1 00:00:04,208 --> 00:00:07,542 Tonight, an enduring World War II mystery. 2 00:00:07,667 --> 00:00:10,542 Somewhere, the Nazis are sitting on a stockpile 3 00:00:10,667 --> 00:00:13,000 of confiscated wealth. 4 00:00:13,125 --> 00:00:17,000 Vast amounts of art, gold, silver, and currency 5 00:00:17,083 --> 00:00:21,125 are looted by the Nazis and stashed all over Europe. 6 00:00:22,333 --> 00:00:24,750 Anything of value that can be stolen, they steal. 7 00:00:26,292 --> 00:00:27,667 LAURENCE: Though some is recovered 8 00:00:27,750 --> 00:00:31,375 in astonishing finds, much more is still missing. 9 00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:33,333 KEVIN HYMEL: Now, the mystery begins. 10 00:00:33,500 --> 00:00:36,583 Where else did the Nazis hide their wealth? 11 00:00:36,708 --> 00:00:40,083 We'll explore the top theories surrounding this lost treasure. 12 00:00:40,208 --> 00:00:42,917 MARTIN MORGAN: The CIA documents show this gold 13 00:00:43,042 --> 00:00:47,000 is linked to these high-ranking Croatian priests. 14 00:00:47,125 --> 00:00:50,333 The Nazi gold train was found in the Owl Mountains. 15 00:00:50,458 --> 00:00:52,208 KEVIN: The diary says that something around 16 00:00:52,375 --> 00:00:56,625 $7 million worth of Nazi gold was stolen by this officer. 17 00:00:56,750 --> 00:00:58,833 Where did the Nazis take their stolen loot, 18 00:00:58,917 --> 00:01:01,667 and can it ever be found? 19 00:01:01,833 --> 00:01:04,250 [music] 20 00:01:16,833 --> 00:01:20,792 April 1945, as Allied forces 21 00:01:20,917 --> 00:01:23,000 advance into Nazi territory, 22 00:01:23,083 --> 00:01:27,333 they occupy the small town of Merkers, Germany. 23 00:01:27,458 --> 00:01:29,083 Merkers is right outside of Frankfurt. 24 00:01:29,083 --> 00:01:32,167 From a strategic perspective, it's f 25 00:01:32,292 --> 00:01:35,458 The only thing notable is a salt and potassium mine. 26 00:01:35,542 --> 00:01:38,333 AMORY SILVERTSON: On the morning of April 6th, 1945, 27 00:01:38,458 --> 00:01:40,042 American military policemen 28 00:01:40,167 --> 00:01:41,625 are patrolling an area 29 00:01:41,750 --> 00:01:42,792 outside of Merkers 30 00:01:42,875 --> 00:01:44,958 when they stop two refugee women 31 00:01:45,042 --> 00:01:47,125 for violating a curfew. 32 00:01:47,250 --> 00:01:48,708 KEVIN: As they're driving them back 33 00:01:48,833 --> 00:01:52,000 to the American command post, a German-speaking American MP, 34 00:01:52,125 --> 00:01:55,083 Richard Mootz, starts interrogating the women. 35 00:01:55,208 --> 00:01:56,625 He wants to know why they're out walking 36 00:01:56,708 --> 00:01:58,000 in spite of the curfew. 37 00:01:58,125 --> 00:02:00,333 AMORY: As they drive by the Kaiseroda Mine, 38 00:02:00,458 --> 00:02:03,167 the women say, "Forget the curfew. 39 00:02:03,333 --> 00:02:05,542 "How would you like to know about a significant amount 40 00:02:05,708 --> 00:02:06,833 of stolen treasure?" 41 00:02:08,458 --> 00:02:09,833 LAURENCE: That question immediately sparks 42 00:02:09,958 --> 00:02:11,833 intense interest. 43 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,333 Rumors of a vast Nazi treasure horde 44 00:02:14,458 --> 00:02:17,333 stored throughout Europe are rampant. 45 00:02:17,417 --> 00:02:20,333 KEVIN: Almost from the moment that Hitler becomes chancellor 46 00:02:20,417 --> 00:02:23,833 of Germany in 1933, he instructs his military 47 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,667 to start stealing gold. 48 00:02:25,792 --> 00:02:27,167 AMORY: This begins domestically, 49 00:02:27,292 --> 00:02:29,667 confiscating money from local banks 50 00:02:29,833 --> 00:02:32,208 and from Jewish citizens that are being displaced 51 00:02:32,333 --> 00:02:35,333 from their homes and sent to concentration camps. 52 00:02:35,458 --> 00:02:37,833 KEVIN: Once Hitler's army start invading other countries, 53 00:02:37,917 --> 00:02:39,542 they do more of the same, 54 00:02:39,708 --> 00:02:42,083 and it goes beyond just stealing gold. 55 00:02:42,208 --> 00:02:46,083 MARTIN: Artwork, jewelry, silver, platinum-- 56 00:02:46,208 --> 00:02:47,333 anything of value that 57 00:02:47,417 --> 00:02:49,333 can be stolen, they steal. 58 00:02:49,458 --> 00:02:50,875 AMORY: So, when the soldiers hear the rumor 59 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,792 from these women about stolen treasure, 60 00:02:53,875 --> 00:02:55,208 they definitely take notice. 61 00:02:56,500 --> 00:02:57,708 LAURENCE: The news quickly reaches 62 00:02:57,833 --> 00:03:00,208 U.S. General George S. Patton, 63 00:03:00,375 --> 00:03:03,500 commander of the Third Army in Germany. 64 00:03:03,583 --> 00:03:05,125 AMORY: By the time General Patton 65 00:03:05,250 --> 00:03:07,333 hears this particular story from Merkers, 66 00:03:07,500 --> 00:03:09,458 the Allies estimate that Nazi Germany 67 00:03:09,542 --> 00:03:13,625 has taken nearly $600 million worth of stolen gold. 68 00:03:13,708 --> 00:03:17,125 This includes 223 million from Belgium, 69 00:03:17,208 --> 00:03:19,333 193 million from The Netherlands, 70 00:03:19,500 --> 00:03:22,333 additional gold from Austria and Czechoslovakia. 71 00:03:22,458 --> 00:03:24,458 And that's just what Patton knows about. 72 00:03:24,542 --> 00:03:27,208 It doesn't include millions more in stolen gold 73 00:03:27,333 --> 00:03:30,292 from private citizens and businesses. 74 00:03:30,375 --> 00:03:34,083 LAURENCE: Despite these estimates, Patton is wary. 75 00:03:34,208 --> 00:03:36,208 AMORY: Lots of people have tried to get leniency 76 00:03:36,375 --> 00:03:38,583 with promises of hidden Nazi treasures, 77 00:03:38,708 --> 00:03:40,500 and almost none of it has panned out. 78 00:03:40,667 --> 00:03:43,833 But Patton decides it's still worth looking into, 79 00:03:43,958 --> 00:03:46,083 because he knows that somewhere, the Nazis are sitting 80 00:03:46,208 --> 00:03:48,458 on a stockpile of confiscated wealth. 81 00:03:48,542 --> 00:03:50,500 MARTIN: We always have to remember 82 00:03:50,625 --> 00:03:53,000 that even as late as April 1945, the end of the Second World War 83 00:03:53,167 --> 00:03:55,083 was not a forgone conclusion, 84 00:03:55,208 --> 00:03:57,333 and lots of things could have gone wrong. 85 00:03:57,458 --> 00:04:00,625 Depriving the enemy of a significant quantity of gold 86 00:04:00,708 --> 00:04:04,333 is the equivalent of driving a nail into his coffin. 87 00:04:04,500 --> 00:04:06,000 KEVIN: Finding any part of this treasure 88 00:04:06,125 --> 00:04:08,000 will help the Allied war effort. 89 00:04:08,125 --> 00:04:10,625 The only question is, where is it? 90 00:04:10,708 --> 00:04:12,333 AMORY: According to the two women 91 00:04:12,417 --> 00:04:14,375 detained in Merkers, it's there, 92 00:04:14,542 --> 00:04:18,208 deep underground in the local salt mine. 93 00:04:20,833 --> 00:04:22,917 MARTIN: These women claim to have eyewitnessed 94 00:04:23,042 --> 00:04:24,667 these valuables being transported 95 00:04:24,792 --> 00:04:26,292 on trucks and crates. 96 00:04:26,375 --> 00:04:28,833 And when valuables are moving in the wrong direction, 97 00:04:28,958 --> 00:04:31,208 meaning moving to the mine and going down into it 98 00:04:31,333 --> 00:04:32,833 rather than the other way around, 99 00:04:32,917 --> 00:04:34,000 that's where their suspicion 100 00:04:34,125 --> 00:04:36,250 about things of great value came from. 101 00:04:36,375 --> 00:04:39,208 AMORY: Within hours of the women telling their story, 102 00:04:39,375 --> 00:04:42,583 General Patton sends a bunch of resources to Merkers. 103 00:04:42,708 --> 00:04:44,167 MARTIN: He has to use fighting forces 104 00:04:44,292 --> 00:04:45,833 that would otherwise be committed to battle, 105 00:04:45,958 --> 00:04:47,750 and designate them to come back to Merkers 106 00:04:47,875 --> 00:04:51,167 to provide a security cordon around the area, 107 00:04:51,333 --> 00:04:53,167 because after all, he has to exercise great caution 108 00:04:53,292 --> 00:04:55,000 that this might be a trap. 109 00:04:55,125 --> 00:04:58,167 LAURENCE: The next day, April 7th, American soldiers 110 00:04:58,292 --> 00:05:01,500 start interviewing other eyewitnesses. 111 00:05:01,625 --> 00:05:04,167 KEVIN: They talk to several men in and around Merkers 112 00:05:04,250 --> 00:05:06,333 who were forced to work in the mine, 113 00:05:06,417 --> 00:05:09,833 either clearing out rooms or bringing gold down into it. 114 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,667 AMORY: One British POW who had also been forced 115 00:05:12,792 --> 00:05:16,500 to work in the mine tries to make a sort of crude map 116 00:05:16,583 --> 00:05:18,375 for the Americans to show them the location 117 00:05:18,542 --> 00:05:19,708 of the treasure room. 118 00:05:19,875 --> 00:05:22,333 KEVIN: Army engineers survey the area 119 00:05:22,458 --> 00:05:25,333 and start making plans to descend into the mine. 120 00:05:25,417 --> 00:05:26,667 AMORY: Patton tells everyone to keep 121 00:05:26,833 --> 00:05:29,333 this potential treasure top-secret. 122 00:05:29,417 --> 00:05:32,333 Don't report it to anyone until they have it in hand. 123 00:05:33,500 --> 00:05:36,875 LAURENCE: On April 8th, American forces enter the mine. 124 00:05:37,042 --> 00:05:38,667 MARTIN: I can't imagine what must have been going 125 00:05:38,750 --> 00:05:40,375 through the mind of these troops as they go down 126 00:05:40,500 --> 00:05:41,792 into this deep mine. 127 00:05:41,875 --> 00:05:43,333 They don't know what they're going 128 00:05:43,500 --> 00:05:45,500 to encounter down there, they don't know who 129 00:05:45,625 --> 00:05:47,250 they're going to encounter down there. 130 00:05:47,375 --> 00:05:49,000 KEVIN: There could be armed Nazi guards, 131 00:05:49,083 --> 00:05:52,375 there could be booby traps, there could be nothing. 132 00:05:52,500 --> 00:05:55,250 MARTIN: Exploring this mine was no small task. 133 00:05:55,375 --> 00:05:57,042 It's a network of tunnels below the surface, 134 00:05:57,167 --> 00:05:59,542 18 square miles in overall size. 135 00:05:59,708 --> 00:06:01,500 There's no convenient signage. 136 00:06:01,667 --> 00:06:03,833 There's nothing that says, "Nazi gold, this way." 137 00:06:03,958 --> 00:06:06,250 KEVIN: But based on the interviews with people 138 00:06:06,375 --> 00:06:09,000 that work there, they know to go to a room 139 00:06:09,167 --> 00:06:10,667 called Room Eight. 140 00:06:10,792 --> 00:06:13,250 And as they approach, it's pretty clear 141 00:06:13,375 --> 00:06:15,458 there's something very important inside it. 142 00:06:16,708 --> 00:06:20,042 LAURENCE: The room is sealed by a huge steel door. 143 00:06:20,167 --> 00:06:21,667 AMORY: The door is impenetrable. 144 00:06:21,833 --> 00:06:25,750 But the engineers figure the adjacent brick wall is not. 145 00:06:25,875 --> 00:06:28,083 So, they load up one side with dynamite. 146 00:06:28,208 --> 00:06:29,583 That's how they open the vault. 147 00:06:29,708 --> 00:06:30,917 [explosion] 148 00:06:31,042 --> 00:06:33,125 KEVIN: The first thing the American soldiers see 149 00:06:33,250 --> 00:06:36,458 is gold-- literally tons of gold. 150 00:06:36,583 --> 00:06:38,542 This is the motherlode. 151 00:06:38,667 --> 00:06:40,250 MARTIN: Room Eight's not a room at all. 152 00:06:40,375 --> 00:06:42,125 It's more of a cavern than anything. 153 00:06:42,250 --> 00:06:45,958 It's 75 feet wide, 150 feet deep, 154 00:06:46,083 --> 00:06:50,667 12-foot ceilings-- it's a massive open space. 155 00:06:50,792 --> 00:06:55,208 AMORY: They count 8,198 individual bars of gold, 156 00:06:55,333 --> 00:06:57,708 each worth thousands of dollars. 157 00:06:57,875 --> 00:07:00,917 MARTIN: The world hasn't seen this much gold in one place 158 00:07:01,042 --> 00:07:02,667 outside of Fort Knox. 159 00:07:02,833 --> 00:07:05,500 LAURENCE: And that's just the beginning. 160 00:07:05,625 --> 00:07:07,667 KEVIN: Besides the gold bars, 161 00:07:07,750 --> 00:07:10,708 they also find gold bullion, currency from England, 162 00:07:10,875 --> 00:07:14,333 France, and Germany, gold coins, platinum, 163 00:07:14,458 --> 00:07:16,833 and the plates used to make German Reichsmarks. 164 00:07:16,958 --> 00:07:19,167 LAURENCE: Also hidden in the mine, 165 00:07:19,292 --> 00:07:23,000 hundreds of priceless stolen artworks. 166 00:07:23,083 --> 00:07:24,667 MARTIN: In other words, this was the largest 167 00:07:24,792 --> 00:07:26,333 German pawn shop of the time. 168 00:07:26,417 --> 00:07:28,667 Anything that had any value at all 169 00:07:28,833 --> 00:07:31,250 had been crammed into this one cavern 170 00:07:31,375 --> 00:07:33,417 inside this mine complex. 171 00:07:33,542 --> 00:07:36,375 KEVIN: So, everyone is ecstatic and amazed 172 00:07:36,542 --> 00:07:38,625 by this once-in-a-lifetime discovery. 173 00:07:38,750 --> 00:07:41,458 There's so many riches, so many treasures. 174 00:07:41,542 --> 00:07:43,292 But then they get to the back of the room, 175 00:07:43,375 --> 00:07:45,875 and the mood changes. 176 00:07:46,042 --> 00:07:47,542 AMORY: In addition to the precious metals, 177 00:07:47,667 --> 00:07:50,542 they find 189 suitcases 178 00:07:50,667 --> 00:07:53,833 filled with gold and silver household items 179 00:07:53,958 --> 00:07:56,708 that have clearly been stolen from everyday people. 180 00:07:56,833 --> 00:07:58,208 But that's not the worst of it. 181 00:07:58,375 --> 00:08:01,708 In some of the suitcases, they find a horrific sight-- 182 00:08:01,875 --> 00:08:05,042 hundreds and hundreds of teeth, 183 00:08:05,208 --> 00:08:08,833 human teeth that all have gold fillings in them. 184 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,458 KEVIN: Nobody has to ask where these gold fillings came from. 185 00:08:11,542 --> 00:08:12,750 They already know. 186 00:08:12,875 --> 00:08:15,333 They're the teeth of thousands of Jews 187 00:08:15,458 --> 00:08:17,708 extracted from the living and the dead 188 00:08:17,833 --> 00:08:19,667 in concentration camps. 189 00:08:19,833 --> 00:08:22,333 MARTIN: They had gold fillings ripped out of their head, 190 00:08:22,458 --> 00:08:24,500 because that gold had value. 191 00:08:24,625 --> 00:08:28,458 It gives you an idea of how cynical 192 00:08:28,542 --> 00:08:32,792 the Nazi view was towards humanity, 193 00:08:32,917 --> 00:08:35,667 towards human decency and dignity. 194 00:08:35,792 --> 00:08:39,167 I don't know of anybody else besides the Nazis 195 00:08:39,292 --> 00:08:40,625 who did anything like that. 196 00:08:42,500 --> 00:08:44,958 LAURENCE: As they come to terms with their grisly discovery, 197 00:08:45,083 --> 00:08:48,250 American forces need to figure out the next steps. 198 00:08:48,375 --> 00:08:53,083 It's a task so daunting that Generals Patton and Eisenhower 199 00:08:53,208 --> 00:08:55,833 show up in person to supervise. 200 00:08:55,958 --> 00:08:58,083 AMORY: The generals approve a logistical plan 201 00:08:58,208 --> 00:09:02,375 to get all this heavy stuff out from 2,000 feet below the ground 202 00:09:02,500 --> 00:09:04,125 and move it to safety. 203 00:09:04,250 --> 00:09:06,708 Remember, there's still a war going on very close by, 204 00:09:06,875 --> 00:09:11,000 so it's an already difficult job made even harder. 205 00:09:11,083 --> 00:09:13,917 MARTIN: As all of this material is moved from inside the mine 206 00:09:14,042 --> 00:09:16,250 to above ground, it's taken into Frankfurt 207 00:09:16,375 --> 00:09:17,833 to an old bank building 208 00:09:17,958 --> 00:09:19,542 that had been captured by Allied forces. 209 00:09:19,708 --> 00:09:23,042 And as all of the material is being deposited at that bank, 210 00:09:23,167 --> 00:09:25,833 and an accounting of all of it is being completed, 211 00:09:25,917 --> 00:09:27,500 there's recognition for the fact 212 00:09:27,583 --> 00:09:28,792 that there's a lot still missing. 213 00:09:30,042 --> 00:09:31,750 AMORY: The gold, silver, and currency 214 00:09:31,875 --> 00:09:36,292 that was found at Merkers adds up to about $250 million. 215 00:09:36,375 --> 00:09:38,000 But according to Allied estimates, 216 00:09:38,125 --> 00:09:41,833 the Nazis stole closer to $600 million. 217 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,125 So, what was found at Merkers isn't all of it. 218 00:09:45,250 --> 00:09:46,833 Not even close. 219 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,500 KEVIN: This of course means one thing-- 220 00:09:48,583 --> 00:09:50,500 there's more out there. 221 00:09:50,667 --> 00:09:52,625 So now, the real mystery begins. 222 00:09:52,750 --> 00:09:55,750 Where else did the Nazis hide their stolen treasure? 223 00:09:59,708 --> 00:10:02,125 The discovery of 250 Million dollars 224 00:10:02,208 --> 00:10:06,542 in stolen Nazi loot in Merkers, Germany, in 1945 225 00:10:06,667 --> 00:10:09,042 inspires a military treasure hunt 226 00:10:09,167 --> 00:10:13,458 that lasts long after the end of World War II. 227 00:10:13,542 --> 00:10:15,167 The U.S. and our allies 228 00:10:15,250 --> 00:10:16,708 continue to occupy the area 229 00:10:16,833 --> 00:10:18,500 for many months after the war. 230 00:10:18,625 --> 00:10:20,250 There's a lot of work to be done-- 231 00:10:20,375 --> 00:10:23,208 helping displaced people, shoring up infrastructure, 232 00:10:23,333 --> 00:10:27,625 cleaning up dangerous unused ammunition and explosives, 233 00:10:27,708 --> 00:10:30,583 and trying to track down more of what the Nazis stole. 234 00:10:31,667 --> 00:10:32,958 MARTIN: The overall quantity of treasure 235 00:10:33,042 --> 00:10:34,708 that was discovered at the Merkers mine 236 00:10:34,833 --> 00:10:36,875 is believed to be less than half 237 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:38,792 of the total amount of treasure 238 00:10:38,875 --> 00:10:40,500 that Nazi Germany looted 239 00:10:40,583 --> 00:10:42,208 during the Second World War. 240 00:10:43,375 --> 00:10:46,292 AMORY: Remember, this wasn't their gold to begin with. 241 00:10:46,375 --> 00:10:49,833 They took it from governments, banks, everyday citizens, 242 00:10:49,917 --> 00:10:52,750 all of whom deserve to have it returned. 243 00:10:52,875 --> 00:10:55,167 It's estimated that about 90% 244 00:10:55,250 --> 00:10:58,208 of what was found at Merkers was eventually returned 245 00:10:58,375 --> 00:10:59,833 to its rightful owners. 246 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,042 LAURENCE: But where did they hide the rest? 247 00:11:03,167 --> 00:11:05,500 AMORY: After the salt mine, we know a few things 248 00:11:05,583 --> 00:11:08,250 about where the Nazis like to keep their stolen treasure. 249 00:11:08,375 --> 00:11:10,333 It's a remote location. 250 00:11:10,417 --> 00:11:12,958 It has cold low-oxygen conditions 251 00:11:13,042 --> 00:11:15,917 ideal for preservation, and it's a facility 252 00:11:16,042 --> 00:11:17,958 that's already in use for something. 253 00:11:18,083 --> 00:11:19,833 So, trucks coming and going 254 00:11:19,958 --> 00:11:21,917 wouldn't have been seen as suspicious. 255 00:11:22,042 --> 00:11:24,042 And they don't have to build a bunch of new stuff. 256 00:11:24,167 --> 00:11:27,292 There's already electricity, manpower, 257 00:11:27,417 --> 00:11:29,542 and plenty of storage space. 258 00:11:29,708 --> 00:11:32,083 LAURENCE: Among the first possibilities, 259 00:11:32,208 --> 00:11:37,125 a Nazi weapons testing facility in Austria near Lake Toplitz. 260 00:11:37,250 --> 00:11:42,083 Soldiers descend on the area in May of 1945 261 00:11:42,208 --> 00:11:44,750 and begin interviewing potential witnesses. 262 00:11:44,875 --> 00:11:47,667 MARTIN: Ida Weisenbacher provides a personal account 263 00:11:47,792 --> 00:11:50,375 in which she details the way that German troops 264 00:11:50,542 --> 00:11:52,792 arrived at her home, 265 00:11:52,875 --> 00:11:55,792 and how they got a truck stuck in the mud, 266 00:11:55,917 --> 00:11:58,958 and they needed assistance transferring crates 267 00:11:59,042 --> 00:12:02,333 that carried something on board, onto a horse-drawn cart 268 00:12:02,417 --> 00:12:04,792 so that they could move them toward the lake itself. 269 00:12:04,917 --> 00:12:07,042 AMORY: Ida described seeing possibly hundreds 270 00:12:07,167 --> 00:12:09,833 of sealed Nazi crates, and they take the crates 271 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,500 up the mountain in multiple trips. 272 00:12:12,583 --> 00:12:15,458 Ida says she witnesses all those crates 273 00:12:15,583 --> 00:12:17,750 get dumped into Lake Toplitz. 274 00:12:17,875 --> 00:12:19,208 Ida, of course, has no idea 275 00:12:19,333 --> 00:12:20,708 what's in these crates. 276 00:12:20,833 --> 00:12:23,708 But the Allies suspect it might be Nazi treasure. 277 00:12:28,208 --> 00:12:30,583 LAURENCE: Lake Toplitz sits at the edge 278 00:12:30,708 --> 00:12:32,500 of the Austrian Alps, 279 00:12:32,667 --> 00:12:36,083 an ideal site for covert operations. 280 00:12:36,208 --> 00:12:38,750 AMORY: It's so remote and hard to reach. 281 00:12:38,875 --> 00:12:40,875 The Allies would never spot it. 282 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,500 It's over a mile long, a quarter of a mile wide 283 00:12:44,583 --> 00:12:46,958 and it has a depth of up to 300 feet. 284 00:12:47,083 --> 00:12:49,750 KEVIN: This area is known as the Dead Mountains. 285 00:12:49,875 --> 00:12:51,958 It's inaccessible and frozen over 286 00:12:52,042 --> 00:12:53,667 for five months of the year. 287 00:12:53,792 --> 00:12:56,333 When it is accessible, its only entrance 288 00:12:56,458 --> 00:12:58,042 is a steep dirt path. 289 00:12:58,208 --> 00:13:00,375 Let's just say it's a pretty good place 290 00:13:00,500 --> 00:13:02,500 for the Nazis to hide anything. 291 00:13:02,625 --> 00:13:04,667 LAURENCE: These same conditions 292 00:13:04,792 --> 00:13:07,542 make it a difficult place to search. 293 00:13:07,667 --> 00:13:09,417 First off, it's very hard to get equipment 294 00:13:09,542 --> 00:13:10,833 in and out of there. 295 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,667 An underwater search of a 300-foot-deep lake 296 00:13:13,792 --> 00:13:16,000 requires a lot of machinery. 297 00:13:16,125 --> 00:13:18,958 AMORY: Even just sending in divers is gonna be difficult. 298 00:13:19,083 --> 00:13:22,000 'Cause keep in mind, this is the mid-1940s. 299 00:13:22,125 --> 00:13:25,833 At this point, the first SCUBA apparatus, the Aqua-Lung, 300 00:13:25,958 --> 00:13:28,708 has only just been invented by Jacques Cousteau. 301 00:13:28,833 --> 00:13:30,708 And there's no such thing as a dry suit, 302 00:13:30,875 --> 00:13:32,833 which is what divers today use to keep warm 303 00:13:32,958 --> 00:13:34,292 in cold temperatures. 304 00:13:36,542 --> 00:13:40,000 LAURENCE: The Navy spends two years devising a plan 305 00:13:40,083 --> 00:13:42,792 to explore the 300-foot-deep lake. 306 00:13:42,875 --> 00:13:47,833 In 1947, they're finally ready. 307 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:49,375 KEVIN: They go down about 60 feet, 308 00:13:49,500 --> 00:13:51,125 and then they have to stop. 309 00:13:51,208 --> 00:13:54,625 They've encountered an impenetrable wall of wood. 310 00:13:54,708 --> 00:13:56,833 Toplitz is surrounded by a forest, 311 00:13:56,917 --> 00:13:59,500 so over the years trees have fallen into the lake, 312 00:13:59,625 --> 00:14:02,792 creating this wooden barrier about 60 feet down. 313 00:14:02,917 --> 00:14:04,333 MARTIN: It's very, very difficult to operate 314 00:14:04,458 --> 00:14:05,708 in that environment. 315 00:14:05,833 --> 00:14:08,208 The divers are challenged just to get beyond it 316 00:14:08,333 --> 00:14:10,083 to see what's on the other side of it. 317 00:14:10,208 --> 00:14:13,833 And that could easily hide things of great value. 318 00:14:13,958 --> 00:14:17,000 The divers then begin swimming along the barrier 319 00:14:17,083 --> 00:14:19,625 hoping to find the crates that may have fallen on top. 320 00:14:19,708 --> 00:14:22,042 But sadly, they don't find anything. 321 00:14:22,167 --> 00:14:24,333 STEFAN BURNS: Whatever was in those crates was heavy enough 322 00:14:24,458 --> 00:14:25,917 to sink past that barrier, 323 00:14:26,042 --> 00:14:28,625 which implies possibly Nazi gold. 324 00:14:28,750 --> 00:14:30,167 And the fact that these crates 325 00:14:30,292 --> 00:14:31,833 sunk to the bottom of Lake Toplitz 326 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:33,542 means it's extremely difficult 327 00:14:33,667 --> 00:14:35,250 to pull them back out. 328 00:14:35,375 --> 00:14:38,667 LAURENCE: After one of their divers drowns in 1947, 329 00:14:38,792 --> 00:14:41,417 the Navy calls off the search. 330 00:14:41,542 --> 00:14:42,875 KEVIN: The Navy finally decides, 331 00:14:43,042 --> 00:14:45,333 this is basically an impossible task. 332 00:14:45,458 --> 00:14:47,375 But that's not gonna stop others from trying 333 00:14:47,500 --> 00:14:49,167 to explore Lake Toplitz. 334 00:14:49,292 --> 00:14:51,917 And it doesn't stop people from dying either. 335 00:14:52,042 --> 00:14:53,833 There's a string of suspicious death 336 00:14:53,958 --> 00:14:55,625 associated with Lake Toplitz. 337 00:14:55,750 --> 00:15:00,333 LAURENCE: These begin soon after World War II ends. 338 00:15:00,458 --> 00:15:05,000 In 1946, two men, Helmut Mayer and Ludwig Picher, 339 00:15:05,167 --> 00:15:07,708 are both found murdered near the lake. 340 00:15:07,833 --> 00:15:09,875 During the investigation into this murder, 341 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:11,542 it is ultimately revealed that the two men 342 00:15:11,667 --> 00:15:14,500 had once worked at Lake Toplitz during the war. 343 00:15:14,625 --> 00:15:17,083 KEVIN: You have to wonder, did they come back 344 00:15:17,208 --> 00:15:19,958 knowing there was something worth retrieving from that area? 345 00:15:20,042 --> 00:15:21,167 They certainly had the background 346 00:15:21,292 --> 00:15:23,125 to know what might be down there. 347 00:15:23,208 --> 00:15:26,167 And if so, were they killed because of it? 348 00:15:26,250 --> 00:15:30,000 LAURENCE: In the 1950s there are several more deaths. 349 00:15:30,125 --> 00:15:33,000 In 1952, a French civilian is found dead at the lake. 350 00:15:33,083 --> 00:15:35,708 And during the investigation into his death, 351 00:15:35,833 --> 00:15:38,833 the bodies of two other people are found, 352 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,833 and those two people have both been shot in the head. 353 00:15:41,958 --> 00:15:43,167 KEVIN: This is getting kind of creepy. 354 00:15:43,250 --> 00:15:45,292 One death, that's one thing. 355 00:15:45,375 --> 00:15:49,292 But this is a string of murders around a lake 356 00:15:49,375 --> 00:15:52,083 that supposedly has Nazi gold at the bottom. 357 00:15:52,208 --> 00:15:54,333 AMORY: As these stories start to spread through the press, 358 00:15:54,500 --> 00:15:56,833 more and more people really do believe 359 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,167 that there is something secret and valuable 360 00:15:59,292 --> 00:16:03,500 hidden at Lake Toplitz, and maybe someone's guarding it. 361 00:16:03,625 --> 00:16:06,833 LAURENCE: In 1959, an expedition 362 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,125 sponsored by German magazine Der Stern, 363 00:16:10,208 --> 00:16:12,625 tries to finally solve the mystery. 364 00:16:12,708 --> 00:16:16,375 By this time, diving technology has improved substantially, 365 00:16:16,500 --> 00:16:19,208 so it's slightly less dangerous to dive the lake. 366 00:16:19,333 --> 00:16:21,833 It's not without risk, but the Der Stern divers 367 00:16:21,917 --> 00:16:24,875 are able to stay there for more than five weeks at the site. 368 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,458 And eventually, they reach the bottom. 369 00:16:28,542 --> 00:16:31,917 LAURENCE: What they see is truly remarkable. 370 00:16:32,042 --> 00:16:33,042 KEVIN: The crates are down there. 371 00:16:33,208 --> 00:16:34,708 This is incredible! 372 00:16:34,833 --> 00:16:38,000 And they're able to bring 15 of them up to the surface. 373 00:16:38,083 --> 00:16:40,167 AMORY: But when they pry the crates open, 374 00:16:40,292 --> 00:16:41,958 they don't find gold. 375 00:16:42,042 --> 00:16:45,583 They find paper money, millions of British pounds-- 376 00:16:45,708 --> 00:16:47,792 700 million, to be exact. 377 00:16:47,875 --> 00:16:49,292 MARTIN: The reason that the Nazis 378 00:16:49,417 --> 00:16:51,792 dumped all of this British paper currency 379 00:16:51,875 --> 00:16:55,125 into Lake Toplitz was because it was all counterfeit. 380 00:16:55,208 --> 00:16:58,542 KEVIN: Back in the 1940s Adolf Hitler started a plan 381 00:16:58,667 --> 00:17:01,917 called Operation Bernhard to flood Great Britain 382 00:17:02,042 --> 00:17:05,333 with fake currency to drive up inflation 383 00:17:05,417 --> 00:17:07,917 and basically wreck the British economy. 384 00:17:08,042 --> 00:17:11,250 AMORY: Operation Bernhard was never fully realized. 385 00:17:11,375 --> 00:17:13,458 And now, thanks to the Der Stern divers, 386 00:17:13,542 --> 00:17:15,792 we now know what happened to at least some 387 00:17:15,875 --> 00:17:17,833 of those counterfeit bills. 388 00:17:17,917 --> 00:17:20,500 LAURENCE: But is there more to uncover? 389 00:17:20,583 --> 00:17:23,958 The Der Stern divers reported that there were more boxes 390 00:17:24,042 --> 00:17:25,667 at the bottom of the lake, 391 00:17:25,792 --> 00:17:29,000 but because of all the money already spent on this mission, 392 00:17:29,083 --> 00:17:31,250 they were told to leave those boxes alone. 393 00:17:31,375 --> 00:17:33,083 MARTIN: Those 15 crates, though, 394 00:17:33,208 --> 00:17:36,042 linked them directly to Operation Bernhard, 395 00:17:36,208 --> 00:17:38,958 and they also established the truth 396 00:17:39,083 --> 00:17:41,042 of the Ida Weisenbacher personal account. 397 00:17:41,167 --> 00:17:43,708 AMORY: In the decades since, several expeditions, 398 00:17:43,833 --> 00:17:45,667 some very well-funded ones, 399 00:17:45,792 --> 00:17:49,000 are mounted to try to recover the rest of the crates. 400 00:17:49,125 --> 00:17:51,333 They find some Nazi artifacts. 401 00:17:51,458 --> 00:17:53,667 Some divers report seeing aircraft 402 00:17:53,750 --> 00:17:55,833 and other weapons down there, 403 00:17:55,917 --> 00:17:59,167 but so far, no stolen Nazi treasure. 404 00:17:59,292 --> 00:18:01,333 Unless we figure out some technology 405 00:18:01,417 --> 00:18:04,375 to go and drain Lake Toplitz, it doesn't look to me 406 00:18:04,542 --> 00:18:05,833 like anybody's ever going to figure out 407 00:18:05,917 --> 00:18:07,500 exactly what's down there. 408 00:18:07,667 --> 00:18:10,250 And so, we're gonna have to live with this mystery 409 00:18:10,375 --> 00:18:11,583 for a long time to come. 410 00:18:15,958 --> 00:18:17,500 In the immediate aftermath of the war, 411 00:18:17,625 --> 00:18:19,375 the U.S. government is determined 412 00:18:19,500 --> 00:18:22,125 to find more hidden Nazi treasure. 413 00:18:22,208 --> 00:18:25,125 From 1945 until 1948, 414 00:18:25,208 --> 00:18:26,708 all branches of the American military 415 00:18:26,833 --> 00:18:28,125 are involved in trying to 416 00:18:28,250 --> 00:18:30,500 discover looted Nazi treasure. 417 00:18:30,625 --> 00:18:32,458 And one of the elements of the American military 418 00:18:32,542 --> 00:18:35,333 that's involved in this search is the O.S.S. 419 00:18:35,417 --> 00:18:38,042 The O.S.S., the Office of Strategic Services, 420 00:18:38,208 --> 00:18:39,667 is the precursor 421 00:18:39,792 --> 00:18:41,458 to today's CIA. 422 00:18:41,583 --> 00:18:46,000 LAURENCE: But in 1947, it's an unexpected agency 423 00:18:46,125 --> 00:18:47,542 that makes a breakthrough. 424 00:18:47,667 --> 00:18:49,000 MARTIN: When we think of government agencies 425 00:18:49,125 --> 00:18:50,750 and important investigations, 426 00:18:50,875 --> 00:18:54,458 we don't think of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. 427 00:18:54,542 --> 00:18:56,500 But as it turns out, a Treasury agent 428 00:18:56,625 --> 00:19:00,833 by the name of Emerson Bigelow is searching for Nazi treasure. 429 00:19:00,917 --> 00:19:02,875 And in many ways, a Treasury agent 430 00:19:03,042 --> 00:19:06,167 is the right person to go sniffing around this idea 431 00:19:06,292 --> 00:19:08,292 of looted Nazi gold. 432 00:19:08,375 --> 00:19:10,958 In 1947 Bigelow sends a memo 433 00:19:11,083 --> 00:19:12,625 to his superiors claiming 434 00:19:12,708 --> 00:19:13,833 to know what happened 435 00:19:13,917 --> 00:19:15,167 to a large chunk 436 00:19:15,292 --> 00:19:16,833 of the stolen Nazi gold. 437 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,000 His memo is so incendiary 438 00:19:19,125 --> 00:19:21,083 that it really just gets swept under the rug. 439 00:19:21,208 --> 00:19:23,000 And it isn't until 50 years later 440 00:19:23,083 --> 00:19:24,625 when it gets declassified 441 00:19:24,708 --> 00:19:27,542 that this bombshell finally comes to light. 442 00:19:27,667 --> 00:19:29,583 The Bigelow memorandum is ultimately revealed 443 00:19:29,708 --> 00:19:32,625 in a 1997 documentary, and what he found 444 00:19:32,750 --> 00:19:35,667 was that a very, very large quantity of money 445 00:19:35,750 --> 00:19:38,250 went into a bank account that was owned by the Vatican. 446 00:19:40,750 --> 00:19:43,958 LAURENCE: Bigelow's theory begins in Croatia. 447 00:19:44,042 --> 00:19:45,667 In World War II, the Nazis 448 00:19:45,833 --> 00:19:49,000 set up a puppet government in Croatia called the Ustasha. 449 00:19:49,125 --> 00:19:53,167 They're in power from 1941 till the end of the war in 1945. 450 00:19:53,333 --> 00:19:54,833 Let's be clear-- they're put there 451 00:19:54,958 --> 00:19:57,500 by the Nazis, for the Nazis. 452 00:19:57,583 --> 00:20:01,375 AMORY: The Ustasha are just as vile as the Nazis. 453 00:20:01,542 --> 00:20:05,125 They participate in the same form of racist terrorism 454 00:20:05,208 --> 00:20:07,333 that's fueled by a distorted view 455 00:20:07,458 --> 00:20:10,292 of both Roman Catholicism and Islam-- 456 00:20:10,375 --> 00:20:13,458 something they called Croatian Nationalism. 457 00:20:13,542 --> 00:20:17,250 Like Hitler, they want to purify the blood of the country 458 00:20:17,375 --> 00:20:21,667 by mass-murdering Jews, Serbs, and Roma. 459 00:20:21,750 --> 00:20:25,208 It's estimated that they kill hundreds of thousands of people. 460 00:20:25,375 --> 00:20:27,875 And the Ustashe extorted gold, 461 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,958 and jewels, and other valuables 462 00:20:31,083 --> 00:20:33,458 from people who they threatened, 463 00:20:33,542 --> 00:20:36,375 saying that, "If you do not give this to us, 464 00:20:36,500 --> 00:20:39,417 you could be shot, you could be otherwise killed." 465 00:20:39,542 --> 00:20:43,208 And so, people who had the gold, gave it. 466 00:20:43,333 --> 00:20:45,167 They were killed as well as the people 467 00:20:45,250 --> 00:20:47,000 who didn't have the gold, 468 00:20:47,125 --> 00:20:48,875 but that was the Ustashe method. 469 00:20:50,875 --> 00:20:54,083 LAURENCE: The stolen gold is sent to Germany's Reichsbank 470 00:20:54,208 --> 00:20:57,500 to be melted down into bars and coins. 471 00:20:57,625 --> 00:20:59,333 AMORY: According to Bigelow's report, 472 00:20:59,417 --> 00:21:01,917 towards the end of the war, the Ustasha make efforts 473 00:21:02,042 --> 00:21:03,792 to hide this money, 474 00:21:03,875 --> 00:21:07,417 and they also help German Nazis hide some of theirs. 475 00:21:07,542 --> 00:21:09,750 KEVIN: When Bigelow talks to intelligence agents, 476 00:21:09,875 --> 00:21:13,250 they tell him that 350 million Swiss Francs 477 00:21:13,375 --> 00:21:15,333 have been taken out of the country. 478 00:21:15,417 --> 00:21:16,875 LAURENCE: That money would be worth 479 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:19,250 $1.5 billion today. 480 00:21:20,708 --> 00:21:22,708 KEVIN: But more eye-popping than the amount 481 00:21:22,875 --> 00:21:24,333 is what happened to it. 482 00:21:24,500 --> 00:21:27,583 According to Bigelow's sources, that transfer of wealth 483 00:21:27,708 --> 00:21:30,708 was overseen by officials with the Vatican. 484 00:21:30,833 --> 00:21:34,667 LAURENCE: Bigelow's sources claim they have proof. 485 00:21:34,792 --> 00:21:36,250 AMORY: Some of it was discovered. 486 00:21:36,375 --> 00:21:38,667 About one-third of it was confiscated 487 00:21:38,833 --> 00:21:41,167 by British authorities at a checkpoint 488 00:21:41,292 --> 00:21:43,333 on the Austria-Switzerland border. 489 00:21:43,458 --> 00:21:46,667 It traveled up from Croatia into Austria, 490 00:21:46,750 --> 00:21:49,500 and Bigelow's sources believe it was ultimately headed 491 00:21:49,583 --> 00:21:52,583 for a Swiss bank account owned by the Vatican. 492 00:21:52,708 --> 00:21:54,833 Meanwhile, according to the Bigelow memo, 493 00:21:54,917 --> 00:21:58,500 approximately 200 million Swiss Francs' worth of gold 494 00:21:58,667 --> 00:22:01,792 did get through to a Vatican bank account in Switzerland. 495 00:22:02,875 --> 00:22:05,167 LAURENCE: Bigelow's research ends there. 496 00:22:05,250 --> 00:22:08,875 But in 1997, investigative journalists 497 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:13,833 Mark Aarons and John Loftus pick up where he left off. 498 00:22:13,917 --> 00:22:17,542 Mark Aarons has made a name for himself in Australia 499 00:22:17,667 --> 00:22:19,500 for hunting down former Nazis. 500 00:22:19,625 --> 00:22:22,125 And John Loftus is a former prosecutor 501 00:22:22,250 --> 00:22:25,500 with the U.S. Department of Justice's Nazi-hunting unit. 502 00:22:25,667 --> 00:22:29,458 In that capacity, Loftus has access to CIA files. 503 00:22:30,875 --> 00:22:35,542 LAURENCE: As they dig deeper, more shocking evidence emerges. 504 00:22:35,667 --> 00:22:37,417 MARTIN: The CIA documents prove 505 00:22:37,542 --> 00:22:39,542 that this gold is directly linked 506 00:22:39,708 --> 00:22:42,792 to these high-ranking Croatian priests in Rome, 507 00:22:42,917 --> 00:22:45,292 one of which has a Vatican association, 508 00:22:45,417 --> 00:22:48,208 who are involved in getting this looted Nazi gold 509 00:22:48,333 --> 00:22:50,125 into Swiss bank accounts. 510 00:22:50,208 --> 00:22:53,833 LAURENCE: But that money doesn't stay in there for long. 511 00:22:53,958 --> 00:22:56,667 They claim some of the Nazi gold was used 512 00:22:56,750 --> 00:22:59,583 to relocate Croatian Nazi officials. 513 00:23:03,083 --> 00:23:04,500 AMORY: Aarons and Loftus' research 514 00:23:04,625 --> 00:23:07,500 seems to blow the lid off of a three-part scheme 515 00:23:07,625 --> 00:23:11,500 involving the Vatican, the Nazis, and the Swiss banks. 516 00:23:11,625 --> 00:23:14,250 So, when they publish their research in 1998, 517 00:23:14,375 --> 00:23:15,667 what do they call the book? 518 00:23:15,792 --> 00:23:18,000 "Unholy Trinity." 519 00:23:18,083 --> 00:23:20,667 LAURENCE: Many top-ranking Nazis are put on trial 520 00:23:20,792 --> 00:23:25,167 and executed in Nuremberg after the war. 521 00:23:25,250 --> 00:23:27,833 But the Ustasha are notably absent. 522 00:23:27,917 --> 00:23:30,250 Almost the entire Ustasha hierarchy 523 00:23:30,375 --> 00:23:33,042 just walks away scot-free. 524 00:23:33,208 --> 00:23:37,333 Their leader, Ante Pavelic, aka the Butcher of the Balkans, 525 00:23:37,417 --> 00:23:39,333 is actually received as an honored guest 526 00:23:39,458 --> 00:23:42,042 at the Vatican for two years after the war. 527 00:23:42,167 --> 00:23:45,125 Other high-ranking Ustasha escape to relative luxury 528 00:23:45,208 --> 00:23:46,750 in South America, 529 00:23:46,875 --> 00:23:48,667 and that's where some of the gold went. 530 00:23:48,833 --> 00:23:51,583 It paid for passports, transportation, 531 00:23:51,708 --> 00:23:54,292 places to live, food to eat, et cetera. 532 00:23:54,375 --> 00:23:56,833 If this is true, this money goes back 533 00:23:56,958 --> 00:23:58,375 into the hands of the Nazi puppets 534 00:23:58,500 --> 00:24:00,792 who stole it in the first place. 535 00:24:01,833 --> 00:24:03,625 LAURENCE: According to Aarons and Loftus, 536 00:24:03,708 --> 00:24:06,708 the conspiracy doesn't end there. 537 00:24:06,833 --> 00:24:08,708 KEVIN: Just when you thought you couldn't be more disgusted 538 00:24:08,875 --> 00:24:11,750 by this whole affair, it gets worse. 539 00:24:11,875 --> 00:24:14,500 The authors present evidence that the CIA 540 00:24:14,667 --> 00:24:17,667 not only knew about it, but they helped make it happen. 541 00:24:17,750 --> 00:24:20,000 AMORY: In 1998, the U.S. Congress 542 00:24:20,125 --> 00:24:23,167 passes the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, 543 00:24:23,250 --> 00:24:26,250 which requires the release of any government records 544 00:24:26,375 --> 00:24:28,708 pertaining to Nazi war criminals. 545 00:24:28,833 --> 00:24:32,500 As a result, over 300,000 pages of documents 546 00:24:32,625 --> 00:24:35,167 linking the U.S. Army and the CIA to this 547 00:24:35,292 --> 00:24:36,833 have been disclosed. 548 00:24:36,958 --> 00:24:39,458 AMORY: And now, declassified Army Intelligence reports 549 00:24:39,583 --> 00:24:41,958 states that by the summer of 1947, 550 00:24:42,042 --> 00:24:45,083 the U.S. forces were actively supporting 551 00:24:45,208 --> 00:24:47,000 the people-smuggling operation. 552 00:24:47,125 --> 00:24:50,333 The CIA wanted Nazis to escape Europe for two reasons. 553 00:24:50,500 --> 00:24:52,875 Some of them were advanced scientists 554 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:54,708 that could help the U.S. military. 555 00:24:54,875 --> 00:24:56,958 Others could be planted in areas 556 00:24:57,083 --> 00:24:59,333 that faced the growing threat of Communism. 557 00:24:59,417 --> 00:25:01,250 They placed high-ranking former Nazis 558 00:25:01,375 --> 00:25:03,458 in various South American countries 559 00:25:03,542 --> 00:25:05,458 with a mission to quell any potential 560 00:25:05,583 --> 00:25:07,292 Communist uprisings there 561 00:25:07,417 --> 00:25:10,000 and install U.S.-friendly leadership. 562 00:25:10,083 --> 00:25:13,458 One of the most notable examples is Operation Condor, 563 00:25:13,542 --> 00:25:16,750 where Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is used 564 00:25:16,875 --> 00:25:19,708 to help overthrow the government of Bolivia. 565 00:25:20,833 --> 00:25:23,083 LAURENCE: The influx of ex-Nazis into South America 566 00:25:23,208 --> 00:25:25,750 is known as the "ratline." 567 00:25:25,875 --> 00:25:28,667 According to Bigelow, Aarons, and Loftus, 568 00:25:28,833 --> 00:25:31,667 this ratline operation was paid for. 569 00:25:31,833 --> 00:25:34,958 It was financed by the very gold 570 00:25:35,042 --> 00:25:36,958 that had been looted by the Ustasha 571 00:25:37,083 --> 00:25:38,750 on behalf of Nazi Germany 572 00:25:38,875 --> 00:25:41,042 that then ultimately made its way 573 00:25:41,167 --> 00:25:42,625 into Vatican bank accounts. 574 00:25:42,708 --> 00:25:45,000 But here's the thing. Whatever wasn't spent 575 00:25:45,125 --> 00:25:47,208 on this nefarious scheme should still be sitting 576 00:25:47,333 --> 00:25:48,875 in the Vatican's bank. 577 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:52,000 This could be hundreds of millions of dollars in gold, 578 00:25:52,167 --> 00:25:54,500 which we'll probably never be able to recover. 579 00:25:55,583 --> 00:25:57,083 MARTIN: Unsurprisingly, the Vatican 580 00:25:57,208 --> 00:25:58,583 denies every last bit of this. 581 00:25:58,708 --> 00:26:01,667 This is, of course, a denial coming from an entity 582 00:26:01,792 --> 00:26:03,708 that has a document policy 583 00:26:03,875 --> 00:26:06,708 by which they destroy everything every 10 years. 584 00:26:06,833 --> 00:26:09,542 One thing we know-- if history tells us anything, 585 00:26:09,667 --> 00:26:11,500 it's that money can corrupt 586 00:26:11,583 --> 00:26:13,792 even the most seemingly sacred institutions. 587 00:26:13,875 --> 00:26:16,875 Perhaps someday, some long lost document 588 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:18,917 will show what happened to all that gold 589 00:26:19,042 --> 00:26:20,708 that made its way to Switzerland. 590 00:26:20,833 --> 00:26:23,958 But until then, it's part of the significant tally 591 00:26:24,042 --> 00:26:25,083 that remains lost. 592 00:26:28,958 --> 00:26:31,750 By 1948, 3 years after the end of World War 2 593 00:26:31,875 --> 00:26:34,458 the United States government begins to slow down efforts 594 00:26:34,583 --> 00:26:37,792 to locate any additional stolen Nazi goods. 595 00:26:37,875 --> 00:26:40,792 But a global army of amateur treasure hunters 596 00:26:40,875 --> 00:26:44,458 picks up the mantle, and in 2015, 597 00:26:44,542 --> 00:26:46,583 one team announces a breakthrough. 598 00:26:48,500 --> 00:26:51,667 September 4th, Lower Silesia, Poland. 599 00:26:51,792 --> 00:26:55,000 Researchers Piotr Koper and Andres Richter 600 00:26:55,083 --> 00:26:57,667 claim that they know where to find 601 00:26:57,750 --> 00:27:00,667 a massive cache of Nazi treasure. 602 00:27:00,833 --> 00:27:02,000 MARTIN: Koper is Polish, 603 00:27:02,125 --> 00:27:03,500 Richter is German. 604 00:27:03,625 --> 00:27:05,250 Together, they release 605 00:27:05,375 --> 00:27:06,917 an announcement that they have 606 00:27:07,042 --> 00:27:11,500 received a deathbed confession from a former German officer 607 00:27:11,625 --> 00:27:14,708 who knew the whereabouts of a train 608 00:27:14,833 --> 00:27:17,958 laden with Nazi gold that was on its way 609 00:27:18,042 --> 00:27:20,667 through Poland and back to Germany, 610 00:27:20,833 --> 00:27:22,750 but it never made it to its destination. 611 00:27:26,708 --> 00:27:30,667 During the war, Hitler orders that 330 tons of gold 612 00:27:30,792 --> 00:27:32,833 will be loaded onto a train and moved west 613 00:27:32,917 --> 00:27:35,083 to a more secure location. 614 00:27:35,208 --> 00:27:37,458 AMORY: If this story is true, this would represent 615 00:27:37,583 --> 00:27:39,250 a giant chunk of the gold 616 00:27:39,375 --> 00:27:41,625 that we think is still missing. 617 00:27:41,708 --> 00:27:44,125 LAURENCE: According to Koper and Richter, 618 00:27:44,208 --> 00:27:46,500 the planned route of the train was from Breslau 619 00:27:46,667 --> 00:27:50,042 to somewhere in Germany, but at some point 620 00:27:50,167 --> 00:27:54,000 the train was diverted and sent near the city of Bydgoszcz. 621 00:27:54,125 --> 00:27:57,917 The question is, where did it go from there? 622 00:27:58,042 --> 00:28:01,167 The pair starts by looking for potential hiding spots 623 00:28:01,292 --> 00:28:03,500 along the train route. 624 00:28:03,583 --> 00:28:04,833 AMORY: Hitler is many things, 625 00:28:04,917 --> 00:28:06,833 but he's not shortsighted. 626 00:28:06,958 --> 00:28:09,833 And by 1943, he sees how the tides of the war 627 00:28:09,958 --> 00:28:11,500 are starting to turn. 628 00:28:11,625 --> 00:28:13,667 Allied air raids are increasing, 629 00:28:13,792 --> 00:28:16,792 and they're taking a toll on Hitler's war machine. 630 00:28:16,875 --> 00:28:20,708 So, he starts making plans for worst-case scenarios. 631 00:28:20,833 --> 00:28:22,500 This is the beginning of Project Riese, 632 00:28:22,583 --> 00:28:24,125 Hitler's attempt to fortify 633 00:28:24,250 --> 00:28:26,167 and move his operations underground. 634 00:28:26,333 --> 00:28:30,000 MARTIN: Project Riese was a German construction project 635 00:28:30,083 --> 00:28:33,000 during the Second World War that sought to establish 636 00:28:33,167 --> 00:28:36,792 this very extensive underground bunker network 637 00:28:36,875 --> 00:28:39,833 in the Owl Mountains in Silesia. 638 00:28:39,958 --> 00:28:43,208 AMORY: The Nazis excavate a massive labyrinth of tunnels. 639 00:28:43,333 --> 00:28:46,667 Though it's never finished, some suspect the purpose 640 00:28:46,750 --> 00:28:49,083 is to create an underground headquarters 641 00:28:49,208 --> 00:28:51,667 and miles of underground factories 642 00:28:51,833 --> 00:28:53,833 safe from Allied bombers. 643 00:28:53,917 --> 00:28:56,500 LAURENCE: Koper and Richter zero in on a location 644 00:28:56,625 --> 00:28:59,458 near the Project Riese tunnels. 645 00:28:59,583 --> 00:29:01,958 It's a widely held belief in Poland 646 00:29:02,042 --> 00:29:04,542 that this Nazi gold train could have entered 647 00:29:04,667 --> 00:29:06,958 Project Riese locations, and then ended up 648 00:29:07,083 --> 00:29:10,000 where Koper and Richter are actually looking. 649 00:29:10,125 --> 00:29:12,875 At some point in 2015, Koper and Richter went 650 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,500 without a license and used ground-penetrating radar 651 00:29:15,625 --> 00:29:19,000 to do a readout of a site along the Bydgoszcz rail line. 652 00:29:19,083 --> 00:29:21,667 And they believed that this showed 653 00:29:21,792 --> 00:29:24,167 an underground structure, which they believed 654 00:29:24,292 --> 00:29:27,125 was the correct density to be a train. 655 00:29:28,875 --> 00:29:30,667 LAURENCE: Encouraged, the researchers 656 00:29:30,792 --> 00:29:33,125 share their evidence with the local press. 657 00:29:33,208 --> 00:29:36,125 MENACHEM: As Koper and Richter's claim sort of gets out, 658 00:29:36,250 --> 00:29:38,542 the Polish government, both local and national, 659 00:29:38,667 --> 00:29:39,833 are forced to respond. 660 00:29:39,958 --> 00:29:42,042 And by and large, they seem to support 661 00:29:42,208 --> 00:29:44,000 the assertion that the train is there. 662 00:29:44,083 --> 00:29:47,208 AMORY: Polish Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski 663 00:29:47,333 --> 00:29:49,750 throws the weight of the government behind the claim, 664 00:29:49,875 --> 00:29:52,750 saying that there's a 99% probability 665 00:29:52,875 --> 00:29:55,333 that a train more than 300 feet long 666 00:29:55,500 --> 00:29:57,833 was found in the Owl Mountains. 667 00:29:57,917 --> 00:30:00,417 Later, it's also revealed that Koper and Richter 668 00:30:00,542 --> 00:30:03,167 have made a pretty sweet deal with the Polish government, 669 00:30:03,292 --> 00:30:06,625 saying basically, "Hey, if you support the excavation, 670 00:30:06,708 --> 00:30:09,708 we'll give you 90% of the profits." 671 00:30:09,833 --> 00:30:12,250 It's an astronomical figure if it pans out. 672 00:30:13,292 --> 00:30:15,792 This, of course, ignites a media circus, 673 00:30:15,917 --> 00:30:17,292 and the hunt is on. 674 00:30:18,583 --> 00:30:20,292 LAURENCE: Before they can dig, 675 00:30:20,417 --> 00:30:24,125 the Polish Army is sent in to secure the area. 676 00:30:24,208 --> 00:30:25,542 STEFAN: All of Europe was littered 677 00:30:25,708 --> 00:30:27,042 with munitions after the war, 678 00:30:27,208 --> 00:30:29,125 and in this area in particular, 679 00:30:29,208 --> 00:30:31,083 it was a hotspot of German activity. 680 00:30:31,208 --> 00:30:33,917 So, before there can be any digging, 681 00:30:34,042 --> 00:30:38,250 they have to perform a UXO, or unexploded ordnance search. 682 00:30:38,375 --> 00:30:41,708 AMORY: Then, they clear-cut the area of its trees. 683 00:30:41,875 --> 00:30:44,167 Finally, they scan and probe the area 684 00:30:44,333 --> 00:30:47,500 to certify that there are no dangerous explosives below. 685 00:30:47,625 --> 00:30:50,917 LAURENCE: On August 15th, 2016, 686 00:30:51,042 --> 00:30:53,667 Koper and Richter, along with a large group of volunteers, 687 00:30:53,833 --> 00:30:55,833 officially begin digging. 688 00:30:55,958 --> 00:30:58,292 STEFAN: This team consisted of about 60 people. 689 00:30:58,417 --> 00:31:00,833 They had a geologist, they had engineers, 690 00:31:00,958 --> 00:31:03,417 they had laborers, of course Koper and Richter. 691 00:31:03,542 --> 00:31:07,417 The cost of this dig amounted to about $130,000, 692 00:31:07,542 --> 00:31:09,125 and it was all funded privately. 693 00:31:09,208 --> 00:31:11,000 AMORY: After one week of digging, 694 00:31:11,125 --> 00:31:15,625 the team halts their work, finding no evidence of a train, 695 00:31:15,750 --> 00:31:18,333 train tracks, or any other manmade objects, 696 00:31:18,458 --> 00:31:21,125 at least not to a depth of 60 feet. 697 00:31:22,083 --> 00:31:24,250 STEFAN: They found that this GPR anomaly 698 00:31:24,375 --> 00:31:27,000 turned out to be a natural geologic formation. 699 00:31:27,125 --> 00:31:29,000 Koper and Richter didn't give up, 700 00:31:29,125 --> 00:31:30,958 because at this point, they claimed to have found 701 00:31:31,042 --> 00:31:32,583 many other anomalies, 702 00:31:32,708 --> 00:31:35,167 but they simply didn't have the funds to excavate them. 703 00:31:35,292 --> 00:31:37,833 AMORY: Richter eventually leaves the team, 704 00:31:37,958 --> 00:31:41,500 but Koper continues to search for the Nazi gold train. 705 00:31:41,625 --> 00:31:44,583 In 2021, he announces he's found new evidence 706 00:31:44,708 --> 00:31:48,042 of a train at the bottom of a lake in a Polish village. 707 00:31:48,167 --> 00:31:51,125 Additional site analysis is ongoing, 708 00:31:51,208 --> 00:31:53,542 so hopes of recovering this particular stash 709 00:31:53,667 --> 00:31:55,417 of Nazi gold aren't over yet. 710 00:31:59,250 --> 00:32:03,167 By 2016, most searches for stolen nazi plunder 711 00:32:03,333 --> 00:32:05,917 are helmed by amateur investigators. 712 00:32:06,042 --> 00:32:09,958 Among them, German treasure hunter Jurgen Proske, 713 00:32:10,042 --> 00:32:12,958 who's working on a unique approach. 714 00:32:13,083 --> 00:32:14,625 MARTIN: Proske's taken a different method 715 00:32:14,708 --> 00:32:15,833 for looking into looted Nazi gold, 716 00:32:15,958 --> 00:32:18,083 whereas others are more consumed 717 00:32:18,208 --> 00:32:19,958 by trying to find additional 718 00:32:20,042 --> 00:32:21,667 hordes or deposits of gold 719 00:32:21,750 --> 00:32:23,458 that are undiscovered out there. 720 00:32:23,542 --> 00:32:25,667 What Proske is doing, is he's looking at the records 721 00:32:25,792 --> 00:32:28,958 associated with hordes that have already been discovered 722 00:32:29,083 --> 00:32:31,167 to determine if anything was overlooked. 723 00:32:32,708 --> 00:32:34,833 He turns his attention to a story 724 00:32:34,958 --> 00:32:37,750 that unfolds in 1945 at Mittenwald, Germany, 725 00:32:37,875 --> 00:32:40,375 right near the Austrian border. 726 00:32:40,542 --> 00:32:43,417 LAURENCE: There, on April 20th, 1945, 727 00:32:43,542 --> 00:32:47,625 Nazi Colonel Franz Pfeiffer and six officers 728 00:32:47,708 --> 00:32:50,458 gather at a German military base. 729 00:32:50,542 --> 00:32:53,542 Coincidentally, this is Hitler's birthday. 730 00:32:53,708 --> 00:32:55,417 The Allies are closing in, 731 00:32:55,542 --> 00:32:58,333 and Pfeiffer is given one final mission-- 732 00:32:58,417 --> 00:33:01,208 to hide a stash of Nazi gold. 733 00:33:02,333 --> 00:33:05,167 The Nazis consider this gold their last best hope 734 00:33:05,292 --> 00:33:07,792 for preserving the future of the regime. 735 00:33:07,875 --> 00:33:10,833 The aim is to hide it until they can return to power 736 00:33:10,958 --> 00:33:12,667 and a new Reich can be formed, 737 00:33:12,792 --> 00:33:14,958 which will be funded by the gold. 738 00:33:15,083 --> 00:33:17,625 LAURENCE: Pfeiffer swears his men to secrecy, 739 00:33:17,750 --> 00:33:22,000 then orders 365 sacks of gold 740 00:33:22,125 --> 00:33:24,792 loaded onto a convoy of trucks. 741 00:33:24,875 --> 00:33:27,792 MARTIN: The order itself comes from Reichsfuhrer-SS, 742 00:33:27,875 --> 00:33:29,458 Heinrich Himmler. 743 00:33:29,542 --> 00:33:33,125 Himmler orders several truckloads of looted valuables 744 00:33:33,250 --> 00:33:36,833 to be transported to the area where Pfeiffer is in command. 745 00:33:36,958 --> 00:33:38,500 The Nazi's first plan is to hide it 746 00:33:38,625 --> 00:33:40,667 in this bowling alley that was abandoned. 747 00:33:40,792 --> 00:33:42,167 So, they bring it all there, 748 00:33:42,250 --> 00:33:44,208 and they deposit it in the building. 749 00:33:44,375 --> 00:33:48,542 Then, days later, Allied forces are approaching. 750 00:33:48,667 --> 00:33:51,333 They have to go back, take it all out of the bowling alley 751 00:33:51,500 --> 00:33:53,375 and find someplace else to hide it. 752 00:33:54,458 --> 00:33:56,000 It's clear they're gonna have to move this stuff 753 00:33:56,167 --> 00:33:57,833 much farther away. 754 00:33:57,917 --> 00:34:00,000 So, they choose a new destination-- 755 00:34:00,083 --> 00:34:02,333 a lodge up in the mountains 756 00:34:02,500 --> 00:34:04,417 outside of a little town called Einsiedl. 757 00:34:05,667 --> 00:34:07,875 The lodge is owned by a man named Hans Neuhauser, 758 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,458 who lives there with his wife and son. 759 00:34:10,542 --> 00:34:13,083 And Hans basically has no choice but to let the Nazis in 760 00:34:13,208 --> 00:34:15,667 and do whatever they say. 761 00:34:15,792 --> 00:34:18,583 LAURENCE: After unloading the gold at Neuhauser's lodge, 762 00:34:18,708 --> 00:34:21,500 the Nazis next use mules 763 00:34:21,625 --> 00:34:24,042 to move it further into the mountains. 764 00:34:24,167 --> 00:34:25,833 In the span of just 24 hours, 765 00:34:25,917 --> 00:34:27,208 the Nazis had dug pits, 766 00:34:27,333 --> 00:34:28,667 and they deposited gold 767 00:34:28,792 --> 00:34:30,625 into these, and then covered them back up. 768 00:34:30,708 --> 00:34:33,292 KEVIN: And it's none too soon, because the Allies 769 00:34:33,375 --> 00:34:36,250 arrive on scene three days later. 770 00:34:36,375 --> 00:34:38,708 LAURENCE: The freshly dug pits are easily spotted 771 00:34:38,833 --> 00:34:41,083 by the Allied soldiers. 772 00:34:41,208 --> 00:34:45,583 In total, 12 tons of gold bullion is unearthed, 773 00:34:45,708 --> 00:34:50,000 valued at nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars today. 774 00:34:50,125 --> 00:34:52,333 So, they recover this gold. 775 00:34:52,500 --> 00:34:55,417 It's another great true story of buried Nazi treasure 776 00:34:55,542 --> 00:34:58,542 that continues to inspire treasure hunters today. 777 00:34:58,667 --> 00:35:01,500 STEFAN: Most treasure hunters use this story as evidence 778 00:35:01,583 --> 00:35:04,583 that other undisclosed locations of Nazi gold may exist. 779 00:35:04,708 --> 00:35:06,333 But not Proske. 780 00:35:06,458 --> 00:35:09,250 Proske decides to keep looking into this story. 781 00:35:09,375 --> 00:35:11,667 What if the Allies never found all the treasure? 782 00:35:11,792 --> 00:35:14,167 Is there any evidence to suggest that some of this 783 00:35:14,250 --> 00:35:16,375 did in fact get left behind? 784 00:35:16,500 --> 00:35:20,125 LAURENCE: Sure enough, Proske finds that evidence. 785 00:35:20,208 --> 00:35:23,625 AMORY: In 2016, amongst a collection of antiques, 786 00:35:23,750 --> 00:35:27,167 Proske finds the diary of a former Nazi officer, 787 00:35:27,333 --> 00:35:30,125 and in it, this guy claims to have taken 788 00:35:30,250 --> 00:35:32,250 some of the Einsiedl gold 789 00:35:32,375 --> 00:35:34,542 and put it in his own secret hiding spot. 790 00:35:39,583 --> 00:35:42,958 KEVIN: The diary says that about $7 million of Nazi gold 791 00:35:43,042 --> 00:35:47,333 was stolen by this officer and hidden somewhere nearby. 792 00:35:47,458 --> 00:35:50,333 Remember, this is gold the Nazis stole 793 00:35:50,458 --> 00:35:52,792 that this officer then stole from them. 794 00:35:52,917 --> 00:35:56,000 According to the diary, the officer hid the gold 795 00:35:56,083 --> 00:35:58,167 near the base of a steep hill. 796 00:35:58,292 --> 00:36:01,417 On top of the hill is a flat area with a hut. 797 00:36:01,542 --> 00:36:04,250 To Proske, this is like a pirate treasure map 798 00:36:04,375 --> 00:36:05,917 that's gonna lead him right to the gold. 799 00:36:07,375 --> 00:36:09,458 LAURENCE: There's just one problem. 800 00:36:10,583 --> 00:36:12,583 STEFAN: The story in the diary doesn't end after the war. 801 00:36:12,708 --> 00:36:14,000 It continues. 802 00:36:14,125 --> 00:36:16,500 Several years later, the officer goes back 803 00:36:16,583 --> 00:36:18,458 to this location to dig up the gold. 804 00:36:18,583 --> 00:36:20,792 When he returns, he can't find it. 805 00:36:20,875 --> 00:36:22,583 He lost it. 806 00:36:22,708 --> 00:36:24,875 KEVIN: The ensuing years have changed the landscape, 807 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:26,833 so it looks very different from when the officer 808 00:36:26,917 --> 00:36:28,583 first buried it. 809 00:36:28,708 --> 00:36:31,208 If that isn't karma, I don't know what it is. 810 00:36:31,375 --> 00:36:33,375 So, what does this say to Proske? 811 00:36:33,542 --> 00:36:36,042 It says maybe that gold is still out there 812 00:36:36,208 --> 00:36:38,000 waiting to be found. 813 00:36:38,125 --> 00:36:40,000 LAURENCE: And Proske has something 814 00:36:40,125 --> 00:36:43,833 the officer didn't-- a metal detector. 815 00:36:43,958 --> 00:36:46,333 STEFAN: So far, Proske has made dozens of trips 816 00:36:46,500 --> 00:36:49,000 to this area looking for the Nazi gold. 817 00:36:49,125 --> 00:36:51,208 And he's found several promising leads. 818 00:36:51,333 --> 00:36:54,375 He's found grenades, a Nazi helmet, ammunition-- 819 00:36:54,500 --> 00:36:57,500 all things which indicate activity in the area. 820 00:36:58,708 --> 00:37:00,250 KEVIN: And this isn't a place that had any active fighting 821 00:37:00,375 --> 00:37:01,750 during the war. 822 00:37:01,875 --> 00:37:05,042 These artifacts mean that maybe one or more Nazis 823 00:37:05,167 --> 00:37:07,042 were up to something in this area. 824 00:37:07,167 --> 00:37:08,625 Maybe hiding gold. 825 00:37:10,208 --> 00:37:12,375 So far, Proske hasn't found any gold. 826 00:37:12,542 --> 00:37:14,083 But like any good treasure hunter, 827 00:37:14,208 --> 00:37:15,333 he's still at it. 828 00:37:20,417 --> 00:37:24,583 In 2019, decades after the end of world war 2 829 00:37:24,708 --> 00:37:30,000 a new lead to the location of lost Nazi treasure emerges. 830 00:37:30,083 --> 00:37:32,292 A Masonic lodge in Quedlinburg 831 00:37:32,417 --> 00:37:34,500 in Germany decides that they want 832 00:37:34,667 --> 00:37:36,833 to atone for their associations 833 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,583 with Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Third Reich. 834 00:37:39,708 --> 00:37:42,333 They have hung onto a large quantity of documents 835 00:37:42,458 --> 00:37:44,667 relating to the Nazi time period, 836 00:37:44,792 --> 00:37:48,083 including a diary that was maintained 837 00:37:48,208 --> 00:37:50,333 by a former SS officer 838 00:37:50,458 --> 00:37:53,833 who wrote under the assumed name Michaelis. 839 00:37:53,958 --> 00:37:55,708 AMORY: They decide to give all this memorabilia 840 00:37:55,833 --> 00:37:57,708 to the Silesian Bridge Foundation, 841 00:37:57,875 --> 00:38:00,375 a Polish-German antidiscrimination cooperative, 842 00:38:00,542 --> 00:38:02,667 as sort of an apologetic gesture. 843 00:38:04,333 --> 00:38:06,000 At first, the Silesian Bridge Foundation 844 00:38:06,167 --> 00:38:07,417 accepts all this stuff. 845 00:38:07,542 --> 00:38:09,500 Just, "Thank you very much." 846 00:38:09,667 --> 00:38:12,958 It's just a nice way to accept and heal some of the wounds 847 00:38:13,083 --> 00:38:14,875 from the past. 848 00:38:15,042 --> 00:38:17,500 LAURENCE: But when they start to read the diary, 849 00:38:17,625 --> 00:38:21,208 they realize this gesture could be worth much more. 850 00:38:21,375 --> 00:38:23,042 AMORY: It immediately becomes clear 851 00:38:23,167 --> 00:38:24,792 why the author used a pseudonym, 852 00:38:24,917 --> 00:38:27,667 because the diary details 11 different locations 853 00:38:27,792 --> 00:38:31,625 that Himmler himself picked out to hide Nazi treasures. 854 00:38:31,750 --> 00:38:33,333 MARTIN: Many of these locations are thought 855 00:38:33,500 --> 00:38:37,583 to include gold coins, metals, jewelry-- 856 00:38:37,708 --> 00:38:41,375 items that were deposited with Nazi police 857 00:38:41,500 --> 00:38:46,167 for safekeeping as Allied forces approached. 858 00:38:46,333 --> 00:38:48,292 One of these locations is described 859 00:38:48,375 --> 00:38:51,708 as having 47 valuable pieces of art from artists 860 00:38:51,875 --> 00:38:54,375 to include Botticelli and Rembrandt. 861 00:38:55,750 --> 00:38:57,500 The Silesian Bridge decides to go 862 00:38:57,625 --> 00:38:59,417 and inspect some of these locations, 863 00:38:59,542 --> 00:39:01,167 and they choose as their starting point 864 00:39:01,292 --> 00:39:03,458 the biggest horde of them all, 865 00:39:03,542 --> 00:39:06,333 and it's a location that is supposedly warehousing 866 00:39:06,458 --> 00:39:09,708 28 tons of Nazi gold. 867 00:39:09,833 --> 00:39:12,500 It's hidden in an abandoned castle 868 00:39:12,583 --> 00:39:14,625 called Hochberg Palace. 869 00:39:18,708 --> 00:39:21,125 LAURENCE: The foundation puts together a search team 870 00:39:21,208 --> 00:39:24,500 led by their president, Roman Furmaniak. 871 00:39:24,583 --> 00:39:26,333 AMORY: The location actually makes sense, 872 00:39:26,458 --> 00:39:28,833 because Hochberg Palace has a special reputation 873 00:39:28,917 --> 00:39:32,125 as a Nazi hangout during World War II. 874 00:39:32,250 --> 00:39:34,333 MARTIN: During the Second World War, the German military 875 00:39:34,458 --> 00:39:36,458 maintained a network of bordellos-- 876 00:39:36,583 --> 00:39:40,250 some for the common soldiers, some for the officers. 877 00:39:40,375 --> 00:39:42,833 And during World War II, Hochberg Palace 878 00:39:42,958 --> 00:39:46,375 was what they called an offizieres bordelle, 879 00:39:46,500 --> 00:39:48,667 meaning an officers' bordello. 880 00:39:48,833 --> 00:39:51,167 It's not all that far-fetched to assume 881 00:39:51,292 --> 00:39:53,833 that there might have been some hidden treasure here. 882 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:55,625 KEVIN: People are constantly coming in and out 883 00:39:55,750 --> 00:39:58,667 of this location, so Furmaniak actually obtains 884 00:39:58,792 --> 00:40:02,125 eyewitness accounts of people who said they saw treasure 885 00:40:02,208 --> 00:40:04,250 being stored in the palace. 886 00:40:04,375 --> 00:40:06,292 Unfortunately, since the war, 887 00:40:06,417 --> 00:40:08,375 this site has severely deteriorated, 888 00:40:08,542 --> 00:40:11,542 making it dangerous to explore. 889 00:40:12,750 --> 00:40:15,708 LAURENCE: The team starts carefully searching the area. 890 00:40:15,875 --> 00:40:17,417 STEFAN: They use ground-penetrating radar 891 00:40:17,542 --> 00:40:19,208 to sweep the area for safety purposes, 892 00:40:19,333 --> 00:40:20,542 and in the process, 893 00:40:20,708 --> 00:40:21,875 may have actually revealed 894 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:23,042 the hiding spot. 895 00:40:23,167 --> 00:40:25,333 KEVIN: The diary says the gold, 896 00:40:25,500 --> 00:40:29,000 48 crates of it, are buried 200 feet down 897 00:40:29,125 --> 00:40:30,708 at the bottom of a well. 898 00:40:30,833 --> 00:40:33,625 This well would have been encased in metal. 899 00:40:33,750 --> 00:40:36,250 And in their initial scan, the team discovers 900 00:40:36,375 --> 00:40:38,875 what appears to be a large metal casing. 901 00:40:40,542 --> 00:40:42,667 LAURENCE: Encouraged by this promising find, 902 00:40:42,792 --> 00:40:45,667 the foundation hopes to begin digging soon. 903 00:40:45,833 --> 00:40:47,625 It takes time to coordinate 904 00:40:47,750 --> 00:40:49,333 these big search efforts like this. 905 00:40:49,417 --> 00:40:50,542 You have to work with the government, 906 00:40:50,667 --> 00:40:52,417 you have to work with local authorities. 907 00:40:52,542 --> 00:40:54,792 There's always the danger of unexploded ordnance, 908 00:40:54,875 --> 00:40:56,750 so you have to coordinate with the military as well. 909 00:40:56,875 --> 00:40:59,958 They're only just now beginning this excavation 910 00:41:00,083 --> 00:41:03,500 at Hochberg Palace, and who knows what they'll find. 911 00:41:03,625 --> 00:41:07,208 Can you imagine $1.7 billion worth of Nazi gold 912 00:41:07,333 --> 00:41:08,708 being returned to its victims? 913 00:41:08,833 --> 00:41:11,958 I hope it happens. The world is watching. 914 00:41:14,583 --> 00:41:16,167 In addition to their research 915 00:41:16,333 --> 00:41:17,583 at Hochberg Palace, 916 00:41:17,708 --> 00:41:19,417 the Silesian Bridge Foundation 917 00:41:19,542 --> 00:41:21,000 hopes to explore the other 918 00:41:21,167 --> 00:41:22,375 10 sites in the diary 919 00:41:22,542 --> 00:41:24,250 one by one. 920 00:41:24,375 --> 00:41:26,292 Each brings a fresh chance 921 00:41:26,417 --> 00:41:28,625 to fully recover the missing treasure. 922 00:41:28,708 --> 00:41:31,667 And perhaps, one day, more will be found. 923 00:41:31,750 --> 00:41:33,333 I'm Laurence Fishburne. 924 00:41:33,458 --> 00:41:35,083 Thank you for watching 925 00:41:35,208 --> 00:41:37,667 "History's Greatest Mysteries."