Friday Fables: The Nazi Gold Train

Provident is happy to launch a new blog series called Friday Fables! Every week, we’ll post about a story, whether founded in truth or fiction, involving precious metals. First up, we have the World War II ghost train of gold, often referred to as the nazi gold train.

World War II brought to life many horrific situations, along with some mysterious events that have yet to be solved. It is widely known that after capturing Jews and other victims of the Holocaust, the nazis stole artwork and other valuables from emptied homes and even some museums. The nazis hid their stolen loot to ensure they had a source of income after the war ended. Some of these goods were said to have been loaded onto a train that disappeared into history.

According to legend, the 495-foot train loaded with millions of dollars’ worth of valuables, guns, and other equipment vanished into a system of secret tunnels underneath the Owl Mountains that straddle the current Polish-Czech border. The train is said to have entered a tunnel in 1945 in what was then Germany, near present day Walbrzych, and never emerged. It was supposedly fleeing the advancing Soviet forces as WWII drew close to an end.

Believers expect that the train was buried in the tunnels and mines that were part of an unfinished, secret nazi project referred to as Project Riese (which means giant in German). Historians have pointed out that nazi-dug tunnels run throughout the southwest mountains in present day Poland, which was one of the biggest construction projects in the history of the Third Reich. It’s still unclear why these tunnels were dug. Some think that a possible reason was to hide loot from excavated secret railway stashes. This also leads some people think that the Germans’ need for secrecy is why there’s no documentation of the ghost train.

Since the end of the war, many searches have been conducted to find the ghost train, though there is no concrete proof that it ever existed. The most promising search took place from 2015 to 2016 when two men claimed to have received a deathbed confession about the train’s whereabouts. The men originally remained anonymous and sought to gain 10 percent of the value of the train’s treasures in return for revealing its location. After working with the Polish government, the two men went public and released images taken with a ground penetrating radar system that appeared to show a man-made shaft with a large object, presumed to be the train. In fact, the two men claimed it was a 500-foot long armored train equipped with gun platforms and loaded with precious metals. The Polish police force and military got involved to keep treasure hunters away from the area while it was checked for mines and other booby traps. After it was determined that there were no explosives, mining specialists came in to non-invasively assess the site. No hard evidence of a train was found.

Later, the two men gained permission and began digging at the site. The excavation only lasted for seven days, and no evidence of a train or tracks was found. The previously released radar images were revealed to be nothing more than natural ice formations.

There remains no proof of the nazi ghost train, but the legend is still circling among treasure hunters and other interested parties. You can get your own piece of (non-stolen!) German treasure with the 10g Geiger Security Line Silver Bar.

What other stories would you like to read about in this series? We have some exciting tales lined up, but we’d love your feedback as well!