After the news about the excavations in the city of Paslenk appeared, Komsomolskaya Pravda talked to Kaliningrad researchers who are confident that they know where the valuables stolen by the Nazis are
Dungeons of the Polish castle
Polish archaeologists have again alarmed the public by issuing a new version of the whereabouts of the Amber Room, which had been lost during the Second World War. In their opinion, the boxes are hidden in the tunnels of the castle in the town of Paslenk, near Elblag. According to the TVN24 channel, research work was carried out near the castle, during which an anomaly was discovered: georadars and tomographs showed a void between the castle and the Church of St. Bartholomew, located nearby. The void is nothing more than an underground passage that previously connected both buildings; by the way, many local urban legends have already been written about it.
The Polish authorities have planned to excavate the underground passage as early as the summer of 2017, and this at a time when dozens of versions from Kaliningrad remain only a concussion of the air - the search for valuables does not seem to interest the Russian authorities. Komsomolskaya Pravda talked about this with a person whose last name has long been strongly associated with the search for the Amber Room - Kaliningrad historian Sergei Trifonov. According to an expert who has devoted more than 10 years to trying to find a treasure trail, the rumor about a supposed cache in a Polish castle is just a trick to attract tourists.
Poles believe that treasures should be found in the castle in the city of Paslenk
Photo: kp.ru
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“We hear such versions from Poles quite often, since our neighbors are masters in the development of their tourism industry,” says Trifonov. “They'll probably make some noise until summer, spin up their town of Sollenk, maybe even open the cellars - but they won't find anything there. But the likelihood that the stolen values are in the bunker of the last commandant of Koenigsberg, Otto Läsch, is very high. And this is not my invention. Several studies have already taken place, which indicate that there are boxes under the floor of the bunker, they are at a depth of five meters. Let me remind you that there is a concrete cube, the dimensions of which are 4 by 4 meters. Several search teams have already managed to examine it: there are pictures showing metal boxes. However, my team still does not have permission to open the bunker.
Amber in paraffin
It is believed that the Amber Room is no longer worth looking for, since according to the main version, it burned down during the bombing of Koenigsberg. If she managed to suddenly survive, then over the decades that she lay in the ground, oak plates with amber fragments glued to them fell into disrepair.
“This is not so,” Trifonov says. - There is no need to be afraid for the values, as they were packed by those people who had an idea of how to hide them. The bottom line is that the products were hidden just before the assault on Konigsberg, and before that they were carefully preserved. Alfred Rode (a German art critic who took an active part in the placement of cultural values exported from the Soviet Union in Konigsberg - Ed.) Gave a state guarantee that the fragments would be preserved in time, moreover, he treated her as his own. I am sure that these are bronze boxes with paraffin packing, and also special granules that collect moisture should have been used there (silica gel was already known to the Germans).
The problem with the versions in which researchers refer to Alfred Rode is that, although he agreed to cooperate with the Soviet authorities (Rode refused to leave the besieged city, since his attachment to Konigsberg art collections turned out to be stronger than the instinct of self-preservation), but in fact only confused the search engines and drove them in circles. The history of the Amber Room became even more mysterious after the death of the art critic and his wife under unexplained circumstances in the winter of 1945.
It was not the Germans who were hiding, but the NKVD
The most exotic version in recent years has been the version of Canadian journalists. True, it is considered overly politicized (probably due to its geopolitical history). In their opinion, the Nazis only took the valuables in St. Petersburg, but they did not intend to hide them.
“At the end of December, a group of television men from Canada really came to Kaliningrad,” says Trifonov, “which brought with them expensive equipment to inspect Lyash's bunker. The results were stunning: according to experts, the masonry in the bunker was made immediately after the war. In their opinion, the NKVD officers hid the treasures so as not to give them to the United States for the Lend-Lease debts. That is, they took the boxes out of the Royal Castle and walled them up where no one would be looking for sure - in the very center of the city.
Sergei Trifonov, although he worked with the Canadians and even signed an agreement with them, however, does not trust the version of his colleagues from overseas, considering it rather radical. By the way, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Kaliningrad researcher noted that the opening of a bunker in our city could be done just before the 2018 World Cup, which would attract the attention of not only football fans, but also treasure seekers to Kaliningrad.
Version with four drawers
There are other researchers in Kaliningrad working on the missing Amber Room. For example, Nikolai Shumilov from the search organization "White Search", just like Sergei Trifonov, believes that the Polish version is just a bait for tourists.
“The Poles have specially planned an operation to explore the dungeons before the World Cup in order to intercept tourists traveling to the Kaliningrad region,” Shumilov said. - Of course, the Polish versions about the location of the Amber Room also have a place to be, but our neighbors should understand that the most rational versions are associated with today's Kaliningrad region.
According to Shumilov, the panels with amber plates were divided into several parts, after which they were buried in different places in Koenigsberg.
- The first part was hidden directly in the basements of the Royal Castle, - says Shumilov. - The second is on Steindamm, under the Kepa department store, where the Benetton store is located today. The third part was taken to the Ponart area, and the fourth to the area of the botanical castle. Moreover, after the war, witnesses survived who saw how the boxes were transported. Moreover, one witness even packed them - Paul Sonnenschein.
Nikolai Shumilov says with confidence that Sonnenschein pointed to the first three hiding places, and the fourth hiding place was reported to the Soviet authorities by the German woman Ida Kruger, whose estate was located not far from the botanical garden.
All versions of the Kaliningrad search engines stumble upon one wall - the bureaucratic one. According to them, none of the large or medium-sized storage facilities has yet been opened just because the authorities lack the will to do so. True, the officials can also be understood: if it turns out that in the opened, for example, Lyash's bunker, boxes with canned food, and not with amber and gold, then they will have to answer. And so the city has a myth, which can still lure treasure hunters and mystery lovers.