In the dying days of the Second World War in Europe, the Red Army steamrolled its way across the continent, relentlessly pushing westwards as their German opponents fought desperate rear guard actions to allow their comrades to cross the border back into the Fatherland.
The Soviets plundered everything and everyone they came across, showing little mercy for any overrun German unit.
However, some believe that a German garrison stationed in Breslau (modern day Wroclaw in Poland) was able to fill a train with gold worth up to $1m in today’s currency, weapons, and other valuables, and pulled away towards Germany just before the Soviets reached the city.
The train never made it to Germany though, as it mysteriously vanished somewhere inside a maze of tunnels somewhere underneath the mountainous region of Wallbrzych in Poland, back in May 1945.
Or so some believe, as the very existence of such train has always been a highly debated issue, and has for years become the source for a local legend that nevertheless spurred the imaginations and greed of treasure hunters the world over.
Fast forward to 2015, when some Polish prospectors claimed to have found the so-called ‘Nazi gold train’ hidden inside a 100mt long chamber deep beneath a mountain.
Preparation works did go ahead, and an area was cleared of trees and other forestry, but further scanning of the ground beneath the mountain appeared to show nothing but the possibility of a collapsed tunnel, with nothing in it
Yet, only a few days ago, the owners of a mining operation have begun digging again, despite mounting evidence that the Nazi Gold Train is nothing more than a fantasy, or at the very least, a corruption of an historical event turned into Chinese Whispers and passed down as fact through the years.
They say they obtained a ‘deathbed confession’ from an individual, whose identity was never disclosed. Whether or not the train does exist, it is an entertaining and quirky story stemming from a time of great chaos and upheaval, a story that brings out the lighter side to the terrible conflict that was World War 2.