced that they are in possession of knowledge about historical documents on a supposed finding from the era of World War Two. They deposited in our office an approximate sketch showing where this supposed finding can be located." VARIOUS OF RAILWAY TRACKS ON 65ST KILOMETRE OF RAIL LINE FROM WROCLAW TO WALBRZYCH, ALSO RUMOURED TO BE CLOSE TO LOCATION OF MISSING WORLD WAR TWO NAZI TRAIN TRAIN PASSING KSIAZ CASTLE KSIAZ CASTLE GUIDE, ANDRZEJ GAIK, READING A BOOK BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) KSIAZ CASTLE GUIDE, ANDRZEJ GAIK, SAYING: "The story about a lost train, now called a gold train, has been circling around our region for at least 50 years. Residents of our city heard this story from Germans who remained here after World War Two, some of them worked together with those Germans and they told stories of a tunnel that was supposed to be located on the rail track between the 61 and 65 kilometres of the railway line between Wroclaw and Walbrzych. This is the supposed localisation of this lost train. The story reappears every 10 years." WALIM, POLAND (AUGUST 31, 2015) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE TO FORMER WORLD WAR TWO UNDERGROUND NAZI FACILITY "RIESE" SIGN ABOVE ENTRANCE READING "RIESE" VARIOUS OF TUNNELS WALBRZYCH, POLAND (AUGUST 31, 2015) (REUTERS) DIRECTOR OF "OLD MINE SCIENCE AND ART CENTER", ANNA ZABSKA, PLACING NEW ADVERTISING SIGN SIGN ADVERTISING "EXPLORE WALBRZYCH" TOURS WITH ILLUSTRATION OF TRAIN DRIVING OUT OF TUNNEL BENEATH KSIAZ CASTLE HASHTAG INCORPORATING WALBRZYCH CITY NAME AND CHEMICAL SYMBOL OF GOLD: "#WAUBRZYCH" (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) DIRECTOR OF "OLD MINE SCIENCE AND ART CENTER", ANNA ZABSKA, SAYING: "The gold rush that spread, you can already say, around the world provoked us to organise an advertising campaign. Together with the Ksiaz Castle, the Old Mine Science and Art Center in Walbrzych created a golden package and changed the city name to WAUbrzych spelled with Au - the [chemical] symbol of gold." VARIOUS OF TOURIST FROM IRELAND, SIMON O'CONNOR, TAKING PHOTOGRAPH KSIAZ CASTLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOURIST FROM IRELAND, SIMON O'CONNOR, SAYING: "Well, I think it's an intriguing mystery and it's a very alluring one. There are so many people into the history of World War Two, I guess you know… Any little thing like this is gonna make the intrigue all the more great. And it's definitely gonna be, you know, a draw and a bigger attraction for tourists who were specifically into World War Two history, you know? Whether they find it or not remains to be seen but I think it's…It's a very interesting mystery." VARIOUS OF RAILWAY TRACKS TRAIN PASSING
- Embargoed: 16th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Poland
- Country: Poland
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA5GLZGOTSVR9L740GN3YO38IHN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Local legends were stirred up in Poland when, in the middle of August, two men informed the Walbrzych town council they have located a Nazi German train buried somewhere underneath the Ksiaz castle -- rumoured for decades after World War Two to be hiding looted treasures.
Media immediately linked the find to the legend of a train alleged to have gone missing near the end of World War Two while carrying away gems and guns ahead of advancing Soviet Red Army forces.
The Polish ministry of culture followed up with an announcement saying the located find is almost positively a train, but did not speculate on its cargo.
Local authorities said they had been contacted by a law firm representing a Pole and a German who said they were seeking 10 percent of the value of the findings.
"People came to the Walbrzych city council who announced that they are in possession of knowledge about historical documents on a supposed finding from the era of World War Two. They deposited in our office an approximate sketch showing where this supposed finding can be located," Walbrzych mayor Roman Szelemej said.
Local news reports said the train in question went missing in 1944 or 1945, packed with loot from the-then eastern German city of Breslau, now called Wroclaw and part of Poland, as the Red Army closed in at the end of World War Two.
One local media report said the train was armoured and belonged to the Wehrmacht (Nazi Germany's military).
Folklore legends say the train entered a tunnel near Ksiaz Castle in the mountainous Lower Silesian region and never emerged. According to that theory, the tunnel was later closed and its location long forgotten.
"The story about a lost train, now called a gold train, has been circling around our region for at least 50 years. Residents of our city heard this story from Germans who remained here after World War Two, some of them worked together with those Germans and they told stories of a tunnel that was supposed to be located on the rail track between the 61 and 65 kilometres of the railway line between Wroclaw and Walbrzych. This is the supposed localisation of this lost train. The story reappears every 10 years," Ksiaz castle guide, Andrzej Gaik, said.
Director of a local museum, Anna Zabska, said they are capitalizing on the popularity of the resurfaced story to attract more visitors, and have set up an advertising campaign together with Ksiaz castle management.
"The gold rush that spread, you can already say, around the world provoked us to organise an advertising campaign. Together with the Ksiaz Castle, the Old Mine Science and Art Center in Walbrzych created a golden package and changed the city name to WAUbrzych spelled with Au - the [chemical] symbol of gold," the director of the Old Mine Science and Art Center, Anna Zabska, said.
Trains were indeed used to spirit Nazi loot back to Berlin as U.S.-led Allied and Soviet forces surged towards the German capital from the west and the east in the winter and spring of 1945.
In the case of the so-called "Gold Train", Nazi forces sent 24 freight carriages from Budapest towards Germany filled with family treasures including gold, silver and valuable paintings seized from Hungarian Jews and estimated to be worth up to $200 million.
The train was intercepted by U.S. soldiers, who, according to a later U.S. investigation, helped themselves to some of the loot.
"Whether they find it or not remains to be seen but I think it's a very interesting mystery," one tourist from Dublin, Simon O'Connor, said.
Skeptics and fans alike will have to wait for concrete - or gold - evidence for the theory to be proven either way. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
