Defence ministry says it will send technical equipment to region of lower Silesia to establish whether train exists

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Poland will deploy the military to look for an alleged Nazi “gold train” that sparked global fascination after two anonymous treasure hunters claimed they had pinpointed where it is buried.



“The defence minister decided to send technical equipment to search the area in order to determine whether a train actually exists,” a defence ministry spokesman, Jacek Sonta, said on Tuesday.

“The army is acting at the request of the governor of the region concerned.”

‘Nazi gold train’ draws treasure hunters to south-west Poland Read more

On Monday Tomasz Smolarz, the governor of the south-western region of lower Silesia, said it was “impossible to claim that such a find actually exists at the location indicated based on the documents that have been submitted”.

This comes just days after a senior culture ministry official said on Friday that he was “more than 99% sure” an armoured railway carriage had been found with ground-penetrating radar images.

Smolarz said no such images had been submitted to authorities.

On Monday police blocked off the presumed location of the train along a stretch of active railway tracks to prevent accidents as curious people swamp the area, which is near the city of Walbrych.

Also on Monday a Polish non-government organisation filed a complaint with state prosecutors against Piotr Zuchowski, a secretary of state at the culture ministry, for unfounded claims about the existence of the train that have led to considerable public funds being wasted on securing the area.

Global media have become fascinated by the prospect of a railway car full of jewels and gold stolen by the Nazis after two men – a German and a Pole – claimed to have found an armoured train car containing valuables, precious metals and industrial materials.

The World Jewish Congress has asked that any valuables found that once belonged to victims of the Holocaust be returned to their owners or heirs.

Zuchowski also claimed that someone who had been involved in hiding the train, presumed to be more than 100 metres long, had disclosed its location before dying.

Rumours of two special Nazi trains that disappeared in the spring of 1945, towards the end of the second world war, have been circulating for years, capturing the imagination of countless treasure-hunters.

The lore is fuelled by a massive network of secret underground tunnels near Walbrzych – including around the massive Ksiaz castle – that Nazi Germany built and where legend has it the Third Reich hid looted valuables.