Treasure Hunters Hopeful of Unearthing Lost Nazi Gold Train
Treasure-hunters said on Wednesday they were optimistic they would find a Nazi-era train believed to be hidden underground in southern Poland as they launched a second day of excavations.
According to folklore, the train – dubbed by Polish media the “gold train” because it was carrying jewels and guns looted by the Nazis ahead of advancing Soviet forces – was buried in a tunnel in the lower Silesia region in 1945.
Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter said last year they had located a train buried in an embankment near railway tracks connecting the cities of Walbrzych and Wroclaw.
A team of Polish scientists later expressed doubts about whether a train was there. Koper and Richter decided to excavate the embankment at several points.
Two excavations made on Tuesday have been terminated after reaching solid rock with no sign of a tunnel, but a third dig on Wednesday revealed material put in the embankment by human hand, said Christel Focken, spokeswoman for the project.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO