Posted on 02/19/2008 8:38:09 PM PST by blam
Stolen Nazi gold may be in German cavern
Last Updated: 3:11am GMT 20/02/2008
Treasure hunters claim they have may have found a haul of looted Nazi gold said to be part of a Russian collection that was dubbed the "eighth wonder of the world" before it was stolen.
The resting place of the Amber Room treasures was reportedly made at the weekend near the German village of Deutschneudorf. Tests showed a man-made cavern 20 metres below ground that contained a large amount of precious metals.
Treasure hunter Christian Hanisch [left] and Heinz-Peter Haustein at the site where the gold is thought to be buried
The "Amber Room" was an 18th century chamber inside the Catherine Palace in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, which was made out of amber panels backed by gold leaf.
It was looted in 1941 during the Nazi invasion and taken to Königsburg, now Kaliningrad, where it was lost in 1945 following Allied bombing.
Heinz-Peter Haustein, who is digging at the site near Deutschneudorf, said the cavern had not yet been reached but tests showed what was inside was "definitely" precious metals.
"It's gold, maybe silver. We expect it to be either gold from the Amber Room or gold that would give us clues to another hiding place."
The recovery of what is really inside the cavern is not expected to be complete for weeks, as explosives experts and engineers are being brought in to check for booby traps. The site has been under guard since the weekend.
Mr Haustein has been searching for the Amber Room treasure for years, ploughing thousands of pounds of his own money into the hunt.
He arrived in Deutschneudorf on a tip off from a German whose late father, a signaller in the Luftwaffe, had hoarded documents containing the co-ordinates to and locations where the Nazis supposedly hid gold and diamonds at the end of the war.
One of those sets of co-ordinates was the "exact" location of the dig, Mr Haustein said.
The documents also contained warnings of booby traps.
Various theories have circulated about the location of the Amber Room treasure. Some historians say it was destroyed in Könisgburg but there is speculation that it was loaded onto a submarine which was sunk in the Baltic Sea by the Russians.
While there is little firm evidence of the cavern in Deutschneudorf being its final resting place, the village has seen an influx of treasure hunters in the last few days.
The Amber Room was recreated in St Petersburg in 2003.
Most likely the gold will have been taken from the mouths of tens of thousands of Jews just prior to them being tossed into the ovens.
Sgt. Schultz surely had a big head, didn’t he ?
From millions of Jews and Poles. And Polish military officers and the well educated Poles. And to those that don’t believe- go visit the death camps and see for yourself.
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