Will Treasure Hunters Solve Mystery of Lost Nazi ‘Gold Train’ Once and for All?

Image by Getty Images
Polish and German treasure hunters have started digging at a site in southwest Poland where they believe a Nazi-era train rumored to have gone missing is hidden – despite the skepticism of experts.
Andreas Koper and Piotr Richter said last year they had located the train buried underground. According to local legend, it was carrying looted jewels and guns and disappeared into a tunnel ahead of advancing Soviet Red Army forces in 1945, towards the end of World War Two.
They secured the permissions needed to begin digging despite a study by AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow concluding that a train is unlikely to be buried in the location the two amateur explorers have specified.
On Tuesday, the pair led a team of explorers in excavations at three separate sites inside a fenced-off area in the district of Walbrzych.
“We have to find a railway track, probably the entrance to a railway tunnel and, if the tunnel exists, there should be a train there,” Andrzej Galik, a spokesman for the treasure hunters, told Polish media.
“What do we expect? To unveil a sort of time capsule, something from that era, from the period of World War Two … We are hoping to be successful.”
Galik said ground-penetrating radar examinations were “very promising.” The team is expected to announce findings in coming days.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
