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(dramatic orchestral music)
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By 1945, the Nazis were on the run.
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The Allies were flying high
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and about to roll over Germany's flat western borders.
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But in the deep southern heartland
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of Hitler's Reich loomed the threat of the unknown.
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Fears grew of a last-ditch Nazi fightback in the Alps.
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{\an8}In terms of a defense,
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{\an8}it was an ideal place to defend yourself.
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{\an8}This one, it was high mountains, very difficult terrain.
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How could you wage a war with tanks there?
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Almost not possible.
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Very low experience from the Allied side
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to wage a war in this mountain region.
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A lot of experience from the German side,
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a lot of elite troops there.
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They knew there were a lot of SS troops in Austria.
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So, uncertainty.
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(typewriter clacking)
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Amid such uncertainty
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came evidence of the Western Allies' worst fears.
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Neutral Switzerland bordered part
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of the German alpine region.
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The American intelligence chief in Bern,
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Allen Dulles, had a grim report.
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It suggested that a fanatical elite was massing
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in the mountains, a hard corps,
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led by those with death heads on their caps.
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The merciless SS would spearhead
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a desperate guerrilla war from an alpine fortress.
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{\an8}It was the very fact that the Bavarian
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{\an8}and Austrian mountains seemed to lend themselves
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so well to guerrilla warfare that this horrible idea,
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because it represented a nightmare
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for Allied military strategists,
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that this horrible idea started to gain currency.
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(suspenseful orchestral music)
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The horrible idea was an ultimate nightmare
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for the advancing Allies.
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An Alpenfestung or Alpine Fortress
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extending into northern Austria.
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Defended by thousands of troops steeling themselves
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for a final do-or-die fight for the fatherland.
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Their fingers on the triggers of an arsenal
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of secret weapons hidden in crags and crannies.
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At this time, in January 1945,
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they didn't know what was going on
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when they entered Germany
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and they were taken by surprise
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by the Battle of Bulge with the German counterattack
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in December 1944, and they didn't expect that.
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So, the question was, yes, we have won the war,
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this is clear, but are we able to cross the Rhine?
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Are there some secret weapons still?
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Is there somehow a secret counterattack prepared?
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So, it was all uncertain.
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Uncertainty and fears of so-called
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wonder weapons were understandable.
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The Germans had already
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developed ballistic missiles and jet planes.
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(engine rumbling)
(dramatic music)
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And other more fearsome,
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more destructive horrors were on Nazi drawing boards.
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What the Allies decided to do was to be prudent,
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to assume, given Hitler's nature,
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given the fanaticism of the SS
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and the fact the SS probably controlled
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the German state by then, to prepare for the worst.
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The Alpine Redoubt was the worst.
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It was the worst-case scenario that anyone could imagine,
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and they felt they had to prepare for it.
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Some tunnels
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and bunkers had already
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been excavated in existing salt mines.
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(dramatic music)
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Even today, the crumbling remains
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of the would-be Alpine Fortress are well-hidden.
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One tunnel complex near the Austrian city of Salzburg
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was to be the command center of the Nazi Alpine Fortress.
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Such tunnels were also used to build planes
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and rockets as Allied bombing reduced
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conventional German factories to rubble.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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{\an8}This is where, according
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{\an8}to the plans for the Alpine Fortress,
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{\an8}the high command of the SS would've
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been situated, led by Himmler.
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Himmler's documents in Berlin
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were already packaged and addressed.
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The complex extends over 6,000 square meters
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and the plan was for 22,000 square meters.
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As well as bunkers below,
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the Germans seemed to be amassing manpower above.
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Senior Nazis gathered in the Alps.
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SS chief Heinrich Himmler's deputy,
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Ernst Kaltenbrunner, moved back
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to his native Austria to a villa
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above the spa town of Altaussee.
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Himmler named him command-in-chief
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of all forces in Southern Europe.
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He would coordinate the Nazi fightback
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from a region he knew well.
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He was somehow in charge of the secret police
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and the political police,
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so he was quite a very important figure in the SS world.
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Another influential
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Austrian SS man was lurking in the Alps.
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The presence of SS commando leader Lieutenant Colonel Otto
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Skorzeny was yet more evidence of an Alpine Fortress.
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Otto Skorzeny was Austrian by birth
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and was a weird figure with almost no military training,
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but he was very clever to establish himself in the SS world.
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At this time of the war in April 1945,
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he was in command of what we call the special forces,
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the SS special forces command units.
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And he was able to withdraw two
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of his command units from the Eastern Front to Austria.
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And this should've been the core
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of the defense force of the Alpine Fortress.
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The region bordering southern Bavaria
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and Austria was already riddled with old mining tunnels.
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Some of them were extended and used to build weapons.
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Schwaz is the site of old Austrian
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silver mines near the German border.
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One shaft runs deep into the mountain
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and a haunting Nazi ruin.
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(water dripping)
(dramatic music)
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The dank, dark subterranean world
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is usually off-limits to visitors.
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Two kilometers inside the mountain,
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a broken steel and concrete shell
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of an underground aircraft factory is slowly rotting away.
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Bits of rusting metal lie scattered across the stony floors,
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the corroded remains of aircraft parts abandoned
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before workers had the chance to put them together.
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(speaking foreign language)
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The whole complex is in entirely
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the same state as it was when it was left following
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the detonation at the time,
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and the workers had only just left the complex.
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Everything is still standing on mounting racks.
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It really is unbelievable.
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Deep underground,
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far from the threat of Allied aerial bombing,
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the old mining tunnels were ideal places to build weapons,
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including a new generation of planes diehard Nazis
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hoped would repel the Allies rampaging into the Reich.
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These are the remains of one of the first
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jet fighters in the world, the Messerschmitt 262.
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(engines roaring)
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Almost 1,500 were built,
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but only a few hundred flew in combat.
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The Germans had also developed a jet-powered bomber.
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{\an8}Hermann Goring, the head of the Luftwaffe,
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{\an8}had dictated a requirement to the aircraft industry
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that he wanted this 1,000-kilometer aircraft,
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1,000-kilometer range, that could fly at 1,000 kilometers
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an hour and carry 1,000 kilograms of bombs.
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And at the time, it was a huge, a very,
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very challenging requirement for any manufacturer to meet.
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German engineers overcame
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another great challenge
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and had developed the world's first
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long-range ballistic missile, the V-2.
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SS chief Heinrich Himmler was one of many top Nazis
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who had visited the V-2 testing facility at Peenemunde.
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More than 1,000 V-2s were fired at Britain.
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They were the pinnacle of rocket technology
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at the time, flying some 80 kilometers above the Earth.
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V-2s sparked fear and devastation.
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They are estimated to have killed almost 3,000 people.
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Launched from mobile ramps,
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V-2s were another potential threat from an Alpine Fortress.
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And there was another, even greater horror
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emerging from Nazi drawing boards.
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A longer range version of the V-2,
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dubbed the America Rocket.
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Such horrors were the brainchild
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of Nazi engineers like Wernher von Braun.
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With Allied invaders closing in around them,
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in early 1945, they were redirected
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south to the so-called Alpine Fortress.
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(speaking foreign language)
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{\an8}Von Braun was ordered to go to the Alps,
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{\an8}so we received an official order to leave Peenemunde.
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So, we didn't flee,
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but it was requested that we go
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to the Alpine Fortress in the south of Germany.
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The original plan was, which we had never believed,
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to continue building V-2s down there.
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The Nazi Germans may have
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had a technological advantage,
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but they were vastly outnumbered
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by conventional planes, tanks, and troops.
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German airfields and factories were overrun.
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In central Germany, the advancing Allies found
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the remains of another wonder weapon.
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A menacing bat-like jet fighter bomber
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partially made of wood.
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(engines roaring)
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Looked sexy and looked efficient and fast and menacing.
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Was a unique configuration and a unique shape.
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It was advanced technology,
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a jet-powered interceptor faster
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than anything the Allies could field.
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The Horten H. IX
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was also covered in carbon and plywood,
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making it more difficult to detect by radar.
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It was perhaps the world's first stealth-type aircraft.
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The Horten brothers hoped
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their plane would eventually carry a one-ton bomb.
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If the Horten IX could've been put into production,
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perhaps even fitted it with rockets,
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unguided rockets that they could've used against
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the bombers, I think all these things are quite possible.
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And fielded in significant numbers,
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it would've been certainly faster
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than the Allied piston-driven airplanes
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and it could have had a significant impact on the air war.
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(dramatic music)
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Conventional planes were
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still winning the war for the Allies.
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But the possibility of a German counterstrike
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from the Alps forced a chance in tactics.
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Potential threats like Hitler's rocket engineers
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had to be stopped from reaching the mountains in the south.
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General Eisenhower,
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{\an8}because of his fear of a final Nazi campaign
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in the mountains of southern Bavaria
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and Austria, decides to cut Germany
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in half to prevent troops, Wehrmacht
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and SS troops from the northern part of Germany
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to go south to Bavaria and Austria.
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Eisenhower changed
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the direction of his main thrust
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and directed a spearhead south towards the Alps.
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He doesn't wanna see them filling the mountains
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with materiel, ammunition, more troops.
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So, Allied strategy is directly affected.
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How long would it take to defeat 300,000 Nazis armed
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to the teeth in the mountains?
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No one knew.
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The rocket engineers
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from the Baltic coast evaded the Allied advance
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and made it to the Alps.
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They were a vital asset to be protected
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in the barracks of the Gebirgsjager, or mountain troops.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Originally,
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the SS had planned that we all moved into the barracks.
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They wanted to concentrate us all there.
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But then, one bomb could've killed the entire team,
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so this convinced the SS commander
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that we should disperse across the country.
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Rocket engineers were not
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the only assets moved to the relative safety of the Alps.
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The Reichsbank in Berlin was badly bombed.
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Gold, cash, and other reserves were
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no longer safe in the capital.
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Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of government
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and private treasure was shipped south.
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I believe that this is the only time in history
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{\an8}that so much treasure has been consolidated together,
264
00:15:38,269 --> 00:15:41,520
a treasure of such incalculable value
265
00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:46,080
has been concentrated in one area at one time.
266
00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:48,200
Most of the Reichsbank gold dumped
267
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:50,793
in a mine was recovered by the Allies.
268
00:15:51,890 --> 00:15:55,210
A small percentage remained unaccounted for.
269
00:15:55,210 --> 00:15:59,710
There are still Nazi relics in the tunnels, mines,
270
00:15:59,710 --> 00:16:03,083
and alpine lakes around Germany's southern borders.
271
00:16:04,010 --> 00:16:07,300
Some believe that fabled Nazi treasure still lies
272
00:16:07,300 --> 00:16:09,960
hidden in the region where Hitler's diehard
273
00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:13,641
disciples planned to raise an Alpine Fortress.
274
00:16:13,641 --> 00:16:16,391
(dramatic music)
275
00:16:23,270 --> 00:16:27,080
Some tantalizing tales of Nazi treasure are based
276
00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:30,760
on supposed eyewitness accounts in the last days of the war.
277
00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:34,623
But not all can be dismissed as fanciful.
278
00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,150
A mule train spotted traveling up
279
00:16:38,150 --> 00:16:41,503
an alpine mountain one night attracted attention.
280
00:16:44,338 --> 00:16:46,162
{\an8}(speaking foreign language)
281
00:16:46,162 --> 00:16:48,520
{\an8}So, some locals who had relatively little
282
00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:50,730
{\an8}to do with the confusion of the war
283
00:16:50,730 --> 00:16:54,053
realized something was going on, including my mother.
284
00:16:56,010 --> 00:16:57,660
She was a young girl then.
285
00:16:57,660 --> 00:17:00,730
And after during the chores in the stables one evening,
286
00:17:00,730 --> 00:17:02,730
she saw a column of mules making
287
00:17:02,730 --> 00:17:04,363
its way up the mountain path.
288
00:17:05,580 --> 00:17:07,970
One special thing she always mentioned
289
00:17:07,970 --> 00:17:10,610
was that there was a white mule among them.
290
00:17:13,700 --> 00:17:15,500
Eva Sturm's mother saw
291
00:17:15,500 --> 00:17:18,800
what was supposed to be a secret transport
292
00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:22,853
of hundreds of gold bars worth millions of dollars.
293
00:17:23,940 --> 00:17:25,590
It didn't stay a secret for long.
294
00:17:26,630 --> 00:17:28,970
This gold was also eventually recovered
295
00:17:28,970 --> 00:17:31,480
by American troops after rumors spread
296
00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,373
about the mysterious mule train in the night.
297
00:17:37,648 --> 00:17:39,580
(speaking foreign language)
298
00:17:39,580 --> 00:17:41,774
I think the rumors started
299
00:17:41,774 --> 00:17:44,853
because there were a few forest workers who saw these bags.
300
00:17:49,210 --> 00:17:52,010
So, it wasn't all that secret.
301
00:17:52,010 --> 00:17:53,710
Many people had noticed something.
302
00:17:58,230 --> 00:18:00,120
Rumors and stories persist
303
00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:03,350
of other buried treasures that were not recovered.
304
00:18:03,350 --> 00:18:04,850
According to local legends,
305
00:18:04,850 --> 00:18:08,160
some people grew suddenly rich after the war.
306
00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:10,590
Such tales have attracted a new generation
307
00:18:10,590 --> 00:18:14,323
of treasure hunters in the old Alpine Fortress territory.
308
00:18:16,879 --> 00:18:19,090
{\an8}(speaking foreign language)
309
00:18:19,090 --> 00:18:20,600
{\an8}Nobody would admit that it happened
310
00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:23,783
{\an8}in this way, but there are rumors, there are reports.
311
00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:28,000
At times, it is children who tell the stories,
312
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,813
that their father suddenly had a lot of money and wealth.
313
00:18:32,602 --> 00:18:35,590
That is, of course, always interesting for us to follow up.
314
00:18:35,590 --> 00:18:37,400
You could find a further trail through
315
00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:38,650
one of these connections.
316
00:18:41,970 --> 00:18:44,270
Marked on Jurgen Proske's map
317
00:18:44,270 --> 00:18:47,900
are potential sites that he thinks could hold Nazi loot.
318
00:18:57,250 --> 00:19:00,400
Armed with local knowledge and a metal detector,
319
00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:03,580
he scours the hills near Garmisch-Partenkirchen
320
00:19:03,580 --> 00:19:05,223
in the far south of Germany.
321
00:19:09,730 --> 00:19:11,510
He and his fellow treasure hunters
322
00:19:11,510 --> 00:19:13,520
have found a variety of relics,
323
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:17,823
from bullets to rusty helmets, but no Nazi gold.
324
00:19:18,689 --> 00:19:19,524
(speaking foreign language)
325
00:19:19,524 --> 00:19:21,150
That is the former training area
326
00:19:21,150 --> 00:19:22,453
of the mountain troops,
327
00:19:23,740 --> 00:19:26,613
and they knew every stone, every rock, every cranny.
328
00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:29,840
They found good hideouts,
329
00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:32,860
which were then used to stash known shipments,
330
00:19:32,860 --> 00:19:35,270
treasure that came to the area.
331
00:19:35,270 --> 00:19:37,103
But some shipments weren't recorded.
332
00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:43,490
Not all transports were treasure.
333
00:19:43,490 --> 00:19:46,560
And on a former military training ground,
334
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:48,043
they have to tread carefully.
335
00:19:56,950 --> 00:19:57,930
Oh yeah.
336
00:19:57,930 --> 00:19:59,473
Oh, there's something here.
337
00:20:01,455 --> 00:20:02,288
(speaking foreign language)
338
00:20:02,288 --> 00:20:04,550
We're at the end of our expertise here.
339
00:20:04,550 --> 00:20:05,900
We need someone to help us.
340
00:20:08,850 --> 00:20:11,270
A bomb disposal team confirmed
341
00:20:11,270 --> 00:20:13,070
that they were right to be cautious.
342
00:20:13,930 --> 00:20:15,970
Jurgen and fellow treasure hunters
343
00:20:15,970 --> 00:20:19,113
found a cache of live rifle grenades.
344
00:20:22,696 --> 00:20:23,529
(speaking foreign language)
345
00:20:23,529 --> 00:20:24,362
This is the area
346
00:20:24,362 --> 00:20:27,180
where the Reichsbank gold treasure also ended up.
347
00:20:27,180 --> 00:20:29,010
It was a kind of retreat route
348
00:20:29,010 --> 00:20:31,740
that had been drawn through this area.
349
00:20:31,740 --> 00:20:33,670
At the time, they left ammunition
350
00:20:33,670 --> 00:20:37,460
in different depots so when an attack had happened,
351
00:20:37,460 --> 00:20:39,430
they could withdraw, fire,
352
00:20:39,430 --> 00:20:41,910
and rearm at the next depot,
353
00:20:41,910 --> 00:20:44,360
so they could continue to shoot at the attackers.
354
00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:47,920
So, they did that all around these hideouts
355
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,460
because it wasn't clear what was happening.
356
00:20:50,460 --> 00:20:51,890
And if there was an attack,
357
00:20:51,890 --> 00:20:55,031
they had the possibility to defend themselves.
358
00:20:55,031 --> 00:20:57,781
(dramatic music)
359
00:21:01,690 --> 00:21:05,340
The Nazi gold trail extends further east,
360
00:21:05,340 --> 00:21:06,910
to the picture-postcard lakes
361
00:21:06,910 --> 00:21:11,093
and mountains of the Salzkammergut near Salzburg in Austria.
362
00:21:12,590 --> 00:21:15,840
This was also to be part of the Alpenfestung.
363
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:17,450
It's another place where stories
364
00:21:17,450 --> 00:21:19,473
of hidden treasure proliferate.
365
00:21:22,140 --> 00:21:23,700
There were also treasure cases
366
00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:28,700
which came from the SS and the foreign office.
367
00:21:28,940 --> 00:21:32,960
Everybody had evacuated their individual treasures,
368
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:36,170
as you might say, down to this area.
369
00:21:36,170 --> 00:21:38,630
As well as gold, priceless artworks
370
00:21:38,630 --> 00:21:40,800
taken from private collectors, churches,
371
00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:43,460
and museums were sent south.
372
00:21:43,460 --> 00:21:46,840
Hitler had intended to display art acquired
373
00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:49,270
by his agents in a special museum
374
00:21:49,270 --> 00:21:52,240
in his Austrian birth town of Linz.
375
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:54,330
But as defeat loomed, the treasures
376
00:21:54,330 --> 00:21:57,153
were sent to salt mines for safekeeping.
377
00:21:59,810 --> 00:22:01,590
But not all treasures required
378
00:22:01,590 --> 00:22:04,553
the protective rarefied atmosphere of a mine.
379
00:22:07,170 --> 00:22:08,800
The stunning lakes that are part
380
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,370
of a UNESCO World Heritage Site
381
00:22:11,370 --> 00:22:12,887
have an added allure,
382
00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:19,090
as fabled dumping grounds for Nazi gold.
383
00:22:19,090 --> 00:22:23,900
The Salzkammergut has been dubbed the Devil's Dustbin.
384
00:22:23,900 --> 00:22:27,053
Nazi relics have been recovered from the grand lakes,
385
00:22:28,210 --> 00:22:33,210
like this sign that proclaims 'Nazis enjoy visiting here'.
386
00:22:35,610 --> 00:22:37,470
It probably adorned one of the many
387
00:22:37,470 --> 00:22:40,120
local inns until such advertising
388
00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:43,253
suddenly became unfashionable in 1945.
389
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:46,920
One of the many alluring stories
390
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,363
surrounds the deep remote lake Toplitzsee.
391
00:22:55,210 --> 00:22:57,810
A local farmer is said to have been summoned
392
00:22:57,810 --> 00:23:01,990
in the dead of night to help SS men dump truckloads
393
00:23:01,990 --> 00:23:04,280
of heavy boxes into the lake packed
394
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:07,163
with gold and secret Nazi files.
395
00:23:10,470 --> 00:23:13,000
Such alleged eyewitness accounts
396
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:15,300
sparked a kind of gold rush.
397
00:23:15,300 --> 00:23:18,103
Divers dreamt of scooping up a fortune.
398
00:23:20,650 --> 00:23:23,170
But alpine lakes are dangerous.
399
00:23:23,170 --> 00:23:26,490
At least two divers have drowned in the Toplitzsee,
400
00:23:26,490 --> 00:23:30,073
its dark waters full of snags and hidden obstacles.
401
00:23:32,020 --> 00:23:37,020
But in 1987, it seemed that the deadly risks were worth it.
402
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:39,840
A breathtaking treasure was apparently recovered
403
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:41,490
from the treacherous mud
404
00:23:41,490 --> 00:23:44,573
by a local dive expert, Gerhard Zauner.
405
00:23:46,346 --> 00:23:47,179
(speaking foreign language)
406
00:23:47,179 --> 00:23:49,140
{\an8}We dumped it in the Toplitzsee
407
00:23:49,140 --> 00:23:51,970
{\an8}and then recovered it and had it confiscated.
408
00:23:51,970 --> 00:23:56,050
Three days later, they realized it wasn't gold.
409
00:23:56,050 --> 00:23:57,860
It was a glittering example
410
00:23:57,860 --> 00:24:01,250
of Gerhard Zauner's mischievous sense of humor.
411
00:24:01,250 --> 00:24:04,750
The gold ingots were bars of bronze.
412
00:24:04,750 --> 00:24:09,131
But his hoax proved to be a 24-karat sensation.
413
00:24:09,131 --> 00:24:09,964
(speaking foreign language)
414
00:24:09,964 --> 00:24:11,325
We were given it back,
415
00:24:11,325 --> 00:24:13,910
but there was a massive media reaction.
416
00:24:13,910 --> 00:24:16,730
Gold found in the Toplitzsee.
417
00:24:16,730 --> 00:24:18,383
It went round all of Europe.
418
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:23,920
The fake gold features in a display
419
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,690
in his dive shop, along with a huge range of Nazi
420
00:24:27,690 --> 00:24:30,490
and other relics recovered from the lake.
421
00:24:30,490 --> 00:24:32,360
He's found everything from medals
422
00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:36,430
to a working anti-aircraft gun, but no gold.
423
00:24:36,430 --> 00:24:39,800
Thousands of people have seen gold transports.
424
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,180
Yes, there was some gold there,
425
00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:42,580
but this gold was recovered,
426
00:24:42,580 --> 00:24:46,170
{\an8}it was found already, and it's very, very unlikely.
427
00:24:46,170 --> 00:24:48,560
{\an8}And it's all driven by this myth,
428
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:51,610
oh, there must be a secret Nazi network.
429
00:24:51,610 --> 00:24:53,540
There must be some treasures.
430
00:24:53,540 --> 00:24:55,953
And so, if you speak to treasure hunters,
431
00:24:55,953 --> 00:24:59,703
they are absolutely convinced, and nobody found anything.
432
00:25:01,530 --> 00:25:03,050
And yet, another kind
433
00:25:03,050 --> 00:25:06,810
of treasure has been found in the Toplitzsee.
434
00:25:06,810 --> 00:25:10,900
In the 1980s, biologist Hans Fricke ventured deep
435
00:25:10,900 --> 00:25:15,528
into the lake, searching for a wealth of wildlife.
436
00:25:15,528 --> 00:25:18,700
{\an8}(speaking foreign language)
437
00:25:18,700 --> 00:25:19,809
{\an8}Stupidly,
438
00:25:19,809 --> 00:25:22,880
{\an8}I hadn't followed the story of the lake.
439
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,423
If I had, I would've thought twice about going diving there.
440
00:25:27,958 --> 00:25:29,110
And so, I walked right into
441
00:25:29,110 --> 00:25:31,373
the media trap when I dived down there.
442
00:25:33,980 --> 00:25:35,480
They weren't interested in what this guy
443
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:37,500
was actually doing there if he's
444
00:25:37,500 --> 00:25:39,543
looking for bacteria and worms.
445
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,770
They thought that under the guise of scientific research,
446
00:25:44,770 --> 00:25:46,933
someone was looking for gold instead.
447
00:25:50,618 --> 00:25:52,360
As usual, exploration in
448
00:25:52,360 --> 00:25:54,910
the legendary lake of Nazi gold
449
00:25:54,910 --> 00:25:57,454
attracted all kinds of attention.
450
00:25:57,454 --> 00:25:58,930
(speaking foreign language)
451
00:25:58,930 --> 00:26:00,210
People from all corners
452
00:26:00,210 --> 00:26:01,903
and of all shades came to us.
453
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,690
We met a lot of people with dousing rods
454
00:26:06,690 --> 00:26:09,050
and others who all knew where the gold was hidden
455
00:26:09,050 --> 00:26:12,253
and told us that's where we should really dive and so on.
456
00:26:15,140 --> 00:26:16,430
The biologist discovered
457
00:26:16,430 --> 00:26:18,870
a previously unknown worm,
458
00:26:18,870 --> 00:26:20,873
but that's not what made headlines.
459
00:26:22,740 --> 00:26:26,290
The lake yielded an intriguing wartime secret,
460
00:26:26,290 --> 00:26:30,230
bundles of British pound notes perfectly preserved
461
00:26:30,230 --> 00:26:34,080
in the oxygen-deprived mud and water at the bottom.
462
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,390
It was the second time that British bank notes
463
00:26:36,390 --> 00:26:38,300
were found in the Toplitzsee.
464
00:26:41,483 --> 00:26:42,480
(speaking foreign language)
465
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:43,780
I knew that the Austrians
466
00:26:43,780 --> 00:26:45,340
had apparently cleared out the lake
467
00:26:45,340 --> 00:26:48,230
as part of the recovery of a German diver in 1963.
468
00:26:51,860 --> 00:26:54,270
So, I was amazed that we still found
469
00:26:54,270 --> 00:26:56,233
these huge amounts of money down there.
470
00:26:59,920 --> 00:27:01,130
Perhaps that's what was
471
00:27:01,130 --> 00:27:03,040
in the boxes a local farmed claimed
472
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:05,170
to have seen when he allegedly
473
00:27:05,170 --> 00:27:07,703
helped the SS dump them in the lake.
474
00:27:10,363 --> 00:27:12,840
A printing press had also been recovered,
475
00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:16,463
relics of Nazi attempts at economic sabotage.
476
00:27:18,610 --> 00:27:21,250
They were targeting the British economy system,
477
00:27:21,250 --> 00:27:22,340
the British money system.
478
00:27:22,340 --> 00:27:25,220
So, the whole idea behind the forged
479
00:27:25,220 --> 00:27:28,563
bank notes was to cause inflation in Britain.
480
00:27:29,780 --> 00:27:30,770
The bank notes
481
00:27:30,770 --> 00:27:34,310
were forged in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
482
00:27:34,310 --> 00:27:37,713
under the command of SS Major Bernhard Kruger.
483
00:27:39,070 --> 00:27:41,980
Unlike most prisoners in the death camps,
484
00:27:41,980 --> 00:27:45,010
Sturmbannfuhrer Kruger survived the war
485
00:27:45,010 --> 00:27:47,823
and was invited to see the remains of his work.
486
00:27:49,888 --> 00:27:50,721
(speaking foreign language)
487
00:27:50,721 --> 00:27:51,554
Amazing.
488
00:27:53,650 --> 00:27:55,670
I can't forget this undertaking.
489
00:27:55,670 --> 00:27:58,550
First, because of the success it initially had,
490
00:27:58,550 --> 00:28:01,010
and secondly, because the inmates managed
491
00:28:01,010 --> 00:28:03,403
to save their own lives this way.
492
00:28:04,630 --> 00:28:07,843
To an extent, they were printing for freedom.
493
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:11,240
The former concentration camp
494
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:14,210
officer was deluding himself.
495
00:28:14,210 --> 00:28:17,993
There was no freedom for inmates forced to forge for Hitler.
496
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:21,610
Behind the myth of Nazi treasure
497
00:28:21,610 --> 00:28:25,383
and the Alpine Fortress lie real war crimes.
498
00:28:28,230 --> 00:28:30,360
As well as counterfeit currency,
499
00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:32,570
Nazi victims were also forced
500
00:28:32,570 --> 00:28:35,593
into working on underground missile factories.
501
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:41,410
Nordhausen, or Dora-Mittelbau, was one of them.
502
00:28:41,410 --> 00:28:43,550
It wasn't in the Bavarian Alps
503
00:28:43,550 --> 00:28:46,333
but in the central German Harz mountains.
504
00:28:47,420 --> 00:28:50,480
When American forces liberated the camp,
505
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:52,653
only a few victims remained.
506
00:28:53,540 --> 00:28:55,620
The rocket engineers they were enslaved
507
00:28:55,620 --> 00:29:00,143
to serve had fled south to the so-called Alpine Fortress.
508
00:29:06,810 --> 00:29:08,760
In the alpine underworld,
509
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,240
like this tunnel near Salzburg,
510
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:15,400
the Nazis continued to work their victims to death,
511
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:17,810
a memorial stone and graffiti,
512
00:29:17,810 --> 00:29:20,220
testament to the horrors that were once inflicted
513
00:29:20,220 --> 00:29:24,275
in the tunnels, usually locked up and largely forgotten.
514
00:29:24,275 --> 00:29:27,025
(dramatic music)
515
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:32,900
Polish, Italian, and French prisoners
516
00:29:32,900 --> 00:29:35,890
from the nearby Mauthausen concentration camp
517
00:29:35,890 --> 00:29:38,759
were among those forced into slavery.
518
00:29:38,759 --> 00:29:41,509
(dramatic music)
519
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:53,300
Few survived, and fewer still live to bear witness
520
00:29:53,300 --> 00:29:57,643
to the human cost of the Nazi Alpine Fortress fantasy.
521
00:30:02,860 --> 00:30:06,823
Some returned to commemorate fellow victims of Mauthausen,
522
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,540
like Austrian priest Johann Gruber,
523
00:30:10,540 --> 00:30:13,450
who smuggled food and money into the camp,
524
00:30:13,450 --> 00:30:18,170
but was found out, and French priest Pere Jacques,
525
00:30:18,170 --> 00:30:19,680
who was sent to the camps for trying
526
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:22,213
to save Jewish boys from the Holocaust.
527
00:30:23,630 --> 00:30:26,530
Both were unable to save themselves,
528
00:30:26,530 --> 00:30:30,303
but fellow prisoner Jean Monin managed to hold onto life.
529
00:30:33,773 --> 00:30:36,900
{\an8}(speaking foreign language)
530
00:30:36,900 --> 00:30:39,880
{\an8}I was already in the barracks for the dying.
531
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:41,530
I thought it was all over for me.
532
00:30:43,850 --> 00:30:45,720
But friends took me into the central camp
533
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,203
and hid me there for 14 days.
534
00:30:50,610 --> 00:30:52,600
Then we were liberated.
535
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:54,373
I weighed 38 kilos then.
536
00:30:55,412 --> 00:30:58,245
(dramatic music)
537
00:31:09,858 --> 00:31:13,108
(airplane guns firing)
538
00:31:14,110 --> 00:31:16,440
Mauthausen was one of many horrors that
539
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,230
the Western Allies and Russians would uncover
540
00:31:19,230 --> 00:31:22,083
as they advanced into what was left of Hitler's Reich.
541
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:26,820
The regime responsible
542
00:31:26,820 --> 00:31:29,683
for the murder of millions was in ruins.
543
00:31:32,230 --> 00:31:35,110
Weary that they could face a final fanatic fight
544
00:31:35,110 --> 00:31:37,540
in a Nazi Alpine Fortress,
545
00:31:37,540 --> 00:31:39,520
the Allies had cut escape routes
546
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:43,113
to the south and stormed into Bavaria itself.
547
00:31:44,810 --> 00:31:47,190
The American Seventh Army advanced into
548
00:31:47,190 --> 00:31:51,273
the traditional Nazi heartland and marched into Nuremberg.
549
00:31:52,830 --> 00:31:54,770
Once an imposing staging ground
550
00:31:54,770 --> 00:31:57,160
for Hitler's elaborate rallies,
551
00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:00,360
the medieval city was bombed to ruins,
552
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:01,683
as was much of Munich.
553
00:32:03,030 --> 00:32:06,980
The city that bred the Nazi movement bore telling graffiti.
554
00:32:06,980 --> 00:32:10,600
Concentration camps Velden, Buchenwald.
555
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:12,083
I'm ashamed to be German.
556
00:32:15,070 --> 00:32:18,830
But few had dared to speak out when Hitler was in power,
557
00:32:18,830 --> 00:32:20,713
and millions paid the price.
558
00:32:21,630 --> 00:32:23,850
Dachau was the first concentration
559
00:32:23,850 --> 00:32:26,323
camp established under Nazi rule.
560
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,913
The survivors were liberated.
561
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:35,010
The oppressors became the oppressed,
562
00:32:35,010 --> 00:32:38,163
hunted down and forced to answer for their crimes.
563
00:32:42,950 --> 00:32:45,430
Others, like Adolf Eichmann,
564
00:32:45,430 --> 00:32:48,120
who played a key role in planning the mass murders
565
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:51,013
of the Holocaust, retreated into Austria.
566
00:32:52,420 --> 00:32:54,630
Before he died, a fellow Nazi
567
00:32:54,630 --> 00:32:57,910
who worked with SS deputy Ernst Kaltenbrunner
568
00:32:57,910 --> 00:33:01,834
recalled a lakeside stroll with Adolf Eichmann.
569
00:33:01,834 --> 00:33:03,120
(speaking foreign language)
570
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:03,953
{\an8}He complained to me
571
00:33:03,953 --> 00:33:06,960
{\an8}that Kaltenbrunner hadn't received him
572
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:10,110
{\an8}and had presented him with a roll of sovereigns,
573
00:33:10,110 --> 00:33:12,703
English gold coins, through an adjutant.
574
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,560
Eichmann said, I don't give a damn about that.
575
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:18,393
I have my own.
576
00:33:20,330 --> 00:33:23,470
I want orders on how to proceed.
577
00:33:23,470 --> 00:33:24,720
He was one of the few who really
578
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:26,443
believed in the Alpine Fortress.
579
00:33:28,970 --> 00:33:30,980
The Allies cautiously closed in
580
00:33:30,980 --> 00:33:32,300
around what they thought could be
581
00:33:32,300 --> 00:33:35,343
the dreaded Alpenfestung, or Alpine Fortress.
582
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:43,573
South of Austria, the German garrison in Italy surrendered.
583
00:33:44,570 --> 00:33:46,850
Time was running out for senior Nazis
584
00:33:46,850 --> 00:33:50,663
hoping to make a last stand or desperate escape.
585
00:33:52,430 --> 00:33:55,690
The Allies continued their advance around the mountains,
586
00:33:55,690 --> 00:33:59,853
where fanatical German forces might fight a final battle.
587
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,283
But for important Nazis like Adolf Eichmann,
588
00:34:05,281 --> 00:34:08,600
there was no Alpenfestung in which to hide.
589
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:11,083
He was captured, but later escaped.
590
00:34:13,500 --> 00:34:17,130
Others, like Himmler's deputy Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
591
00:34:17,130 --> 00:34:20,943
used the threat of an Alpine Fortress as a bargaining chip.
592
00:34:22,710 --> 00:34:24,940
Ernst Kaltenbrunner realized,
593
00:34:24,940 --> 00:34:28,710
well, the war's over and how can I rescue myself?
594
00:34:28,710 --> 00:34:32,850
But then he said, Well, there is an Alpine Fortress,
595
00:34:32,850 --> 00:34:35,240
and there is a danger of a last battle.
596
00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:36,900
And he knew that the Americans,
597
00:34:36,900 --> 00:34:39,730
the British were keen to end the war as soon as possible.
598
00:34:39,730 --> 00:34:42,510
So, he must build up the danger of a last battle
599
00:34:42,510 --> 00:34:45,540
and then to offer something to say, well, we can avoid that.
600
00:34:45,540 --> 00:34:46,650
We can avoid that.
601
00:34:46,650 --> 00:34:48,070
And if you're going to rescue me
602
00:34:48,070 --> 00:34:51,500
and if I'm safe, then I will do everything
603
00:34:51,500 --> 00:34:53,763
possible to avoid that last battle.
604
00:34:55,190 --> 00:34:56,530
Kaltenbrunner was one
605
00:34:56,530 --> 00:34:58,880
of many Nazi war criminals who thought
606
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,083
they could negotiate and get away with murder.
607
00:35:04,930 --> 00:35:08,560
{\an8}Group of SS men led by Heinrich Himmler's former chief
608
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:12,890
{\an8}of staff, Karl Wolff, began sending messages
609
00:35:12,890 --> 00:35:16,390
to Allen Dulles in Bern that
610
00:35:16,390 --> 00:35:19,270
they wanted to talk about surrender.
611
00:35:19,270 --> 00:35:24,270
Allen Dulles was the most unsecret secret agent in Europe.
612
00:35:24,580 --> 00:35:25,980
If you wanted to send a message
613
00:35:25,980 --> 00:35:28,220
to the West, talk to Allen Dulles.
614
00:35:28,220 --> 00:35:29,580
Dulles was shocked.
615
00:35:29,580 --> 00:35:31,900
Why would these people wanna talk?
616
00:35:31,900 --> 00:35:33,640
He was being a little naive.
617
00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:36,200
Karl Wolff was not thinking about the future of Germany.
618
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,590
Karl Wolff was thinking about the future of Karl Wolff.
619
00:35:39,590 --> 00:35:43,040
Karl Wolff had participated in
620
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:46,643
the deportation of the Jews of Italy to Auschwitz.
621
00:35:47,530 --> 00:35:49,683
He had to sell something to save himself.
622
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,880
And so, what he offered was
623
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:55,513
the key to unlocking the Alpine Fortress.
624
00:35:56,650 --> 00:35:58,680
Once they got into the Alps,
625
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:02,030
the Allies realized there was no fortress,
626
00:36:02,030 --> 00:36:05,793
no fanatics wielding wonder weapons in a last-ditch fight.
627
00:36:08,690 --> 00:36:10,160
The problem is if you want
628
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:12,860
to have a fortress, you must build a fortress.
629
00:36:12,860 --> 00:36:15,120
You must have time to build fortifications,
630
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:18,350
barbed wire trenches, bunkers, shelters, whatever.
631
00:36:18,350 --> 00:36:19,530
It was far too late.
632
00:36:19,530 --> 00:36:21,980
So, even if we ask the question,
633
00:36:21,980 --> 00:36:25,630
what happens if, there was absolutely no chance
634
00:36:25,630 --> 00:36:28,880
for them to have more than just
635
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:30,723
a last battle of one or two days.
636
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:34,830
For some senior Nazis,
637
00:36:34,830 --> 00:36:37,220
the Alpine Fortress was a ruse
638
00:36:37,220 --> 00:36:39,783
that bought them time to escape justice.
639
00:36:44,270 --> 00:36:47,000
A group of SS men who should have gotten
640
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:52,000
to know the hangman retired and lived out their days.
641
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:57,390
That was the basic effect of the negotiation.
642
00:36:57,390 --> 00:37:00,060
These SS men who offered something
643
00:37:00,060 --> 00:37:04,463
they couldn't give managed to escape justice.
644
00:37:06,250 --> 00:37:07,790
Other prominent Germans
645
00:37:07,790 --> 00:37:10,713
were also keen to talk to the Western Allies.
646
00:37:11,750 --> 00:37:14,700
Rocket engineers like Wernher von Braun developed
647
00:37:14,700 --> 00:37:17,400
the V-2 missiles that killed many thousands
648
00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:20,810
of innocent civilians, yet they were given new
649
00:37:20,810 --> 00:37:24,463
lives in the United States to continue their work.
650
00:37:25,420 --> 00:37:26,530
(speaking foreign language)
651
00:37:26,530 --> 00:37:29,250
{\an8}I don't think it was a big problem for him.
652
00:37:29,250 --> 00:37:31,990
{\an8}It certainly wasn't a big problem for me.
653
00:37:31,990 --> 00:37:33,530
I could see the advantages,
654
00:37:33,530 --> 00:37:35,320
that we could continue working on rockets
655
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,170
here under relatively good conditions
656
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:39,420
while there was pretty much nothing
657
00:37:39,420 --> 00:37:41,820
happening in Germany for many years.
658
00:37:46,180 --> 00:37:48,420
The Germans had run out of manpower,
659
00:37:48,420 --> 00:37:52,230
materials, and perhaps the will to mount
660
00:37:52,230 --> 00:37:55,083
any kind of meaningful resistance in the Alps.
661
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:08,880
The Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS was beaten by April 1945.
662
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:10,940
There was almost nothing left.
663
00:38:10,940 --> 00:38:14,100
So, there was resistance west of the Rhine,
664
00:38:14,100 --> 00:38:16,270
but not very much east of the Rhine.
665
00:38:16,270 --> 00:38:18,450
There was resistance in Hungary
666
00:38:18,450 --> 00:38:22,110
from hardcore SS units, but not in Austria anymore.
667
00:38:22,110 --> 00:38:23,230
Nothing was prepared.
668
00:38:23,230 --> 00:38:24,340
There was no fortress.
669
00:38:24,340 --> 00:38:25,760
There was nothing there.
670
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:30,760
It was just a peaceful lakes, peaceful alpine region.
671
00:38:32,860 --> 00:38:34,823
There was a spring, nice weather.
672
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:37,720
In the calm that followed
673
00:38:37,720 --> 00:38:40,540
the spectacular fall of Hitler's Reich,
674
00:38:40,540 --> 00:38:44,473
lesser-known Nazis like Adolf Eichmann slipped away.
675
00:38:48,220 --> 00:38:50,470
But there was no escape for the larger-than-life
676
00:38:50,470 --> 00:38:53,700
figure of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring,
677
00:38:53,700 --> 00:38:55,263
who also fled south.
678
00:38:56,140 --> 00:39:00,903
His flamboyant tastes extended beyond elaborate uniforms.
679
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:05,863
The Reichsmarschall was an avid art collector.
680
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,370
But the art treasures of senior Nazis
681
00:39:09,370 --> 00:39:13,833
like Goring and Albert Speer came from dubious sources.
682
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:19,120
Ironically, some Nazi art ended up hidden in Austria,
683
00:39:19,120 --> 00:39:20,850
where it had originated,
684
00:39:20,850 --> 00:39:25,850
taken from Jewish owners after the Nazi annexation in 1938.
685
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,410
{\an8}They set up an organized system
686
00:39:32,410 --> 00:39:36,270
{\an8}of expropriation called Aryanization
687
00:39:36,270 --> 00:39:38,630
by which they registered the property,
688
00:39:38,630 --> 00:39:41,520
the assets of Jews in Austria,
689
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:45,720
and then systematically stripped them of their wealth.
690
00:39:45,720 --> 00:39:49,740
Now, the art collections were part of that
691
00:39:49,740 --> 00:39:52,440
asset-stripping process,
692
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:55,490
and German art dealers moved in
693
00:39:55,490 --> 00:39:59,580
and removed systematically, metaphorically-speaking
694
00:39:59,580 --> 00:40:02,210
at gunpoint, the art collections
695
00:40:02,210 --> 00:40:07,083
of Jewish art dealers and art collectors.
696
00:40:07,940 --> 00:40:10,060
Thousands of artworks destined
697
00:40:10,060 --> 00:40:12,240
for Hitler's Fuhrermuseum
698
00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:15,240
were recovered from an Austrian salt mine.
699
00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:17,770
Himmler's deputy, Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
700
00:40:17,770 --> 00:40:21,510
was also extracted from his alpine hideout.
701
00:40:21,510 --> 00:40:26,510
He was tried for war crimes and hanged in October 1946.
702
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:29,000
According to some accounts, a large quantity
703
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:32,073
of gold was found hidden in his alpine villa.
704
00:40:33,180 --> 00:40:37,550
SS commando leader Otto Skorzeny was also captured.
705
00:40:37,550 --> 00:40:40,823
He's also said to have had a hoard of Nazi gold.
706
00:40:46,090 --> 00:40:47,290
{\an8}He was interrogated
707
00:40:47,290 --> 00:40:50,720
{\an8}by the American Army Counter Intelligence Corps.
708
00:40:50,720 --> 00:40:53,480
And when he was interrogated,
709
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:55,350
it seems that he forgot to mention anything
710
00:40:55,350 --> 00:40:57,160
about the vast treasure
711
00:40:57,160 --> 00:40:59,973
that he'd actually taken possession of.
712
00:41:00,830 --> 00:41:02,580
The SS major is the subject
713
00:41:02,580 --> 00:41:04,860
of many intriguing tales.
714
00:41:04,860 --> 00:41:09,003
One says he was sent to France in search of the Holy Grail.
715
00:41:11,210 --> 00:41:13,040
Despite admitting that he and his men
716
00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:16,140
fought in American uniforms, he was spared
717
00:41:17,195 --> 00:41:19,533
and, some say, extremely rich.
718
00:41:20,370 --> 00:41:22,401
Skorzeny received a treasure
719
00:41:22,401 --> 00:41:27,401
from Josef Spacil, a senior SS administrator.
720
00:41:29,420 --> 00:41:32,590
He had orders to get in touch with Skorzeny.
721
00:41:32,590 --> 00:41:35,430
And, of course, he handed over a tremendous amount
722
00:41:35,430 --> 00:41:38,403
of treasure to Skorzeny, which has disappeared.
723
00:41:39,830 --> 00:41:41,780
It's yet another alluring story
724
00:41:41,780 --> 00:41:44,440
of hidden Nazi loot that inspires
725
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:46,223
treasure hunters to this day.
726
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:49,590
Skorzeny and his troops were once
727
00:41:49,590 --> 00:41:53,290
camped near the Austrian lake of Bodensee.
728
00:41:53,290 --> 00:41:56,985
Evidence of their presence was found in the mud.
729
00:41:56,985 --> 00:41:57,818
(speaking foreign language)
730
00:41:57,818 --> 00:41:59,260
{\an8}I marked all the underground springs
731
00:41:59,260 --> 00:42:01,400
{\an8}here for the hydrographic office.
732
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,510
{\an8}This lake is like a gigantic bog.
733
00:42:04,510 --> 00:42:06,973
And during this work, I found a ring.
734
00:42:08,950 --> 00:42:10,930
The SS ring of honor seemed
735
00:42:10,930 --> 00:42:14,830
to have been flung into the lake as the Allies approached.
736
00:42:14,830 --> 00:42:17,780
Perhaps it wasn't the only thing dropped into the Bodensee.
737
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:21,550
Another tale has emerged of mysterious
738
00:42:21,550 --> 00:42:24,134
goods dumped into the water.
739
00:42:24,134 --> 00:42:25,140
(speaking foreign language)
740
00:42:25,140 --> 00:42:26,290
There was a forester
741
00:42:26,290 --> 00:42:28,520
who told us there was an alpine hut here
742
00:42:30,090 --> 00:42:33,433
and a high-ranking SS officer had come to get the key.
743
00:42:34,377 --> 00:42:35,760
And then, they went down
744
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:39,523
and took stuff out of the hut to the middle of the lake.
745
00:42:40,389 --> 00:42:42,733
And then, they dumped it there.
746
00:42:44,907 --> 00:42:47,170
And we didn't find anything
747
00:42:47,170 --> 00:42:49,580
because there was so much mud there.
748
00:42:49,580 --> 00:42:51,673
It's really difficult to find anything.
749
00:42:53,898 --> 00:42:56,160
The Bodensee is relatively flat,
750
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:58,410
carpeted in a thick layer of mud
751
00:42:58,410 --> 00:43:02,363
that would swallow a heavy object like a box full of gold.
752
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,580
It's also a nature reserve,
753
00:43:08,580 --> 00:43:11,523
and diving is usually strictly verboten.
754
00:43:13,570 --> 00:43:16,713
Tentative permission was given for a search of the lake.
755
00:43:19,420 --> 00:43:21,950
From a boat loaded with state-of-the-art
756
00:43:21,950 --> 00:43:23,790
radar scanning equipment
757
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:30,060
and a GPS locator which would record
758
00:43:30,060 --> 00:43:33,483
the precise position of any object detected in the mud.
759
00:43:40,020 --> 00:43:42,810
A radar map of the lake floor
760
00:43:42,810 --> 00:43:46,190
revealed a boxlike shape in the mud.
761
00:43:46,190 --> 00:43:48,223
Was this Otto Skorzeny's gold?
762
00:43:49,410 --> 00:43:51,140
Austrian forestry officials
763
00:43:51,140 --> 00:43:55,300
were unimpressed and forbade any diving.
764
00:43:55,300 --> 00:43:58,093
At least one historian is also highly skeptical.
765
00:43:59,110 --> 00:44:00,110
This is all a myth
766
00:44:00,110 --> 00:44:05,110
{\an8}and this is all driven by this perception of Indiana Jones.
767
00:44:05,390 --> 00:44:09,070
This is a good story for a Hollywood film, definitely,
768
00:44:09,070 --> 00:44:13,060
but has nothing at all to do with history.
769
00:44:13,060 --> 00:44:15,760
We know that they sometimes tried to hide the gold,
770
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:17,623
but this was recovered quite quickly.
771
00:44:20,310 --> 00:44:21,380
But legends like
772
00:44:21,380 --> 00:44:23,583
that of Skorzeny's loot won't die.
773
00:44:29,700 --> 00:44:33,610
If a fortune in Nazi gold was dumped in the lake,
774
00:44:33,610 --> 00:44:36,693
perhaps it's already been recovered and spent.
775
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:43,740
After the war, SS commando leader Otto Skorzeny
776
00:44:43,740 --> 00:44:45,720
left his native Austria for good
777
00:44:46,570 --> 00:44:49,373
to enjoy an apparently wealthy life.
778
00:44:54,510 --> 00:44:56,580
Skorzeny was put into a prisoner of war camp.
779
00:44:56,580 --> 00:44:58,470
He was there for approximately three years,
780
00:44:58,470 --> 00:45:00,480
I believe two or three years.
781
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:03,740
And ultimately, he just walked out
782
00:45:03,740 --> 00:45:04,930
of the prisoner of war camp
783
00:45:04,930 --> 00:45:09,930
and disappeared until he resurfaced in Spain in 1950,
784
00:45:10,250 --> 00:45:11,590
at which point he seemed
785
00:45:11,590 --> 00:45:15,293
to be much richer than he had been previously.
786
00:45:16,410 --> 00:45:17,290
Otto Skorzeny
787
00:45:17,290 --> 00:45:22,290
was interviewed at his holiday home in Mallorca in 1973.
788
00:45:22,380 --> 00:45:25,170
Ruled by the fascist dictator Franco,
789
00:45:25,170 --> 00:45:29,297
Spain was a safe haven for unrepentant Nazis.
790
00:45:29,297 --> 00:45:32,047
(dramatic music)
791
00:45:35,765 --> 00:45:36,950
(speaking foreign language)
792
00:45:36,950 --> 00:45:38,830
It is every soldier's duty to lengthen
793
00:45:38,830 --> 00:45:42,403
the war, to hold out as long as he has the order to do so.
794
00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:47,993
Whether that is sensible is for posterity to decide.
795
00:45:49,947 --> 00:45:52,620
I don't think we have quite reached that point yet.
796
00:45:52,620 --> 00:45:54,453
Personally, I don't regret it.
797
00:45:55,443 --> 00:45:56,276
(speaking foreign language)
798
00:45:56,276 --> 00:45:57,952
Would you do the same things again today?
799
00:45:57,952 --> 00:45:58,980
(speaking foreign language)
800
00:45:58,980 --> 00:45:59,990
I can tell you that I would
801
00:45:59,990 --> 00:46:03,083
do the same things again in exactly the same way today.
802
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:04,970
Two years later,
803
00:46:04,970 --> 00:46:07,090
the smoker died of lung cancer,
804
00:46:07,090 --> 00:46:09,910
farewelled by fellow Nazis unashamedly
805
00:46:09,910 --> 00:46:11,890
proffering the Hitler salute.
806
00:46:11,890 --> 00:46:16,130
Skorzeny took any secrets of Nazi gold to the grave.
807
00:46:16,130 --> 00:46:18,826
This is again part of the secret story
808
00:46:18,826 --> 00:46:22,074
and the true Nazis living in Madrid
809
00:46:22,074 --> 00:46:24,620
and being millionaires because of the Nazi gold.
810
00:46:24,620 --> 00:46:25,960
No, it's very unlikely.
811
00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:29,020
It's definitely not possible that he had two tons
812
00:46:29,020 --> 00:46:33,623
of gold with him in his suitcase in flying to Madrid.
813
00:46:33,623 --> 00:46:36,456
(dramatic music)
814
00:46:43,580 --> 00:46:45,210
Back around the German alpine
815
00:46:45,210 --> 00:46:49,803
town of Garmisch, the hunt for fabled Nazi gold goes on.
816
00:46:56,220 --> 00:47:00,190
It was here in June 1945 that American troops
817
00:47:00,190 --> 00:47:04,843
recovered more than 700 bars of pure refined bullion.
818
00:47:15,470 --> 00:47:19,083
The hoard was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
819
00:47:24,300 --> 00:47:27,660
All that's left is a hole in the forest floor,
820
00:47:27,660 --> 00:47:30,250
yet treasure hunters still dream of finding
821
00:47:30,250 --> 00:47:32,630
a motherlode similar to that
822
00:47:32,630 --> 00:47:35,555
unearthed by victorious Allied troops.
823
00:47:35,555 --> 00:47:38,305
(dramatic music)
824
00:47:45,670 --> 00:47:47,680
The riches that were recovered
825
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:50,193
were transferred to a special Allied commission.
826
00:47:53,490 --> 00:47:57,170
{\an8}A lot of the treasure was found in the 1940s,
827
00:47:57,170 --> 00:48:00,940
{\an8}but an awful lot of treasure just disappeared.
828
00:48:00,940 --> 00:48:02,340
Some of it was stolen.
829
00:48:02,340 --> 00:48:07,220
Some of it may very well be still there,
830
00:48:07,220 --> 00:48:10,283
and somebody one day might just find some of it.
831
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:15,600
It's a prospect that continues
832
00:48:15,600 --> 00:48:18,240
to tantalize treasure hunters in the hills
833
00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:20,290
and lakes of the alpine region
834
00:48:20,290 --> 00:48:23,113
once thought to form an Alpine Fortress.
835
00:48:26,610 --> 00:48:29,480
But the Alpenfestung was a myth.
836
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:32,480
There was no fortress and no heroic last stand
837
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:34,773
in the mountains of Germany and Austria.
838
00:48:38,260 --> 00:48:40,940
Like the Alpine Fortress, the legends
839
00:48:40,940 --> 00:48:45,060
of Nazi gold also seem to be no more than a myth,
840
00:48:45,060 --> 00:48:48,293
yet the scouring of crags and crannies goes on.
841
00:48:51,580 --> 00:48:53,820
German and Austrian lakes
842
00:48:53,820 --> 00:48:56,593
have produced a variety of Nazi relics.
843
00:49:00,170 --> 00:49:02,680
Tons of wartime detritus have been recovered
844
00:49:02,680 --> 00:49:05,110
from the deep waters of the Toplitzsee.
845
00:49:05,110 --> 00:49:09,863
Bombs, mines, and rockets, but no boxes of gold.
846
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:14,790
You don't put a gold treasure into a deep lake
847
00:49:14,790 --> 00:49:17,970
because it's just impossible to recover that thing.
848
00:49:17,970 --> 00:49:21,270
So, it's very unlikely, very, very unlikely,
849
00:49:21,270 --> 00:49:23,300
that in some deep Austrian lake there
850
00:49:23,300 --> 00:49:25,802
is still waiting something for us.
851
00:49:25,802 --> 00:49:28,635
(dramatic music)
66849
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