This summer, on the island of Alexandra Land in the Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land, about 500 items were discovered from the German weather station "Treasure Hunt", which operated here during the Second World War. The find sparked long-standing controversy about the reasons for the Germans' stay in the Arctic.
The Second World War, being the main event in the history of mankind of the 20th century, gave rise to an incredible number of legends and conspiracy theories. In many ways, this happened because the Third Reich itself stubbornly mythologized itself. Let us recall, for example, the teachings of Hitlerite Germany - Nazi occultism. This is a wild mixture of ancient Germanic legends, pseudoscientific revelations, ancient motives and nationalistic views, but its chaotic absurd nature is understandable: in order to make people believe in the sacred necessity of the atrocities being committed, the Nazis needed rhetoric that went far beyond common sense, good and evil … Needless to say about Hitler's own occult tendencies. Everyone has heard of the search for the Holy Grail and other ancient artifacts with magical properties. The image of the Fuhrer-occultist firmly entered the world culture,although Hitler himself claimed the following:
“The origins of our program requirements are not mysterious and mystical forces, but clear consciousness and open rationality. Our goal is to cultivate natural, natural, that is, pleasing to God. Our humility is due to our worship and respect for the laws set by God. We rely only on the consistent performance of these traditional responsibilities. Worship is the responsibility of the church, not the party."
But the modern reader cannot be fooled by such statements, which, in general, also sometimes interferes with a sober view of reality. Let's say the phrase: "Hitler in the Arctic." What associations does it evoke? An ordinary military operation? Hardly. Most likely, many will begin to imagine lost treasures and something like the tree of eternal life. But still, what did the Fuhrer's team need on this cold and empty land?
If you enter the query "Hitler in the Arctic" into the search engine, you can learn a lot about both the Fuhrer and the Arctic. There is even an article about how Hitler lived on the island of Alexandra Land almost until the early 1980s, building the Fourth Reich for polar bears. Regarding the motives of his associates in the early 40s, everything is rather vague: some believe that the Nazis were looking for another sacred artifact, others are sure that there are secret passages in the Arctic to the center of the Earth, which they wanted to use by all means. Of course, it is now impossible to unravel Hitler's true motives - maybe he really decided to test the theory of a hollow earth. However, this was hardly the main reason for the founding of the station. Life is usually much more prosaic than the X-Files series.
According to the data, confirmed by the latest discoveries, the German station "Treasure Hunter" operated on the island of Alexandra Land (Franz Josef Land archipelago) from September 1943 to July 1944. It was a large, well-equipped meteorological base, designed for more than a dozen people. There are several reasons for its occurrence in this place: firstly, being on Alexandra Land, it was possible to interfere with the delivery of weapons from the West to the USSR through the Barents Sea. Secondly, in fact, the weather reports: the Germans needed the most accurate data on the state of the weather. Thirdly, from the Arctic it was convenient to deliver rear-line strikes against the central part of the USSR.
The Nazis settled on a number of other northern islands and were well equipped. The mission of the "Treasure Hunter" was completed by a rather stupid mistake: all the personnel of the base decided to try bear meat, but it was improperly cooked, after which all people had to be promptly evacuated from the base with a serious infestation of parasites. It was the haste in which many things were left that allowed later to find and explore the "Treasure Hunter". This happened in 1951, when the navigator Akkuratov, flying over the island, saw a bright rectangle. It turned out that this was part of the base, and the things abandoned there by the Germans were quite suitable for exploitation. Judging by the destruction, the base was destroyed on purpose, so the new finds made already in 2016 turned out to be quite small. Now the found items are being prepared for transportation to Arkhangelsk,and the meteorological station itself is proposed to be preserved as a historical monument.
The longest-running myth of the German station on Alexandra Land is the story of a secret submarine base. Enthusiasts even calculated its size and approximate location, but experts do not share their views:
Promotional video:
“I have personally visited Alexandra Land many times and every year I supply the border post. There are no sub-rock bases there and never were. Repeatedly visited the site of the German weather station, saw everything with my own eyes. I will say unequivocally that everything was very primitively organized. For many years I have been fulfilling the tasks of supplying polar stations, participating in their construction and authoritatively declare that a submarine base cannot be built secretly in a short time."
Captain Yuri Nasteko
It is worth noting that the theory outlined above about the reasons for the stay of the Nazis in the Arctic corresponds to the recollections of one of the members of the German meteorological group and is not refuted even by the most ardent conspiracy theorists. It is reliably known that about 700 weather reports were transmitted from the station, but is it true that the Nazis tried to find passages to other worlds in the Arctic, will remain a mystery.
Yulia Popova