Polish military to assist in search for 'Nazi gold train'

Sensations go through global media as the prospect of a railway car full of jewels and gold stolen by the Nazis arises after two men claimed to have found an armoured train car containing valuables, precious metals and industrial materials. Rumours of two special Nazi trains that disappeared towards the end of the second world war in the spring of 1945 have been circulating for years, capturing the imagination of countless treasure-hunters.

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

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

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

On Monday the governor of the south-western region of lower Silesia, Tomasz Smolarz, said it was “impossible to claim that such a find actually exists at the location indicated based on the documents that have been submitted”. He added that no such images had been submitted to authorities.

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

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

Zuchowski also claimed that someone who had been involved in hiding the 100-metre-long train had disclosed its location before dying.