There are many unsolved mysteries in the history of Nazi Germany. Those who are fond of the history of World War II are interested in such mysteries of the Third Reich as the construction of dungeons and secret bases, as well as the fate of gold and museum values in Hitlerite Germany.
Where did the gold of the Third Reich disappear?
The question of where the gold of the Third Reich disappeared now and then comes up during the next political campaign to save cultural values, protect or revise the historical heritage in Europe. By the decision of the Crimean Conference, representatives of all Allied troops had the right to material compensation. However, the fact that the regulations for the disposal of trophies were not fully spelled out in the documents subsequently negatively affected their return to Germany or to the historical copyright holders. This problem especially affected art objects: paintings, sculptures, small forms, precious jewelry, interior design.
Most of it is believed to have been exported to the United States and England. But after the war, the Soviet Union also got a lot of cultural and material values, a huge part of which was seized by Hitler's army during a military campaign in other countries. According to legend, many of the "war trophies" of Germany later passed into the possession of the USSR and are still kept in the hidden funds of Russian museums. This assumption is debatable. But even the actual actual numbers are pretty impressive.
German trophies in Soviet wagons
To collect German gold in the USSR, there were special trophy brigades. Their members traveled around liberated Germany and took everything from food to factories and jewelry to the territory of the Soviet Union. From the territory of the Third Reich, the Red Army removed about fifty thousand cars, more than 60 thousand musical instruments, 180 thousand carpets, about half a million radios, almost 950 thousand pieces of furniture, 600 carriages of porcelain and other dishes, more than 150 cars of furs and expensive fabrics. The amount of exported gold, platinum and silver was estimated at 1.38 billion rubles. Museum values fit into 24 carriages.
Promotional video:
In total, in the first 6-7 post-war years, about 900 thousand objects of art fell into the USSR. According to the Cultural Heritage of Prussia Foundation, more than a million items of "trophies" are now stored on the territory of the legal successor of the Soviet Union, Russia. Of these, about 200 thousand items are of museum value. The Russian side speaks about 250 thousand art objects. Austria, Greece, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are demanding the return of values from Russia. But the issue of cultural property and the gold of the Third Reich today is painful for everyone, since one repatriation campaign entails a reaction throughout the "museum world".
A huge part of the displaced values ended up in the United States and, it is believed, in England. Back in 1943, representatives of these allied countries created the MFAA ("Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program") organization to search for the treasures of the Third Reich hidden in salt mines and castles. Within the ranks of this organization were competent experts in the field of art who determined the cultural value of specific exhibits. With their help, gold is believed to have been discovered in many vaults, the lion's share of which was later moved to the United States. So, in the Kaiserod mine in Merkers in April 1945, about 400 paintings from various Berlin museums, gold from the Reichsbank, as well as gold and jewelry of victims of concentration camps were found.
"Greetings" from the forties: not found dungeons of the Third Reich
Many treasures of the Third Reich, once found, turned out to be unpublished. In addition, some of them remained hidden from the eyes of strangers. Because after the Second World War, seekers and researchers found out that there were many secret bunkers in Nazi Germany. In total, Hitler's army created about seven underground structures, which, as secret bases of the Third Reich, were of strategic importance and were hidden from the eyes of strangers. For example, in the forests of the Schwarzfald there was an underground headquarters "Tannenberg", from the German "fir mountain". On the mountainous right bank of the Rhine, the "Felsennest" ("rocky nest") was cut in the rocks, and the "Wolfschlucht" (wolf gorge) was laid on the border between Belgium and France.
During the construction or laying of communications, to this day, the previously unknown secrets of the undergrounds of the Third Reich sometimes make themselves felt. For example, in 2009, the coastal strip in the German city of Nachterstedt collapsed due to a giant whirlpool. The cause of the collapse was considered to be subsidence of soils over worked-out and flooded coal mines. But in 2010 it became known that there was a secret dungeon of one of the military production facilities of the Third Reich. According to declassified British archival documents, the plant produced poisonous substances and placed gas storage facilities.
An underground city with a railway - why was the Werewolf built?
One of the most mysterious and mystical bets, "Werewolf" ("Werewolf"), was located in the region of Vinnitsa in Ukraine. The 4,000 prisoners who built this facility were destroyed immediately after the headquarters went into action. After them, German specialists went to the grave, who were aware of information about the construction of Werfolf's communications. That is why it was possible to create such a mysterious atmosphere around this dungeon of the Third Reich.
Werfolf was a real underground city. There were many objects on several floors, many of which had many kilometers of tunnels leading to other settlements, some with railroad tracks. After the retreat of the German troops, the headquarters was blown up, and some of the premises remained unexplored. In the sixties - eighties, many expeditions went here to survey the accessible walls, including using echolocation methods.
According to one of the scientists who participated in scientific trips to examine Werfolf, behind the reinforced concrete shell was hidden a certain structure made of a huge amount of metals, including precious ones. Almost immediately after he published them in the Trud newspaper, legends began to circulate that it was in Werewolf that the Amber Room was hiding. According to other assumptions, secret developments of the Third Reich, for example, bacteriological or chemical weapons, could also be stored here. But until the room is opened, the secret of the "werewolf dungeon" remains unsolved.
Ksenia Zharchinskaya