Hunting the Nazi Gold Train

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0:00:05 > 0:00:08I've come to this remote corner of southern Poland

0:00:08 > 0:00:11to try to unravel one of the last great mysteries

0:00:11 > 0:00:12of the Second World War.

0:00:13 > 0:00:16It's a story that's attracted the world's media.

0:00:16 > 0:00:19Two men say they know the exact location

0:00:19 > 0:00:20of the Nazi ghost train...

0:00:20 > 0:00:23..That went missing in 1945.

0:00:23 > 0:00:24This is an extraordinary story.

0:00:24 > 0:00:27It's captured the imagination of many who live here,

0:00:27 > 0:00:28even including

0:00:28 > 0:00:30members of the Polish government.

0:00:34 > 0:00:36I'm hunting for a secret tunnel...

0:00:36 > 0:00:39Whoa! It's on a big scale, isn't it?

0:00:39 > 0:00:42..that local legend says was hidden by the Nazis,

0:00:42 > 0:00:45and in it, a lost train said to be laden with gold.

0:00:45 > 0:00:47And do you think this is where

0:00:47 > 0:00:50the rumours of this gold train comes from?

0:00:50 > 0:00:54I'll consider the evidence that treasure might be hidden here.

0:00:54 > 0:00:55An area that, for much of the war,

0:00:55 > 0:00:58was considered the safest place in Nazi Germany.

0:01:05 > 0:01:07I'll follow the treasure hunters

0:01:07 > 0:01:09who've spent years searching for the train,

0:01:09 > 0:01:11and may now be about to find something.

0:01:14 > 0:01:16I'll delve into the region's past...

0:01:16 > 0:01:20This feels like you're entering the dark heart of the Nazi world.

0:01:20 > 0:01:25..revealing a high-level plan to build a top-secret Nazi HQ

0:01:25 > 0:01:27in this remote corner of the Third Reich.

0:01:29 > 0:01:32This extraordinary tale features a hilltop castle

0:01:32 > 0:01:35converted into a bolthole for Adolf Hitler

0:01:35 > 0:01:37in the final months of the war...

0:01:37 > 0:01:41- This room now was going to be Hitler's bedroom?- Yes, exactly.

0:01:42 > 0:01:45..and a mysterious network of tunnels

0:01:45 > 0:01:48dug out of the ground by slave labourers.

0:01:48 > 0:01:51This was going to be an industrial underground city.

0:01:52 > 0:01:56If Hitler was planning to retreat to this remote part of his empire,

0:01:56 > 0:02:00then could Nazi gold have ended up here, too?

0:02:01 > 0:02:05If it's true, it's the kind of thing that happens once in a lifetime.

0:02:05 > 0:02:08A secret underground Nazi train

0:02:08 > 0:02:11loaded with valuables, buried for decades,

0:02:11 > 0:02:14local people who were silenced first by the Nazis, then by the Soviets,

0:02:14 > 0:02:18finally coming out and telling their stories.

0:02:18 > 0:02:21It's the kind of thing us history lovers dream about.

0:02:43 > 0:02:46I've arrived in the outskirts of Walbrzych,

0:02:46 > 0:02:51a former mining town in southern Poland, where for many locals,

0:02:51 > 0:02:53treasure hunting has become an obsession.

0:02:57 > 0:02:59I've arranged to meet Wojtek Malinowski,

0:02:59 > 0:03:02a film-maker who grew up here

0:03:02 > 0:03:04and who's been following the story for years.

0:03:06 > 0:03:09- How are you doing? Nice to meet you, Wojtek.- Nice to meet you.

0:03:09 > 0:03:12A very beautiful place. WOJTEK CHUCKLES

0:03:12 > 0:03:14If you think it's beautiful.

0:03:14 > 0:03:17I'm hoping he'll show me the tunnel that's been making headline news

0:03:17 > 0:03:18all over the world.

0:03:18 > 0:03:20Come on, follow me.

0:03:20 > 0:03:24But instead, he takes me to a non-descript piece of land

0:03:24 > 0:03:27at a location known simply as Kilometre 65.

0:03:28 > 0:03:30So what are we looking at here?

0:03:30 > 0:03:34This area looks strange. What do you think?

0:03:34 > 0:03:36This part of this area?

0:03:36 > 0:03:38Yeah, there's steep banks here,

0:03:38 > 0:03:40and then there's a sort of bowl there.

0:03:40 > 0:03:44And some people think that it was...

0:03:44 > 0:03:48a little part of this railway which connects to the tunnel,

0:03:48 > 0:03:51which probably will be there.

0:03:51 > 0:03:53All the rest of those banks

0:03:53 > 0:03:55look like they follow the original railway line,

0:03:55 > 0:03:56and yet here, there's this bowl.

0:03:57 > 0:04:01Wojtek takes me to the K65 milestone,

0:04:01 > 0:04:04where the entrance to the secret tunnel is believed to be.

0:04:04 > 0:04:06Ah! What's this?

0:04:23 > 0:04:24That is interesting.

0:04:24 > 0:04:27I mean, it doesn't look anything like a railway tunnel.

0:04:27 > 0:04:29Why do you think this is the area, particularly,

0:04:29 > 0:04:32that the Germans camouflaged at the end of the war?

0:04:44 > 0:04:46You're right. On the other side, over here, and...

0:04:46 > 0:04:49- Yes, yes.- ..elsewhere, there are much older trees.

0:04:58 > 0:05:02About 400 metres further along the same railway embankment,

0:05:02 > 0:05:05Wojtek wants to show me two mysterious structures

0:05:05 > 0:05:08which he thinks prove the Nazis were at work here.

0:05:09 > 0:05:11So you think there's a tunnel underneath us now?

0:05:11 > 0:05:14Yes. I hope.

0:05:14 > 0:05:15You hope!

0:05:17 > 0:05:19What are these?

0:05:47 > 0:05:50No way. Ventilation shafts?

0:05:50 > 0:05:51- Of course.- Yes.

0:05:53 > 0:05:56Wojtek isn't alone in his suspicions.

0:05:58 > 0:06:02Local treasure hunters have been scouring this area for decades.

0:06:02 > 0:06:04This is because in 1945,

0:06:04 > 0:06:07the town of Walbrzych and the whole of Lower Silesia

0:06:07 > 0:06:10were not part of Poland, but Germany.

0:06:10 > 0:06:13It was also beyond the range of the Allied bombing campaigns

0:06:13 > 0:06:16that targeted the country from 1942.

0:06:16 > 0:06:19And so, rumour has it, many important documents, artworks,

0:06:19 > 0:06:22even gold, were buried in the mountains.

0:06:22 > 0:06:25But I'm after something more substantial than rumours.

0:06:25 > 0:06:29I need firmer evidence before I can even start to believe

0:06:29 > 0:06:32that there might be a secret Nazi railway tunnel

0:06:32 > 0:06:33on the outskirts of this town.

0:06:36 > 0:06:38What I really want is a first-hand account.

0:06:38 > 0:06:42I'd love to hear from somebody who actually saw the railway,

0:06:42 > 0:06:45the siding and the tunnel during the war with their own eyes.

0:06:45 > 0:06:47There is one man who may be able to help.

0:06:47 > 0:06:51His name is Tadeusz Slowikowski, he's a retired miner, and it was him

0:06:51 > 0:06:55who first identified the great potential at this particular site.

0:06:55 > 0:07:01He's spent the last two decades looking for Nazi loot.

0:07:01 > 0:07:03Hi, Tadeusz. Dzien dobry.

0:07:05 > 0:07:09- Dzien dobry.- Dzien dobry! Dzien dobry!- I'm Dan.

0:07:09 > 0:07:12Tadeusz Slowikowski is one of the last men alive

0:07:12 > 0:07:14to have spoken to Germans who claim that during the war,

0:07:14 > 0:07:18they saw a second train track at Kilometre 65.

0:07:18 > 0:07:21Ah, your man cave, Tadeusz.

0:07:21 > 0:07:23He first heard about the mysterious tunnel

0:07:23 > 0:07:25from an engine driver's assistant

0:07:25 > 0:07:28who regularly travelled along the railway line.

0:07:28 > 0:07:32He's even built a replica of the site as it's been described to him,

0:07:32 > 0:07:33in his garage.

0:07:37 > 0:07:41So, here we go. This is the model of the tunnel and the siding.

0:07:41 > 0:07:43- And this is Kilometre 65 here?- Tak.

0:07:43 > 0:07:47So you've talked to an engine driver on this mainline

0:07:47 > 0:07:49who saw two carriages here in the siding?

0:08:08 > 0:08:11Tadeusz tells me that he's spoken to other locals

0:08:11 > 0:08:13who confirm the train driver's account.

0:08:13 > 0:08:16Like him, they also claim to have seen military trains

0:08:16 > 0:08:20on a hidden track running off the mainline into a tunnel.

0:08:20 > 0:08:23It's great to see a visualisation of Tadeusz's theory,

0:08:23 > 0:08:25it's not all just words any more.

0:08:25 > 0:08:27You can actually see it laid out.

0:08:27 > 0:08:29And if what he says is true,

0:08:29 > 0:08:32high walls would have prevented anyone using that mainline

0:08:32 > 0:08:34from looking into these sidings here,

0:08:34 > 0:08:36with the exception of that one guy,

0:08:36 > 0:08:40that enterprising guy, who stood up on the coal behind his locomotive

0:08:40 > 0:08:43and peered over and saw this siding.

0:08:43 > 0:08:45And there's the tunnel.

0:08:45 > 0:08:46And we have seen some...

0:08:46 > 0:08:49possibly some of the stones from that tunnel at the site.

0:08:51 > 0:08:53Looking at this, what really strikes me

0:08:53 > 0:08:55is why did the Germans go to all this trouble

0:08:55 > 0:08:57to make sure that this little siding

0:08:57 > 0:09:01and the tunnel it was connected to remain secret?

0:09:01 > 0:09:04There must have been something pretty important down there.

0:09:08 > 0:09:10After speaking to Wojtek and Tadeusz,

0:09:10 > 0:09:12a picture is starting to appear.

0:09:12 > 0:09:14A collapsed tunnel entrance,

0:09:14 > 0:09:18possible ventilation shafts emerging from the ground,

0:09:18 > 0:09:19Second World War accounts

0:09:19 > 0:09:23of a secret railway line hidden from view by the Germans.

0:09:23 > 0:09:26It's tantalising, if circumstantial evidence.

0:09:26 > 0:09:30But it's been enough for some locals to have gone one stage further.

0:09:30 > 0:09:35In 2014, local historian Andreas Richter and builder Piotr Koper

0:09:35 > 0:09:39decided to scan the area with ground penetrating radar,

0:09:39 > 0:09:42and they've agreed to show me what they found.

0:09:42 > 0:09:45Andreas, let's see some of the surveys from this area, then.

0:09:45 > 0:09:47Let's have a look at the tunnel and the train.

0:10:03 > 0:10:05What the radar technology revealed

0:10:05 > 0:10:09convinced them there really was something unusual at the site.

0:10:27 > 0:10:30So you're saying that... There's a sort of central stripe there.

0:10:30 > 0:10:33You're saying that's an unnatural, that's a man-made feature?

0:10:50 > 0:10:53HE SPEAKS POLISH

0:11:24 > 0:11:27That's the side of the tunnel? That's the wall of the tunnel?

0:11:27 > 0:11:29It's reaching up higher than what's in between it,

0:11:29 > 0:11:34and in between it, there appears to be a man-made, symmetrical object,

0:11:34 > 0:11:37a big, substantial object, like it's a train with an engine.

0:11:55 > 0:11:57The images are very seductive.

0:11:58 > 0:12:01But are the treasure hunters seeing what they want to believe?

0:12:02 > 0:12:05They don't claim the train is full of treasure,

0:12:05 > 0:12:08but there could be a great deal of money in this for them

0:12:08 > 0:12:09if they really have struck gold.

0:12:13 > 0:12:16Well, you can't help but be carried away by their enthusiasm,

0:12:16 > 0:12:20but I did leave there slightly questioning their motivation.

0:12:20 > 0:12:21What was really driving them on?

0:12:21 > 0:12:23A great love of history and archaeology?

0:12:23 > 0:12:28Or the desire to get their hands on that Nazi gold?

0:12:28 > 0:12:32They're claiming a 10% finder's fee and they have employed a lawyer,

0:12:32 > 0:12:34so they must believe they're onto something.

0:12:38 > 0:12:40So what is it about this part of Poland

0:12:40 > 0:12:42that's caused so much speculation?

0:12:45 > 0:12:47That's what I need to find out next.

0:12:50 > 0:12:51For much of the war,

0:12:51 > 0:12:54this south-eastern corner of the Third Reich

0:12:54 > 0:12:56was far away from the front lines...

0:13:00 > 0:13:03..and out of range of the Allied bombing campaigns

0:13:03 > 0:13:05that from 1942

0:13:05 > 0:13:08started to lay waste to the country's industrial heartlands.

0:13:10 > 0:13:12The regions that fed the German war machine.

0:13:15 > 0:13:17Factories were relocated here

0:13:17 > 0:13:20and precious works of art were stored away for safekeeping.

0:13:27 > 0:13:29And beneath these mountains,

0:13:29 > 0:13:32they developed one of the most incredible schemes.

0:13:36 > 0:13:40A project so extraordinary, it defies imagination.

0:13:46 > 0:13:51There's a reason why the reports of a secret tunnel at Kilometre 65

0:13:51 > 0:13:53haven't just been dismissed out of hand

0:13:53 > 0:13:57and Piotr and Andreas derided as a pair of hopeful amateurs,

0:13:57 > 0:13:59and that is to do with its particular location.

0:13:59 > 0:14:03It isn't just a random railway siding in the middle of Poland.

0:14:03 > 0:14:09It sits right next to one of the most extraordinary and sinister

0:14:09 > 0:14:11Nazi projects of them all.

0:14:11 > 0:14:16A huge, secret underground labyrinth of tunnels

0:14:16 > 0:14:19burrowed out in the final years of the war.

0:14:19 > 0:14:22Its codename was Riese.

0:14:22 > 0:14:23Giant.

0:14:28 > 0:14:33This top-secret project started in 1943.

0:14:33 > 0:14:36Hitler entrusted the work to his favourite architect,

0:14:36 > 0:14:39Albert Speer, and his most skilled and trusted engineers,

0:14:39 > 0:14:41Organisation Todt.

0:14:41 > 0:14:45This organisation was responsible for major construction projects.

0:14:46 > 0:14:49The autobahns in the '30s...

0:14:50 > 0:14:52..the Siegfried Line,

0:14:52 > 0:14:54the Reich's western defences,

0:14:54 > 0:14:57and the construction of the Atlantic Wall

0:14:57 > 0:14:59along the western coastline of Occupied Europe.

0:15:01 > 0:15:04But now they were tasked with something even more ambitious.

0:15:08 > 0:15:10I want to find out what the Riese project was about

0:15:10 > 0:15:14in the hope it might shed some light on why so many people believe

0:15:14 > 0:15:16there's a hidden Nazi train in this area.

0:15:23 > 0:15:24Ah.

0:15:27 > 0:15:29Whoa!

0:15:29 > 0:15:31A narrow bit there.

0:15:33 > 0:15:35It's soaking wet in here.

0:15:48 > 0:15:53I've heard about people entering the dark heart of the Nazi world before.

0:15:53 > 0:15:56This feels like you're doing it literally.

0:16:04 > 0:16:06Local historian Lukasz Kazek

0:16:06 > 0:16:08has agreed to guide me through the Riese.

0:16:09 > 0:16:13We've come maybe 800 metres into the mountain here.

0:16:13 > 0:16:14How long are these tunnels?

0:16:20 > 0:16:23I can see there's tunnels moving off in all directions.

0:16:33 > 0:16:37Is this a natural cavern that they've just hit into?

0:16:50 > 0:16:53What were they doing down here? What was the point of this complex?

0:17:10 > 0:17:12And so you think this was going to be a huge...

0:17:12 > 0:17:14almost an industrial underground city?

0:17:28 > 0:17:33Lukasz tells me that many Riese tunnels have yet to be discovered,

0:17:33 > 0:17:35while other explorers have claimed that the Nazis hid treasure

0:17:35 > 0:17:38and top-secret weapons here in the last days of the war.

0:17:41 > 0:17:44All this seems to strengthen the case for the possible existence

0:17:44 > 0:17:48of another secret tunnel at nearby K65.

0:17:52 > 0:17:55The Nazis did complete other projects like this,

0:17:55 > 0:17:57like the vast underground factories

0:17:57 > 0:17:59discovered in central Germany after the war,

0:17:59 > 0:18:03where military aircraft and advanced rockets like the V2

0:18:03 > 0:18:04were being manufactured.

0:18:06 > 0:18:09But if the Riese project had been finished,

0:18:09 > 0:18:11it would have been even bigger.

0:18:11 > 0:18:13Could Hitler have been planning to develop

0:18:13 > 0:18:15even more deadly weapons down here?

0:18:17 > 0:18:18It was surprising me

0:18:18 > 0:18:20how much moisture was coming into the tunnels back there.

0:18:20 > 0:18:23Some sections of the tunnel have completely flooded.

0:18:24 > 0:18:27You have to get along hauling yourself on a rope.

0:18:30 > 0:18:33It's just otherworldly.

0:18:37 > 0:18:38Totally silent.

0:18:45 > 0:18:47Whatever the Riese tunnels were intended for...

0:18:50 > 0:18:52..there is no doubting their impressive scale.

0:19:04 > 0:19:07This is the biggest space I've seen down here by far.

0:19:10 > 0:19:12It's probably three storeys high.

0:19:14 > 0:19:16100 metres long, at least.

0:19:16 > 0:19:18It's vast.

0:19:18 > 0:19:21It's like an underground cathedral.

0:19:25 > 0:19:29It's not surprising that the people who came after,

0:19:29 > 0:19:31the Poles who arrived in this area,

0:19:31 > 0:19:36when confronted with these ghostly, echoing, half-built monuments...

0:19:38 > 0:19:40..made up stories, made up legends.

0:19:41 > 0:19:45These caverns have bred a whole generation of conspiracy theories.

0:19:47 > 0:19:50Some say the Riese complex was even designed

0:19:50 > 0:19:53to house the German atom bomb that the Nazis were developing.

0:19:54 > 0:19:58But whatever its purpose, one thing that's certain

0:19:58 > 0:20:02is that these tunnels came at an incredible human cost.

0:20:02 > 0:20:06It's estimated that 5,000 people subjected to forced labour

0:20:06 > 0:20:07died on the project,

0:20:07 > 0:20:11hacking out granite rock in temperatures just above freezing.

0:20:15 > 0:20:18For the thousands of innocent people worked to death here,

0:20:18 > 0:20:21Project Riese was simply a giant tomb.

0:20:32 > 0:20:35I'm going to Gross-Rosen concentration camp.

0:20:36 > 0:20:38It would have supplied the slave labourers

0:20:38 > 0:20:41for the excavation work carried out underground.

0:20:44 > 0:20:48Over the entrance is the great Nazi lie - "work sets you free".

0:20:52 > 0:20:56Emaciated prisoners like these carried out the backbreaking work.

0:21:00 > 0:21:04Local expert Marta Sadlocha has studied the living hell

0:21:04 > 0:21:06that was Camp Gross-Rosen.

0:21:08 > 0:21:10Most of the military industry

0:21:10 > 0:21:13was focused in the hands of forced labourers

0:21:13 > 0:21:15or prisoners of concentration camps,

0:21:15 > 0:21:17and in the case of camps like this,

0:21:17 > 0:21:19the work was a means to kill them all,

0:21:19 > 0:21:22so extermination was, of course, fulfilled in here.

0:21:23 > 0:21:25Of all the Nazi labour camps,

0:21:25 > 0:21:28the ones at Riese had the harshest living conditions

0:21:28 > 0:21:31and some of the highest mortality rates.

0:21:32 > 0:21:35The average life span was two or three months for one person,

0:21:35 > 0:21:38and this is how long they actually could live,

0:21:38 > 0:21:40especially when they worked as physically as here.

0:21:40 > 0:21:43So was Riese seen as a particularly brutal way to finish prisoners off?

0:21:43 > 0:21:46- That's why they sent the Jewish prisoners there?- Definitely.

0:21:46 > 0:21:48People had to work underground

0:21:48 > 0:21:54and even when the walls were exploded in some parts,

0:21:54 > 0:21:57they were sometimes not released to the surface,

0:21:57 > 0:21:59so they still had to work in the dust

0:21:59 > 0:22:03and various different toxic fumes out of the explosive substances

0:22:03 > 0:22:06so, yeah, they were ending even quicker than here.

0:22:08 > 0:22:12With death tolls rising, and the Soviets advancing,

0:22:12 > 0:22:16what must have been going through the minds of the men in charge here?

0:22:18 > 0:22:22Well, the last couple of days at the Riese and the Gross-Rosen camp

0:22:22 > 0:22:26have just driven home the sheer insanity

0:22:26 > 0:22:29of what the Nazis were doing in this region.

0:22:29 > 0:22:33I mean, the inhumanity and barbarism of that camp.

0:22:33 > 0:22:35But also, underlining that,

0:22:35 > 0:22:39the stupidity of murdering your own workforce when, allegedly,

0:22:39 > 0:22:41they were working on this enormously important, grandiose project,

0:22:41 > 0:22:46which actually just seems to me to be a totally insane folly,

0:22:46 > 0:22:49its purpose, still to this day, a mystery.

0:22:52 > 0:22:54I want to find out what else was going on in this region

0:22:54 > 0:22:57that might help to explain why a Nazi gold train

0:22:57 > 0:22:59could have ended up here, too.

0:23:01 > 0:23:04This is Ksiaz Castle,

0:23:04 > 0:23:09the largest and most stunning palace in the whole of Lower Silesia.

0:23:13 > 0:23:17The site of the suspected tunnel is less than two miles away.

0:23:21 > 0:23:25I've come here, as I've heard that there is a link between the castle,

0:23:25 > 0:23:29the Riese tunnels and the mystery at K65,

0:23:29 > 0:23:33and that Hitler himself may lie at the heart of the connection.

0:23:41 > 0:23:43- Hi there.- Welcome to Ksiaz Castle.

0:23:43 > 0:23:45Thank you. It's more like a palace that a castle.

0:23:45 > 0:23:47It is a palace AND a castle.

0:23:48 > 0:23:52Mateusz Mykytyszyn has studied the history of the castle.

0:23:52 > 0:23:58Since 1509 until 1933, it belongs to Counts of Hochbergs.

0:23:58 > 0:23:59Mateusz tells me

0:23:59 > 0:24:02how the Nazis confiscated the castle from its owners

0:24:02 > 0:24:07and planned to make it the centre of their operations in this area.

0:24:12 > 0:24:16Let me show you this interesting thing.

0:24:16 > 0:24:18This is a very different feel, isn't it?

0:24:18 > 0:24:21This is actual Nazi work. This is the guard room.

0:24:21 > 0:24:23The room that they were preparing

0:24:23 > 0:24:28for protecting important people that were staying here in the castle,

0:24:28 > 0:24:31and it was actually an escape room

0:24:31 > 0:24:33for elevators, for shafts, that they are here.

0:24:33 > 0:24:35So shafts leading where?

0:24:35 > 0:24:38Leading under the ground, into the tunnels.

0:24:38 > 0:24:41So there's a whole network of tunnels under the castle?

0:24:41 > 0:24:44At least two levels. Some people say more.

0:24:44 > 0:24:48We know right now for sure that there are at least two levels

0:24:48 > 0:24:53of over 1,400 square metres underground tunnel,

0:24:53 > 0:24:55covered with concrete in 75%.

0:24:55 > 0:24:58So that's why this place is talked about as part of the Riese complex,

0:24:58 > 0:25:01- because they tunnelled here as well.- Exactly.

0:25:02 > 0:25:05Let me show you the shaft that is still here

0:25:05 > 0:25:09and that was one of the evacuation elevators,

0:25:09 > 0:25:13so you could escape very easily to the underground.

0:25:16 > 0:25:17I've been to the rest of the Riese,

0:25:17 > 0:25:20it was for factories and for underground armaments.

0:25:20 > 0:25:23Why incorporate this palace?

0:25:23 > 0:25:26We believe it's supposed to be a headquarters

0:25:26 > 0:25:29for very important people from the German Reich.

0:25:29 > 0:25:31So who was supposed to come here?

0:25:31 > 0:25:32Very important person,

0:25:32 > 0:25:35I think the most important in the German Reich at that time -

0:25:35 > 0:25:36Adolf Hitler.

0:25:42 > 0:25:44Mateusz tells me

0:25:44 > 0:25:47that work to convert the castle began in mid-1944.

0:25:47 > 0:25:49INAUDIBLE

0:25:52 > 0:25:55The plan was to make it suitable for the Nazi High Command.

0:25:59 > 0:26:02At the same time as many thousands of German soldiers

0:26:02 > 0:26:04were losing their lives on the Eastern Front,

0:26:04 > 0:26:08no expense was spared as the Nazis redecorated the castle.

0:26:12 > 0:26:16The beautiful green and red rooms were painted white,

0:26:16 > 0:26:18its baroque and rococo features ripped out

0:26:18 > 0:26:22and replaced with the Nazis' favourite neoclassical style,

0:26:22 > 0:26:26making room for the greatest works of art looted from across Europe.

0:26:33 > 0:26:36It's amazing how much the Nazis managed to reshape this.

0:26:36 > 0:26:39They only had a year. It must have been a huge effort they put in.

0:26:39 > 0:26:42Not even a year. Ten months.

0:26:42 > 0:26:45And 25 young architects

0:26:45 > 0:26:51were working here on preparing this splendid residence,

0:26:51 > 0:26:54known as the Pearl of Silesia,

0:26:54 > 0:26:57to the grandest residence of Adolf Hitler.

0:26:57 > 0:27:02And that was the room that was prepared for him as his bedroom.

0:27:02 > 0:27:05- This room now...- Yes.- ..was going to be Hitler's bedroom?- Yes.

0:27:05 > 0:27:08Exactly. And that's why these two...

0:27:08 > 0:27:12doors were created, two pearl doors, to lead to his bathroom,

0:27:12 > 0:27:16but not only bedroom, but also his private lift

0:27:16 > 0:27:18leading to the tunnels under the ground.

0:27:18 > 0:27:21So, just outside the doors of his bedroom, he had a lift,

0:27:21 > 0:27:23so if there was an air raid or something,

0:27:23 > 0:27:26he could just get straight in and go down to the tunnels.

0:27:26 > 0:27:28The Riese mystery just grows larger and larger

0:27:28 > 0:27:30every time I learn more about it.

0:27:30 > 0:27:34And there is so many more mysteries to actually uncover here.

0:27:38 > 0:27:42Clearly, what Hitler had in mind here was a new command centre.

0:27:44 > 0:27:46By the time the Nazis took over this castle,

0:27:46 > 0:27:48the war in the East was going badly

0:27:48 > 0:27:50and the Soviet Red Army was advancing.

0:27:50 > 0:27:52Hitler seems to have responded to that

0:27:52 > 0:27:55by doubling down on the war effort, prepare himself and his empire

0:27:55 > 0:27:58for a war of annihilation against the Soviet Union.

0:27:58 > 0:28:02He had the vast Riese complex constructed in this area,

0:28:02 > 0:28:05kilometres of tunnels perhaps designed to be

0:28:05 > 0:28:08top-secret weapons production facilities.

0:28:10 > 0:28:13The new Fuhrer HQ was to be linked to the Riese complex,

0:28:13 > 0:28:16creating a subterranean shelter

0:28:16 > 0:28:19for 27,000 top Nazi and SS personnel,

0:28:19 > 0:28:22spread across 25 kilometres.

0:28:24 > 0:28:26The resources this project consumed

0:28:26 > 0:28:28were a massive drain on the war effort,

0:28:28 > 0:28:31something the Nazis could ill afford at this time.

0:28:35 > 0:28:37Albert Speer, who was Hitler's chief architect

0:28:37 > 0:28:40and weapons production minister,

0:28:40 > 0:28:42said that what was going on in this region

0:28:42 > 0:28:45sucked in more concrete, more materials,

0:28:45 > 0:28:48than the construction of every single air-raid shelter

0:28:48 > 0:28:49right across the Third Reich,

0:28:49 > 0:28:52so this was a huge focus for Hitler himself,

0:28:52 > 0:28:56and a big clue to that still lies beneath my feet.

0:29:03 > 0:29:06My guide to the tunnels under the palace is Leopold Stempowski...

0:29:06 > 0:29:08- How are you doing?- Hello.

0:29:08 > 0:29:10..who has lived in the castle grounds all his life.

0:29:13 > 0:29:14He tells me that work here

0:29:14 > 0:29:16was far more sophisticated than at the Riese,

0:29:16 > 0:29:18only a few miles away.

0:29:22 > 0:29:25Yeah, that's completely different, isn't it?

0:29:25 > 0:29:28Two storeys high, concrete-lined.

0:29:32 > 0:29:33Whoa!

0:29:33 > 0:29:35It's on a big scale, isn't it?

0:29:35 > 0:29:38It's a lot further advanced that the other tunnels I've seen.

0:29:38 > 0:29:40This must have been a priority for them.

0:29:59 > 0:30:02I can now see what all the concrete was used for.

0:30:05 > 0:30:08Leopold then showed me a peculiar section of wall.

0:30:09 > 0:30:12It could indicate that something incredibly big

0:30:12 > 0:30:13was being hidden here.

0:30:47 > 0:30:50Could these accounts of a large space behind this wall

0:30:50 > 0:30:54indicate the existence of a secret railway line out of the castle?

0:30:57 > 0:31:00So, what's interesting is, we are very close here

0:31:00 > 0:31:04to the site where those people claimed to have found a tunnel

0:31:04 > 0:31:06with perhaps a train in it.

0:31:06 > 0:31:09Surely that's related to this big facility here,

0:31:09 > 0:31:11because we're so close.

0:31:38 > 0:31:40Were there plans for a rail connection

0:31:40 > 0:31:43from these tunnels to the mainline at K65?

0:31:43 > 0:31:45It's possible, because we know

0:31:45 > 0:31:47that Hitler travelled everywhere on military trains

0:31:47 > 0:31:50and that most of his HQs had hidden railway access.

0:31:57 > 0:32:00It makes me wonder if this is what they were planning at the castle.

0:32:05 > 0:32:07While I was at the castle,

0:32:07 > 0:32:10they did tell me that there used to be a narrow gauge railway,

0:32:10 > 0:32:13a little service railway, that came off the mainline just here

0:32:13 > 0:32:15and possibly followed the line of this raised embankment here.

0:32:17 > 0:32:19What's fascinating, what's tantalising,

0:32:19 > 0:32:23is that we're now only 400 or 500 metres away

0:32:23 > 0:32:26from where the finders think they've identified that tunnel

0:32:26 > 0:32:28with the collapsed entrance.

0:32:28 > 0:32:30Could it have been...?

0:32:30 > 0:32:33Could it have been that the plan was to expand this railway,

0:32:33 > 0:32:37allow a full-scale train to go up to the castle,

0:32:37 > 0:32:39delivered the Fuhrer to his headquarters?

0:32:39 > 0:32:42In which case, that tunnel back down there,

0:32:42 > 0:32:47it could have been a facility in which to house the Fuhrer's train,

0:32:47 > 0:32:49keep it away from prying eyes.

0:32:51 > 0:32:54And that's why, because of the sensitivity around it,

0:32:54 > 0:33:00being designed for Adolf Hitler himself, it was disguised in 1945.

0:33:03 > 0:33:04It's possible.

0:33:07 > 0:33:10If they do find a tunnel at K65,

0:33:10 > 0:33:12the fact that Hitler himself could be connected to it

0:33:12 > 0:33:16gives this investigation a whole new level of importance.

0:33:16 > 0:33:19This could be a historical gold mine,

0:33:19 > 0:33:21whether there's treasure there or not.

0:33:28 > 0:33:30Back at K65, the Polish authorities

0:33:30 > 0:33:33are taking the claim that a tunnel exists seriously.

0:33:36 > 0:33:39But they're worried the Nazis may have booby-trapped the area.

0:33:42 > 0:33:45So before any dig can start, the army are sent in.

0:33:52 > 0:33:54This is just the latest in a series of hold-ups

0:33:54 > 0:33:56to hit the treasure hunters.

0:33:58 > 0:34:03In 2015, Piotr and Andreas' hopes suffered a dramatic setback.

0:34:03 > 0:34:05With so much speculation about the train,

0:34:05 > 0:34:07other experts got in on the act,

0:34:07 > 0:34:09carrying out their own surveys of the site.

0:34:12 > 0:34:15And at one packed press conference, with the world watching,

0:34:15 > 0:34:18the show was stolen by another team of experts,

0:34:18 > 0:34:21led by geophysicist Professor Madej.

0:34:25 > 0:34:27His announcement was a showstopper.

0:34:49 > 0:34:52I'm going to see the man who may have just killed our story.

0:34:54 > 0:34:57I'm interested to know why two sets of people

0:34:57 > 0:34:59could have such wildly different results.

0:35:03 > 0:35:05Professor Madej works at the renowned

0:35:05 > 0:35:08AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow,

0:35:08 > 0:35:11the world's oldest geophysics department.

0:35:11 > 0:35:13HE SPEAKS POLISH

0:35:13 > 0:35:15His assistant is going to give me a demonstration

0:35:15 > 0:35:18of the magnetometer equipment they used at K65.

0:35:20 > 0:35:23- Is it heavy?- No, no.- Yes. Yes, yes.

0:35:23 > 0:35:28- Very heavy.- And you had to carry it all around that railway site?

0:35:28 > 0:35:32- Can I...?- Yeah. - Thank you.- That is heavy. Wow!

0:35:34 > 0:35:36And he makes you do this?

0:35:41 > 0:35:44- OK, it's good for you, it's good. - Yes.- OK.- So can I see how fast...?

0:35:44 > 0:35:47Let's go into the corridor. Let me see how fast you walk over the site.

0:35:47 > 0:35:48Come on.

0:35:51 > 0:35:54OK?

0:35:54 > 0:35:56OK, yeah. OK, go for it.

0:35:56 > 0:35:58Oh, so you can go quite fast, if you're looking for a big object.

0:35:58 > 0:36:00BEEPING

0:36:00 > 0:36:02Sounds like it's going crazy.

0:36:15 > 0:36:17And so when you were...

0:36:22 > 0:36:24Is this the exact equipment you used

0:36:24 > 0:36:27- to demonstrate there is no train down there?- No train.

0:36:33 > 0:36:36You're breaking hearts, saying there's no train.

0:36:43 > 0:36:47Professor Madej proceeded to give me the science behind his conclusion.

0:36:48 > 0:36:52He told me they had found some anomalies at the site,

0:36:52 > 0:36:54but these were quickly discounted.

0:37:31 > 0:37:33So, could the only gold train

0:37:33 > 0:37:35be this one on Professor Madej's desk...

0:37:36 > 0:37:39..and what the world is getting excited about

0:37:39 > 0:37:42be just a pipe lying a metre below the ground?

0:37:47 > 0:37:49Professor Madej's results seem damning,

0:37:49 > 0:37:52so I've decided to revisit the treasure hunters.

0:38:19 > 0:38:21Has it made your job more difficult

0:38:21 > 0:38:23because the scientists said there's nothing there?

0:38:23 > 0:38:25Is it now harder to get the excavation going?

0:38:54 > 0:38:57Andreas and Piotr are not giving up

0:38:57 > 0:39:00and are still planning to go ahead with their dig.

0:39:02 > 0:39:04In fact, they're so convinced they're right,

0:39:04 > 0:39:06they're investing their own money to prove it.

0:39:11 > 0:39:14While they sort out the finance and permissions for the dig,

0:39:14 > 0:39:17I want to look into how Nazi gold could have got here.

0:39:17 > 0:39:19The evidence I've gathered so far...

0:39:19 > 0:39:23A possible secret railway line linking the castle to K65,

0:39:23 > 0:39:26the spot where the treasure hunters want to dig.

0:39:26 > 0:39:29Plans for a new headquarters for Hitler.

0:39:29 > 0:39:31A network of underground tunnels,

0:39:31 > 0:39:34perhaps to house Hitler's weapons factories.

0:39:34 > 0:39:39The idea that Nazi treasures could have been sent here for safekeeping

0:39:39 > 0:39:41is, at the very, least plausible.

0:39:41 > 0:39:43But where did it come from?

0:39:43 > 0:39:46The answer could lie in the location itself.

0:39:47 > 0:39:53K65 marks the distance to the regional capital, Wroclaw.

0:39:53 > 0:39:56When Hitler came to power, it was called Breslau,

0:39:56 > 0:39:59and during the war, the city was a safe haven

0:39:59 > 0:40:02for valuable national treasures, as well as stolen Nazi loot.

0:40:06 > 0:40:09It was also the transit point for much of the gold and jewellery

0:40:09 > 0:40:12taken from Jews killed in the death camps.

0:40:12 > 0:40:16But by early 1945, the Soviet Red Army was at the gates.

0:40:21 > 0:40:24As the city prepared for a last stand,

0:40:24 > 0:40:27the Nazis desperately tried to move their valuables to safety.

0:40:32 > 0:40:34I'm meeting Professor Tomasz Glowinski,

0:40:34 > 0:40:37an expert on Breslau's wartime fate.

0:40:38 > 0:40:42He tells me what evidence there is for treasures leaving

0:40:42 > 0:40:45before the Soviets encircled and sealed the city.

0:40:58 > 0:41:00And do you think this is where

0:41:00 > 0:41:02the rumours of this gold train comes from?

0:41:02 > 0:41:04This evacuation of valuables from the city?

0:41:37 > 0:41:40As the Soviets closed in, Breslau descended into chaos,

0:41:40 > 0:41:43as people tried to flee by any means possible.

0:41:48 > 0:41:51The main station was crowded with civilians

0:41:51 > 0:41:53desperately seeking a way out of the city.

0:41:56 > 0:41:59So, could a train with a cargo full of gold

0:41:59 > 0:42:01have left Breslau at this point,

0:42:01 > 0:42:03slipping out amidst the confusion and panic?

0:42:11 > 0:42:12It is possible to believe

0:42:12 > 0:42:16that this city was in such a state of chaos and uproar

0:42:16 > 0:42:19that a shipment of gold could have made it here in trucks,

0:42:19 > 0:42:23unobtrusively transferred onto a train and taken out of town.

0:42:23 > 0:42:25It would have been a crazy time.

0:42:25 > 0:42:27These platforms thronged with refugees

0:42:27 > 0:42:30trying to escape the clutches of the Russians.

0:42:30 > 0:42:33And it strikes me that a small shipment...

0:42:33 > 0:42:36It could have slipped out of the city.

0:42:36 > 0:42:38People weren't taking notes in triplicate and filing them.

0:42:41 > 0:42:43It is possible.

0:42:58 > 0:43:00Back at K65,

0:43:00 > 0:43:04Andreas and Piotr have finally been given permission by the authorities

0:43:04 > 0:43:06to clear the area in preparation for their dig.

0:43:12 > 0:43:16Crowds have started to gather to get a sneak peek,

0:43:16 > 0:43:17but our treasure hunters

0:43:17 > 0:43:20have decided to fence the dig off from the public

0:43:20 > 0:43:22in order to keep anything they find private.

0:43:24 > 0:43:26While we wait for the dig to begin,

0:43:26 > 0:43:29I've been looking for evidence that gold was hidden

0:43:29 > 0:43:31in the hills and mountains around K65,

0:43:31 > 0:43:33and I think I've found it.

0:43:39 > 0:43:41HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

0:43:43 > 0:43:45This is fantastic.

0:43:45 > 0:43:50Classic golden age Polish television from the 1970s.

0:43:50 > 0:43:52Might not look that much to the modern eye,

0:43:52 > 0:43:55but this is actually a vital clue

0:43:55 > 0:43:59into whether any German gold could have got out of Breslau

0:43:59 > 0:44:01before the Soviets arrived.

0:44:01 > 0:44:04HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

0:44:04 > 0:44:08In the interview, a member of the Polish Security Service

0:44:08 > 0:44:11claimed the Nazis had hidden large quantities of gold

0:44:11 > 0:44:13in nearby mountains.

0:44:13 > 0:44:17The man at the root of this mystery is Herbert Klose.

0:44:17 > 0:44:21Klose claimed to have been a vet in the Wehrmacht,

0:44:21 > 0:44:26though Polish Intelligence in fact believed he'd been an SS officer.

0:44:29 > 0:44:30Klose's being a little bit evasive,

0:44:30 > 0:44:32but he does admit to taking part in an operation

0:44:32 > 0:44:36where 50 chests of gold were taken out of Breslau,

0:44:36 > 0:44:37and he even says where he took them.

0:45:03 > 0:45:06The film followed the route that Klose claims to have taken,

0:45:06 > 0:45:10and I've decided to retrace it, too, up into the mountains.

0:45:14 > 0:45:18Jelenia Gora is in the same mountain range as Walbrzych

0:45:18 > 0:45:20and only 50 kilometres from K65.

0:45:25 > 0:45:29According to Klose, they brought the treasure on the back of trucks

0:45:29 > 0:45:31up here to the slopes of Mount Sniezka,

0:45:31 > 0:45:34which is on the modern Polish-Czech border.

0:45:38 > 0:45:40Up here, high in the mountains,

0:45:40 > 0:45:45they transferred that treasure from the trucks to horseback.

0:45:45 > 0:45:48Now they went up the hill on the horses with the treasure,

0:45:48 > 0:45:50and at that point, he tells interrogators

0:45:50 > 0:45:53that he fell off his horse and got an injury.

0:45:53 > 0:45:56Well, slightly convenient, you might think.

0:45:56 > 0:45:58He goes back down, he goes to hospital,

0:45:58 > 0:46:02and he's not there when the treasure is deposited for safekeeping

0:46:02 > 0:46:04somewhere in these hills.

0:46:04 > 0:46:07One of his comrades comes back down, visits him in hospital,

0:46:07 > 0:46:11and tells him that the mission was completed, the treasure was stowed.

0:46:11 > 0:46:13But he, of course, claims he doesn't know where it is.

0:46:14 > 0:46:19It does mean that I could be just metres away from Nazi gold now.

0:46:20 > 0:46:22I've got to get out of Silesia.

0:46:22 > 0:46:24I've got gold fever, like everyone else in this place.

0:46:24 > 0:46:26Going crazy.

0:46:26 > 0:46:28But it is tantalising.

0:46:34 > 0:46:35The Klose story is evidence

0:46:35 > 0:46:38that the Nazis were hiding secret cargoes of gold

0:46:38 > 0:46:41in the mountains not far from Walbrzych.

0:46:41 > 0:46:45So if there is any secret tunnel at K65,

0:46:45 > 0:46:47one of those cargoes could have ended up there.

0:46:58 > 0:47:02The diggers are moving in, and after a year of growing anticipation,

0:47:02 > 0:47:04the excavation has finally begun.

0:47:16 > 0:47:20Andreas and Piotr have assembled a team of 64 people,

0:47:20 > 0:47:22many local volunteers,

0:47:22 > 0:47:25and they're confident of uncovering a secret Nazi tunnel and train.

0:47:36 > 0:47:40So far on this journey, I've been down tunnels, I've visited castles,

0:47:40 > 0:47:45I've seen the appalling human cost of the mad Nazi building plans,

0:47:45 > 0:47:48I've followed the journey of Nazi gold,

0:47:48 > 0:47:51and now I'm back here at Kilometre 65.

0:47:51 > 0:47:54Behind me, the dig is just beginning,

0:47:54 > 0:47:56and we are finally going to find out

0:47:56 > 0:48:00whether those treasure seekers have got exactly the right place,

0:48:00 > 0:48:02as they believe, and whether there's gold down there.

0:48:07 > 0:48:10Piotr and Andreas have opened up several trenches

0:48:10 > 0:48:12along the top of the embankment,

0:48:12 > 0:48:15where their surveys indicate the tunnel is located.

0:48:16 > 0:48:19They've also been doing new scans of the area,

0:48:19 > 0:48:21which they say back up their original findings.

0:48:40 > 0:48:43The new scans have instilled confidence in the team

0:48:43 > 0:48:45that they will definitely find something.

0:48:45 > 0:48:48THEY SPEAK POLISH

0:49:04 > 0:49:08Everything in this investigation suggests that it is just possible

0:49:08 > 0:49:11that gold could be hidden somewhere in these mountains.

0:49:11 > 0:49:14But is it at Kilometre 65?

0:49:14 > 0:49:17Before I find out if Andreas and Piotr are right,

0:49:17 > 0:49:19there's one last story that I want to explore.

0:49:21 > 0:49:25When I first came here, 85-year-old miner Tadeusz Slowikowski

0:49:25 > 0:49:30told me that the Nazi security around K65 was very tight,

0:49:30 > 0:49:34and that some local residents living near the tunnel entrance were killed

0:49:34 > 0:49:37as the Soviets approached Walbrzych on the last day of the war.

0:49:39 > 0:49:41So are you saying that the Nazis

0:49:41 > 0:49:43murdered the people who lived in these houses?

0:50:07 > 0:50:10Tadeusz thinks these murders are evidence

0:50:10 > 0:50:14that the Nazis wanted to keep their activities at K65 secret.

0:50:15 > 0:50:17A secret so significant

0:50:17 > 0:50:20that uncovering it could cost you your life.

0:50:23 > 0:50:26This intrigues me, because while I've uncovered some evidence

0:50:26 > 0:50:29that a gold train might be buried around here somewhere,

0:50:29 > 0:50:32this could help pinpoint it to the exact place

0:50:32 > 0:50:35where the treasure hunters are digging.

0:50:36 > 0:50:39I've decided to try and check it out.

0:50:39 > 0:50:43Frustratingly, the original house has since been demolished.

0:50:44 > 0:50:47But incredibly, given all the death and mayhem

0:50:47 > 0:50:50of the last stages of the war, the murder of these three people

0:50:50 > 0:50:53was actually recorded in a local church register.

0:50:56 > 0:50:58It's the first time I've actually been able to sit down

0:50:58 > 0:51:01with some real evidence in black and white,

0:51:01 > 0:51:04written down at the time of these events that I'm trying to unravel.

0:51:04 > 0:51:07It's evidence that three women were murdered

0:51:07 > 0:51:11in exactly the place that we're fascinated by,

0:51:11 > 0:51:14metres away from this secret railway siding.

0:51:14 > 0:51:17But tragically, frustratingly, it doesn't tell us who did it.

0:51:17 > 0:51:19And it puts the date

0:51:19 > 0:51:22at exactly the time when it could have been either side.

0:51:22 > 0:51:25The German Army were in the process of collapsing,

0:51:25 > 0:51:28this was the last day of the Third Reich,

0:51:28 > 0:51:30and the Soviet Army were on the fringes of town,

0:51:30 > 0:51:32about to push in and take over.

0:51:32 > 0:51:37It's an absolute turning point in world history,

0:51:37 > 0:51:40and these three women were killed at that time.

0:51:40 > 0:51:43The fact is, this doesn't get us any closer

0:51:43 > 0:51:46to being definitive about whether there's a tunnel under that hill

0:51:46 > 0:51:49and whether it was deliberately disguised.

0:51:58 > 0:52:04Back at the dig, and like me, Piotr and Andreas have hit a dead end.

0:52:04 > 0:52:07What they thought was the top of the tunnel

0:52:07 > 0:52:09is in fact a glacial deposit,

0:52:09 > 0:52:13intricate rock formations dating back millions of years,

0:52:13 > 0:52:16and the train they thought they'd seen on their scan

0:52:16 > 0:52:18hasn't yet materialised.

0:52:18 > 0:52:21I get the sense they're not feeling quite as confident

0:52:21 > 0:52:22as they once were.

0:52:24 > 0:52:26Where does your scan show that the train was?

0:52:43 > 0:52:46So you're saying, "There is still a tunnel here, we just haven't found it yet"?

0:52:58 > 0:53:00Piotr and Andreas are saying that to dig deeper,

0:53:00 > 0:53:02they need heavy drilling equipment,

0:53:02 > 0:53:05and they require extra permissions from the authorities

0:53:05 > 0:53:06before continuing.

0:53:08 > 0:53:12For now, the treasure hunters have no choice but to fill the hole in.

0:53:16 > 0:53:19Well, the dig has officially finished,

0:53:19 > 0:53:21and we can now say for certain

0:53:21 > 0:53:26that the hunt for the Nazi gold train has produced no Nazis,

0:53:26 > 0:53:29no gold and no trains.

0:53:31 > 0:53:33I've got to admit, I'm a little bit gutted.

0:53:33 > 0:53:36I tried to remain sceptical throughout,

0:53:36 > 0:53:38but a little part of me wanted to believe,

0:53:38 > 0:53:40a little part of me hoped that there would be a gold train down here

0:53:40 > 0:53:43and that I would be privileged enough to witness

0:53:43 > 0:53:45one of the most remarkable moments

0:53:45 > 0:53:47of archaeological discovery of all time.

0:53:49 > 0:53:51But instead, there's nothing.

0:54:13 > 0:54:16It's frustrating that no gold train has yet been found,

0:54:16 > 0:54:20but I think I've uncovered an even more compelling story.

0:54:21 > 0:54:25Could the secret Riese tunnel complex and the remodelled castle

0:54:25 > 0:54:29reveal one of Hitler's final and most ambitious plans?

0:54:30 > 0:54:32Was he hoping to retreat here,

0:54:32 > 0:54:35relocating his weapons factories to the tunnels below

0:54:35 > 0:54:39and then fighting on from this final defensive redoubt?

0:54:42 > 0:54:45If this was his plan, then perhaps it makes it more likely

0:54:45 > 0:54:50that there is a gold train hidden somewhere in these hills.

0:54:50 > 0:54:54And maybe it's just a matter of time till someone finds it.

0:54:57 > 0:55:01As I was preparing to leave, I got a surprise call from Wojtek,

0:55:01 > 0:55:04the local film-maker I first met when I arrived,

0:55:04 > 0:55:08asking me to meet him half a kilometre away from the dig.

0:55:08 > 0:55:10He was the man who first persuaded me

0:55:10 > 0:55:13there could be something to this legend.

0:55:13 > 0:55:16He still thinks our treasure hunters are onto something,

0:55:16 > 0:55:19but they're not digging in quite the right place.

0:55:20 > 0:55:22You see, I came onto this piece of land with you

0:55:22 > 0:55:24and you convinced me the train was here.

0:55:24 > 0:55:27I was so excited because of these what might be ventilation shafts

0:55:27 > 0:55:29or hatch covers or something.

0:55:29 > 0:55:30Why aren't they digging here?

0:56:01 > 0:56:04So, the treasure hunters never found their gold.

0:56:04 > 0:56:06But it's not going to stop them.

0:56:06 > 0:56:09And the reason is because this part of Europe

0:56:09 > 0:56:10has such an extraordinary history,

0:56:10 > 0:56:16a history of conquest, tumult, population shift, hidden tunnels,

0:56:16 > 0:56:19bunkers, buried treasure,

0:56:19 > 0:56:22and all of that ensures that no-one in this area

0:56:22 > 0:56:25is ever going to stop looking for Nazi gold.