In June 2015, two local residents with an unusual story came to the local historian and member of the Geographical Society Viktor Kotlyarov from Nalchik.
“Two local boys came to see me,” he told the journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda. - They brought eight tokens of German soldiers during the Second World War. They tried to sell them to me. These guys are black diggers, they make money this way … I was surprised: where did so many tokens come from? The guys showed pictures taken with the phone. They clearly show that the bodies of the Nazis lie under the ice. The guys took the photo last summer in Kabardino-Balkaria on the slope of one of the mountains, at the entrance to the gorge, at an altitude of more than 3000 meters. They said that there were a lot of bodies - up to two hundred.
According to the guys, the Nazis lie under the ice in groups at a distance of tens and hundreds of meters from each other. Frozen in a variety of poses. Most likely, the detachment died suddenly: it was hit by an avalanche and was buried alive. For 70 years the snow has been compressed, and even people's faces are visible through the formed ice …
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In the pictures one could see short jackets with hoods. I found out: there were no such people in our army. Special boots, hats, equipment. Most likely, these are Alpine huntsmen or Romanian mountain hunters who died in the fall or winter of 1942. At this time, there were fierce battles.
- The guys let it out: from one end of the gorge, where the huntsmen lie, the ice has already melted. That is why they don’t give me a place: they believe that I will immediately calculate the coordinates of the burial.
Soon, Kotlyarov nevertheless organized an expedition to the Elbrus region to the place of the find. The hikers set out in mid-July. However, heavy rains began in the mountains. Searching in such conditions is extremely dangerous. But even after the end of the week of downpours, it was not possible to approach the approximate burial place: the mountains were still frozen and covered with snow.
Promotional video:
In order not to waste time, members of the expedition explored the area around - and came across amazing artifacts. A suitcase with bones and a skull of strange origin - and a ring.
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Mysterious remains
- This suitcase - a roomy, brown color, with a leather handle and the emblem of the Ahnenerbe society on the lid - was found in the cave, - describes Viktor Kotlyarov. - Earlier, one of the residents of the local settlement of Zayukovo told us: during the war, Germans lived in her parents' house. So one of the officers constantly walked around with a brown chest. The fascist protected him like the apple of his eye, never parted with him. It seems that these bags were supplied to members of the secret organization "Ahnenerbe". They were also among other groups of Nazis conducting searches in the mountains.
Inside the found suitcase, Russian travelers found a skull and bones, the belonging of which is very difficult.
The strange skull was kept by the Nazis in a chest found in the mountains. The creature has large eyes, nostrils, but no mouth opening.
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- It is clear that this is not a person, - Kotlyarov argues. “But they can hardly belong to an animal either. He showed the remains to a local specialist, he could not give an unambiguous answer who it was. These creatures have two branches on their heads, as if they were horns. The skulls have huge eye sockets, two holes for the nose, but no mouth.
Everyone who saw them speculates about aliens. Although this version has not been confirmed, while it, oddly enough, remains the main one.
Edelweiss ring
“The ring, which supposedly belonged to a ranger from the Edelweiss division, was not our find, it was shown to me by the very guys who discovered the frozen company last year,” explains Kotlyarov. - They say that they found it in the burial place. We cannot yet prove unambiguously that he is related to the frozen company. But, in addition to this ring, the black search engines, it turns out, also have a complete set of German uniforms. They say they found a whole dugout in the mountains. And they even starred in it on the phone - this is a German SS uniform.
- Maybe already to dig up the place where, in your opinion, the frozen company is located?
- This is not possible yet. A lot of snow fell this winter. And in the gorge we are interested in, he still has not melted. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. The snow will go away at best in late August - early September. Only during the period when the ice is exposed is it possible to penetrate into the secret of the “frozen battalion”. Let's wait. Hopefully our patience will be rewarded.
OPINION HISTORIAN
Probably, the Nazis were going to take the bones to Germany
We showed photographs of finds in the mountains to Konstantin Zalessky, historian of the Third Reich, writer, publicist.
“The team of Herbert Jankun (a well-known archaeologist, historian, professor in Germany in those years) really operated in that area, which was sent by Ahnenerbe,” Zalessky said. - At first she was in the Crimea, and then she got to the Caucasus. There is documentary evidence of this, it was guarded by SS combat units. The team was exclusively engaged in the search and robbery of archaeological artifacts.
Society "Ahnenerbe" was created primarily to search for the roots of the German people. And at the beginning of the war, Yankun's team was sent to the south of the Soviet Union to look for archaeological artifacts that would help to understand the Goths above all. According to one of their theories, these are tribes related to the Germans.
That is, in the Caucasus, according to the Nazi version, tribes related to the Aryans lived, which means that these are primordially Germanic lands. The skulls can be easily attributed to archaeological artifacts that the Ahnenerbe hunted for and which were to be taken to Germany. And the frozen company - perhaps those who accompanied the Ahnenerbe search engines.
ANTHROPOLOGIST COMMENTARY
Looks like a ram's head
We showed the photographs of the skull to the anthropologist, senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS, paleontologist Nikolai Ovodov.
“Perhaps it is a ram's skull,” Nikolai Dmitrievich expressed his opinion. - The skull, most likely, has been for some time in a stream of water with sand, pebbles and has become deformed over the years. I do not exclude that the Nazis could take the skull for something mystical, even alien. Usually, search engines don't know much about bones and turtles. And even more so, it is not they who carry out the examination of the finds - scientists do it.
FINDINGS
1. The ring. The profile of an ordinary soldier in a bergmütz is depicted - this was the name of a mountain cap, to which oak leaves are attached, explains Konstantin Zalessky. - This cap was worn in the Austrian army, mountain rangers. Below is the edelweiss flower - this is the emblem of the mountain-jaeger units in the Wehrmacht (and not only). Usually, such rings were made of low standard silver, less often of iron.
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Most likely, this is a homemade product, of which there were an infinite number in the Wehrmacht and the SS. He only says that its owner in 1939-1941 served in the mountain rifle units of the Wehrmacht, most likely in units formed in Austria.
2. There is an official Ahnenerbe emblem on the lid of the chest. The typeface with which the inscription was made was widespread in this "secret" society: it was stylized as runic writing, it was fashionable. The very inscription Besondere Bekl [eiderung] means approximately "Special investment". I have not seen such markings, but this is quite possible, - our expert believes.
A capacious brown suitcase with a leather handle and the Ahnenerbe logo on the lid.
Photo: msk.kp.ru