All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Bases.S02E04.The.Secrets.of.Nazi.Future.Tech.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

- [Narrator] Hidden
in a misty forest,

experts suspect
that Nazis carved

secret weapons facilities.

- There is a strange
feeling inside.

- Even senior
levels of government

didn't know everything
that was going on.

- [Narrator] Over the
course of the Third Reich,

the Nazis unleashed
terrifying new weapons.

- Building things that
no one else in the world

were even imagining.

- [Narrator] Developing
hellish new technology

to release on the world

as the war progresses

and the tide turns
against the Nazis.

- Hitler needs a new
wave of super weapons.

- [Narrator] Years later,

experts attempt to wrestle
truths from the project.

- The Nazis could have been
doing anything underground

and no one in the
world would know.

- [Narrator] Why are
there strange phenomena

occurring here in modern day?

- Weird sounds, weird sights,

unusual cell service
deep under a mountain

where you shouldn't
get any cell service.

- [Narrator] And what
is this strange ruin

hidden in the middle
of a mystic forest?

[dramatic music]

There are many stories
of Nazi super technology

and fantastical expeditions.

It's sometimes hard to
tell fact from fiction.

- You realize that almost
anything is possible.

- [Narrator] Rumors persist

of strange and
fantastical weapons

and terrifying new science.

- The secret programs,

the weapons of vengeance as
they're often referred to.

- [Narrator] One such location
where these whispers linger

is here, the Wlodarz Complex
in the Owl Mountains.

The Nazis are losing the war

as the Red Army takes
control of the Eastern Front.

- They are essentially
fighting now

a defensive war in the
east against the Soviets.

- [Narrator] The Allies
are mere months away

from gaining a foothold in
Western Europe on D-Day.

- It's a race against time,
so Hitler needs something.

- [Narrator] Deep in the
sparsely populated Owl Mountains

a top secret project takes shape

with ominous goals that could
turn the tides of the war.

- The Owl Mountains are
very lush, very green.

There's dense forest that
covers the entire area

with heavy undergrowth

and rivers that snake
their way through.

I mean, it's almost mystical
and magical in some senses.

It's not only the
perfect hiding place,

but defensively it's
also very strong.

- [Narrator] The
mysteries of the forest

and the abandoned Nazi
relics on the surface

give way to even more
mystery underground.

A labyrinth of tunnels
carved into the mountain.

- The Wlodarz Complex
is the biggest one

among all other complexes,

but also the roughest one.

The construction of Wlodarz
began on the year 1943.

Construction of such a facility
in the middle of Europe

was quite crazy.

- It's said that
if an atomic bomb

had exploded above
these mountains

then nothing underground
would have been touched.

Now I don't think the Nazis
had atomic bombs in mind,

but it's very clear
that they built here

because the rock formations,
it's igneous rock,

is so hard.

- [Narrator] Over 70 million
cubic feet of hard igneous rock

were blasted and hard-carved
out of the mountain

to create these tunnels.

- We're talking about moving

tens of millions of
tons of material out.

- [Narrator] With
dwindling resources

and losing on multiple fronts,

why would the Nazis
invest in this effort?

- Hitler realizes the
complexion of the war

has turned against him.

He needs a game changer,
he needs a wonder weapon,

he needs new
scientific research,

so it forces the Nazis
to go deep underground

to conduct whatever
they're conducting,

and it's a race against time.

- There are advantages
to hard rock tunneling.

When you excavate
through the system

you don't necessarily have
to re-support that tunnel.

The rock itself can hold itself
out through arching action

so that this rock is stable
under its own weight basically

and it can support
anything that's above it

without you having
to introduce concrete

or other shoring requirement
into this tunnel.

- [Narrator] Even so,

the Nazis go to extreme lengths

to reinforce the
tunnels with concrete.

Though only a fraction of
the complex is finished,

documents show nearly 1.3
million cubic feet of concrete

was commissioned for the
structures in the region,

and the majority of
it for this complex.

- It's the equivalent of a
cube that's 210 feet on site,

so essentially think
about a giant skyscraper

21 stories high

that's entirely solid concrete.

So this is an immense
amount of concrete

that went into this structure.

- [Narrator] Brought in
from concentration camps

all over the Reich,

more than 13,000 slave
laborers worked in the tunnels.

- After the explosion
of the rocks

they had to remove all
of those rocks outside.

- Between removing the rubble
and debris from the explosion

and prior to putting in
that reinforced concrete,

that zone at the front
of the proceeding tunnel

is exceptionally dangerous.

- Because the tunnel could
collapse at any moment,

so many people died doing
this extremely hard work.

- How hard it would have
been for those workers

to work in that environment

and then to put that on a scale

of how ginormous
these structures are?

- Third Reich had
almost till the end

unlimited human resources.

- [Narrator] 5,000 of the
workers died from malnutrition,

disease and executions.

- Arms of the SS who
managed the camps,

who were the ones who
would have been in charge

of moving that labor around,

and they were ruthless enough

to drive their
workers to a schedule

that was just frankly
very inhumane.

- There is a strange
feeling inside.

You can hear even those
noises of explosion.

Smells inside, poisoning air
because of the dust gases.

Terrible, terrible place.

So it's like a time capsule.

- [Narrator] This time
capsule guards many secrets

and has researchers
from all over the world

digging and exploring

to unearth what strange
and futuristic projects

were set up here.

[birds chirping]

- I think there's something
about these mountains.

The mist, the mystery,

and you hear about
all these rumors

that just screams out the fact

that there's much
more here to be found

than we've yet discovered.

I remember walking into
the Wlodarz Complex.

The first thing that
struck me was the MG 42

that's right in the guard
post as you walk in.

It was designed as if it could
literally cut anyone down.

You've got these great big
cavernous halls 36 feet high.

Again, you're left with this
sense of unfinished business.

This is only part
of the project,

there's a lot more to come.

75 years ago,

slave laborers working
in these conditions.

I've been to the
complex three times,

and every time I've been struck

by the little human elements.

You see the boot
marks in the concrete

and you think to yourself,

wow, they were in such a rush

that they were willing
to walk over concrete

that hadn't yet set.

And you can see these sort
of chisel marks on the wall,

little things like that.

This must be the start
of a new tunnel shaft

because you can see that it's
just come up against the rock.

So I'm thinking to myself it
must have been interrupted

when they were trying to
blow a hole through here.

And you think everything
here was done really quickly.

They were really in a rush.

- At this stage in the war

and the position that the
Nazis found themselves in

against the Soviets
and the Allies,

for them to put this
amount of effort,

these kind of resources
into a secret project here,

there must have been something

incredibly important to
their war effort going on.

- I'm guessing they used
this to transport the rock

that was being blasted
from down here.

Imagine the dynamite
fumes, explosions.

There was something
they were trying to do

that was very, very important.

You only have to look at how
much concrete was involved

to know that this was one

of the most important
engineer projects

that the Nazis were doing.

- [Narrator] The Nazis
managed to do all this

in total secrecy,

even from other elements
in the Third Reich.

- The secrecy of the
state itself means

that a lot of people even in
senior levels of government

didn't know everything that
was going on all the time,

or knew parts of it
or fragments of it.

- It would take
a lot of planning

and strategic thought process

to figure out how do
you keep that a secret.

- There were orders.

If anyone talked, it was
a bullet to the head.

Dead men tell no tales.

And then part of the
obsession with secrecy

was Hitler ordered the
things go underground.

It's hard for
civilians and neighbors

and villagers and prying eyes

to find out what
the Nazis are up to

when everything is
150 feet underground.

- [Narrator] Even the
choice of the location

was not by chance.

- Unlike some of the other
occupied Eastern territories

which were seen as places to
expand to and to settle in,

this region was
really a heartland.

It had once been a fundamental
part of the German Reich

and it was deemed
to be basically

an integral part of Germany.

- [Narrator] At this
point in the war,

the Allies have gained
full control of the skies

and can attack
German sites at will.

- The key targets
that are identified

are almost entirely industrial

or related to the
production of war materials.

We see the bombing of
the Romanian oil fields

'cause this is a major
source of German oil.

We see the destruction of ports

where U-boats are being made,

and also against Peenemunde to
take out the science program

that was developing
the V-2 rocket program.

- [Narrator] Desperate
for solutions

to help them turn the
tide back in their favor

and protect these
critical war industries,

they took production of rockets

and advanced
scientific experiments

and tried to put it underground,

both for protection and
further development,

in places like Middleburg
and the Wlodarz Complex.

- The sheer scale and
size of the tunnels

seems to suggest
an attempt to build

major production
facilities underground

and would also explain why
they were such deep tunnels.

- [Narrator] One alien-looking
structure within the complex

has experts completely baffled.

- It inspires curiosity and awe

and also a little bit of fear,

like you immediately
ask yourself,

what on earth went on here?

[dramatic music]

[eerie music]

- [Narrator] An
alien-looking structure

hidden in the forest

above a secret
underground complex

has researchers
scratching their heads.

- Test site for some object

could vertically
landing and taking off.

- [Narrator] Many theorize
that future technologies

were being built here

as a last-ditch
effort for the Nazis.

Could this structure be
related to that effort?

- The secret programs,
your wonder weapons.

- There's some reason behind it.

The Nazis were deliberate
in everything they did.

This isn't a mistake.

[canons boom]

- [Narrator] In World War II,

Germany is the leader of
science and technology.

The Enigma coding machine.

U-boats.

The V-1 and V-2 rockets.

And a piloted
version of the V-1,

sort of a German kamikaze.

As well as the first jets.

With victory slipping
through their fingers,

is it time for the new
wave of terror technology?

- We know about
the V-1, the V-2,

and other secret weapons.

The tides of war are changing

and Hitler needs a new
wave of super weapons

if he's to have any
chance of victory.

- And so it stands to reason

that some of these tunnels
could have been designed

as places where they could
continue to manufacture

even whole airplanes
potentially.

I mean, the sheer scale
and size of the tunnels.

For Hitler, the
building of a weapon

that could change
the course of the war

was something that he was much
more likely to be keen on.

- [Narrator] Known
locally as the Flytrap

and sometimes as
Hitler's Stonehenge,

the amount of effort to
make this was considerable.

- It looks to be
about 60 feet across

and probably 25 or 30 feet tall.

- It's delicate in a way.

It's quite massive, there
is a large massive concrete,

the proportions relative
to human are quite big.

Building this system
alone as it is,

as we can see it today,

it's a big undertaking,

it's not easy to build
something like this.

You're building this
mold up in the air

to fill it with wet concrete,

but then the wet concrete
is quite heavy too

so you have to
support those molds.

It was likely build
from the ground up

in between each column to
support that wet concrete.

The shape is not quite a circle,

it's likely the way
that they built it.

It's hard to built a curve mold

for which you can
pour concrete into,

so they approximated
that circular shape.

- But the scale and size
of it gives you pause

when you look at
it and you think,

okay, so what are
all the possibilities

for what this could be

and what are some
of the theories?

- Virtually any great
technological advancement

has at some point
or another been used

for purposes of war,

and thus was the case
for the helicopter.

The introduction of the
helicopter changes everything.

It changes the very
notion of flight.

It doesn't surprise one

that this came out
of Nazi Germany

given the emphasis on
pushing the envelope,

given the emphasis on making
the impossible possible

and building things that
no one else in the world

were even imagining.

And they were doing it.

- Nearby, at Schweidnitz,
today Swidnica,

there were in fact real factory
for the first helicopters,

Flettner factory for
Kolibri helicopter,

a very small one.

And all those helicopters
from Schweidnitz

had been tested in the area.

- Friedrich von Doblhoff
is this scientist,

this engineer who has this
idea of a rotating blade

that could lift off vertically.

He's working on this
in the late 30s,

and by 1941 he has prototypes.

He invites senior Nazi
leaders for this test run

of this helicopter.

The Nazi leaders were so
intrigued by this technology.

Now remember, with
Hitler and others

nothing is too fanciful,

nothing is undoable,

the impossible is the
possible in their mindset.

He received a contract
to develop helicopters.

- [Narrator] Is it possible

that the tunnels
could have been used

for the helicopter's
future development?

And was this strange alien
structure a launching pad?

- Why design a tunnel
that is 36 feet high

unless you're planning to
have a vehicle go in there

that needs that clearance

or you're building
something in there

that needs that clearance?

But that additional
clearance is for something.

- In this type of tunnel system,

this is the kind of spot

that I'd want to do
that development,

or at least want to
store prototypes.

The last place I'd
wanna store a prototype

to preserve the technology

is in the plant I built it in

because I know that the Allies

are trying to destroy my
ability to create technology.

So why not take some of that,

stick it in a tunnel somewhere,

keep some scientists
working at that spot,

but divide up where the
technology is located

so that if something happens
over here it's still preserved.

- When it comes to the Nazis,

a lot of the research they were
doing would end up working.

- They did fly functionally
a couple of prototypes,

both the Luftwaffe and the
Kriegsmarine, the German Navy,

for rescue operations

as well as for
military applications.

- With everything else
in the war going on,

it's still for me
quite impressive

that the Nazis launch
this helicopter program,

although I think only 24 in
the end were ever created.

And it suggests that
they were putting

a lot of effort into it.

- They cultivated a
spirit in their scientists

of intellectual curiosity.

Now it was
intellectual curiosity

toward some very nefarious ends.

- The Horten brothers start
working on something called

a flying wing,

a jet-powered aircraft
that never saw combat.

But after the war,

the Horten brothers
and their technology

was seized by the Allies

and this would
become the blueprint

for the stealth bomber.

Fortunately for history,

the Nazis were plagued
by bureaucratic snafus,

they were contracting
multiple different designs,

incompetent administration
of the programs,

so the helicopters
never came online,

but they formed the basis of
the modern helicopter program.

Could this be some sort
of helicopter landing pad?

I don't think so because
it's in the woods.

With early prototypes
of helicopters,

more trees around just means
more things for it to hit.

- If the purpose of
this entire complex

was all about secrecy,

then why would they build
something on the surface

that was so visible,

so easy to spot,

so easy to target?

- This is a ring set
on top of columns

at regular intervals,

and there isn't a diaphragm
on the top of that

to give it that
lateral stability.

We don't have any
bracing between them.

It couldn't bear much load.

Without running the
calculations on this structure,

my intuition just says
it's not very strong.

- [Narrator] Perhaps then
it's not for a helicopter

but rather to enclose
something far more sinister.

[dramatic music]

An anomaly among the structures
at the Wlodarz Complex

confuses experts.

- It's really almost something

truly out of a
science fiction movie.

- A real point of
intrigue about it for me

is that this seems
to be totally unique

amongst Nazi structures.

- The very fact that it exists

and that nobody knows
precisely what it is

is itself pretty concerning,

let alone any names
that go attached to it.

- [Narrator] The structure
gets its strange name

from a very ordinary item.

A glass container that
lures flies to its base.

Mucholapka, flytrap in Polish.

- The flytrap kind
of makes sense,

it kind of implies that
flow in that direction,

that something's
moving in or out

from between the pillars

and then up into
the central portion.

- So some people have said

that it might be a
missile rod site.

We know that the Nazis were
creating wonder weapons.

- When you fire a rocket,

you need to have the thrust
gases be directed away

from below the rocket so
it doesn't feed back up

and surround the rocket.

- Like we might use
on a shuttle launch,

we have arms that
stabilize that ship

that's in its vertical position

before it can create
enough thrust to lift off

and then those arms detach away,

but the structure provides
some sort of lateral stability

while it's in its
launching phase.

The structure could
manage those forces

in the way that it's built.

- [Narrator] But
the Flytrap's layout

seems to present a real problem.

- You've got this tall
missile structure,

how do you get it into
the center of this ring?

Because you're constrained
by this diameter, right?

There's no gap, it's
a closed perimeter.

So how do you get a
vertical element in there?

Unless you somehow bring it in
underneath one of the arches

and then winch it up.

- [Narrator] Not a practical
launching pad for rockets.

Could its purpose be simply
the structure itself?

- It does look very much,

at least from a
superficial analysis,

it looks like a
religious monument.

A kind of edifice to the
grander of the state.

- Which some people have
named Hitler's Stonehenge.

- That is the first
thing that comes to mind,

is Stonehenge for me,

so it could very
well be that perhaps

it was going to hold
some sort of ceremonial

or ritualistic presence.

- Something occult perhaps.

But who's it for?

Why would you build it in
the middle of a forest?

- [Narrator] The large
presence of the SS troops here

might shed light on the reason.

- It's the SS,

Hitler's special troops

under the command
of Heinrich Himmler,

who is supervising the
work that's going on here.

- I think Himmler
believed in the occult.

He seemed to have bought
in hook, line, and sinker.

- They were heavily
into symbology.

Powerful mythical symbols is
all throughout the Nazi regime,

beginning with the choice
of symbols for the swastika.

As part of this
1,000-year Reich,

they were trying to build
monuments to their greatness.

- It's not like Wewelsburg
where we see rooms

created for ceremony or rituals.

It's not like Castle Ksiaz

where we see underground
storage and tunnels.

This is a bunker and then we
have this strange structure.

- The Nazis, after all,

understood the politics
of architecture

or the architecture of politics.

Much like during medieval times

when castles were built not
only for defensive purposes

but simply for the
awe and wow factor.

You know, with Hitler,

if you're going to
get people to believe

that anything is possible

and you are the uber Mitch,

that your people are
the aryan supermen,

the masters of the world

and all this wild stuff
that they came up with,

you need something on a
large scale architecturally

to make people believe
this crazy myth

that you've concocted.

- [Narrator] Some
experts are convinced

that the Nazis were so
far ahead of their time

that we've only
scratched the surface

of the future tech
they were developing

in places like Wlodarz.

The current owner of the
facility recalls a witness,

a concentration camp survivor

who worked in the tunnels
and saw the Flytrap.

[Krzysztof speaking
in foreign language]

- It's something else,

some kind of device that
demand a lot of electricity,

a lot of energy,

to test something.

- Could you imagine
this large thing glowing

or generating power?

That opens up all
sorts of new ideas.

But it looks unfinished,

and therefore whatever they
were going to add to this

must have been equally
as spectacular.

- What makes this Flytrap
structure even stranger

are the tunnels that
pass directly beneath it.

[water flowing]

And were those tunnels
intrinsically linked

to what the Flytrap
was used for?

- [Narrator] These
tunnels under the Flytrap

are more complete,

with lights and
finished concrete.

And then there is
all this water.

- I am drawn to the
idea that it was

potentially some kind
of a cooling tower.

- We have a lot of waste heat
that we need to get rid off,

and to do that we
normally pump water

over our piping or
heat exchangers,

absorb that heat into the water,

and then by pumping and
cascading that water

we evaporate off that
heat as water vapor

and carry that heat away.

Generally, cooling
towers are really tall

because we wanna have
a long contact time

of the water droplets falling

and the air rising
from the cooling tower

to allow the heat to dissipate.

- [Narrator] The main reason
for a cooling tower like this

would be nuclear.

[eerie music]

A strange structure lies
in a remote forest area

of the Owl Mountains.

- It's hard to imagine
how much bigger

this structure could have been

if this was a starting point.

- [Narrator] Its
purpose, unknown.

But some have a theory
that this could be

one of the main clues
to the Nazi rush

to develop a new terror.

To use in the most
desperate hour.

- There's a very pro-science
mentality in Germany,

but it's pro-science
in the sense that

the Nazis want to use science

to further their political
and military aims.

- In the madness
of World War II,

your primary impulse
is to destroy the enemy

any way you can.

[bombs booming]

- [Narrator] In 1938,

a German team led
by chemist Otto Hahn

bombard uranium with neutrons
and discover fission.

The atomic age has begun.

- So Hitler is becoming
increasingly desperate.

He has ordered his scientists

and his engineers
and his generals

to go all out for a
new type of weapon.

The world knows the
story of Albert Einstein

talking to colleagues and
writing his famous letter

to Franklin Roosevelt,

worried that the Nazis were
working on an atomic program.

He understood from
contacts of his in Europe

that the Nazis were just
stockpiling uranium.

With that enriched uranium

he worried about them
pursuing an atomic project.

- We know the scientists
went to Adolf Hitler

and presented plans to develop
the German atomic capability.

Well, the Owl Mountains complex

would have been the ideal place

to develop the atomic program

without anyone else
knowing about it,

and clearly secrecy
in a project like that

would have been key.

- The site is
somewhat inaccessible.

It's deep underground.

It was shrouded in
secrecy and mystery.

The question, could it
have been happening there?

It seems to match the profile
for what the Nazis were using

for other types of secretive
research like that.

Some atomic project
was happening,

and it was probably
in such a facility.

- A little bit like a gambler
down to his last chips,

they're putting a lot of men,

a lot of material,
a lot of money,

a lot of effort into
these mountains,

which suggests that
they had a card to play.

It suggests that they
were doing something here

which they thought
could potentially turn

the tide of the war.

- [Narrator] The Owl Mountains
are known to contain uranium,

the key ingredient for an atom
bomb or a nuclear reactor.

Is this why the Nazis are
feverishly tunneling here?

- The tunnels could have
been envisioned as a place

where you could successfully
continue producing

war materials for
the German war effort

away from Allied eyes

and away from the reach
of the Allied bombers.

- [Narrator] But
Krzysztof and others

take the atomic
theory even further.

[Krzysztof speaking
in foreign language]

- [Narrator] Are
these underground
structures and chambers

for secret labs meant to
create Germany's atom bomb?

Could the tunnels carved out

of the hard igneous
rock of the mountain

be used to disguise
underground control tests?

[eerie music]

- There are those who
believe that the Nazis

did actually manage to
develop atomic weapons.

But in my mind, if they had,

there's no doubt Hitler
would have used them.

So then the question becomes,

how close did they get?

- Absence of evidence is
not evidence of absence.

Just because we
haven't found something

doesn't make it so or not so.

- We don't have a
lot of knowledge

from the people who built it,

in part because it was
concentration camp labor

and many of them were murdered.

And we don't have a
lot of information

from the local
German populations

because they were all
fleeing the Red Army in 44-45

or they were expelled
after the war.

- In the last few
months of the war

certainly experiments like
this were pretty useless,

much like the rocket program.

Yes, it's used and it
makes its appearance,

but it's too late.

It's too late for the
realities of the war,

so things like this
become quickly abandoned

because you've gotta get 13
and 14-year-old boys and girls

into the streets
to defend Berlin.

- [Narrator] Another
theory that refuses to die

is that the SS were on
the cusp of technology

we can't even fulfill today.

- It boggles the mind,
something called the Nazi Bell.

A large bell-shaped
device that would rotate,

that could be a time machine
or an antigravity machine.

- Because of the secrecy
of these mountains,

the Nazis could have been
doing anything underground

and no one in the
world would know.

You get chills up your spine.

- [Narrator] And indeed,

theories of super-tech
projects refuse to die,

some of almost science
fiction nature.

[laser whooshing]

Stories of fantastical
science and technology

that the Nazis were developing

haunt locations like the
mystery-shrouded tunnels

of Wlodarz and the
nearby Flytrap.

Rumors of atomic weapons,
next-generation rockets,

and flying machine
never seen before.

- Some people have
posed theories

that there could be secret
weapons or technology

that remain hidden
underground here.

Certainly stranger things
have been discovered

under the Third Reich.

- [Narrator] Krzysztof describes

strange phenomena underground,

deep inside the complex,

ones that defy explanation.

[Krzysztof speaking
in foreign language]

- Weird sounds, weird sights,

unusual cell service
deep under a mountain

where you shouldn't
get any cell service.

[Krzysztof speaking
in foreign language]

- [Narrator]
Krzysztof is convinced

of the reason for these
electrical anomalies.

Old Nazi super technology
buried underneath the tunnels.

[Krzysztof speaking
in foreign language]

- [Narrator] One of the
most fantastical theories

to explain the connections
between the tunnels,

the Flytrap and
surrounding structures

is a rumor that simply
refuses to go away.

Die Glocke, or the Nazi Bell.

[Krzysztof speaking
in foreign language]

- Die Glocke, or the Nazi Bell,

is this rumor that's
lingered for decades

about this Nazi
bell-shaped object

that's associated with
antigravity or free energy

or some kind of
pseudo-scientific concept.

- The Nazis were
heavy into research,

so it's possible

that they wanted to
test some theories

related to antigravity.

- Developing a container

in which gravity
doesn't play a role,

we don't have that ability yet.

We're able to replicate
it in free fall,

in a free-falling jet

to overcome it we're
accelerating fast enough

that it feels like zero gravity,

but that's not the case.

So on Earth's surface,

building something antigravity
seems really challenging.

- [Narrator] Is the Flytrap
the support for Die Glocke?

- From what we know of
gravity at this point,

I'm not sure that antigravity

is a theoretical
possibility even today.

Of all the physical
forces of nature,

we understand gravity
probably the least.

- [Narrator] Legend is it was
supervised by Hans Kammler

who oversaw the
V-2 rocket program

and was associated
at a senior level

with all the special projects.

- This was a testing area
for some of the odder

or more experimental of a
series of wonder weapons

or advanced technologies

that were under the hospices

of Hans Kammler's Office
of Special Projects.

- [Narrator] Many of
the top Nazi scientists

were captured after the war,

some by the US in
Operation Paperclip.

Hans Kammler's fate is unknown.

[dramatic music]
[water flowing]

Mysterious tunnels
and technology hidden
in a remote region

lead investigators to question
the heavily-debated fate

of a major figure
in the Nazi regime.

Head of Special
Projects Hans Kammler.

- Hans Kammler is one of
the single most intriguing

and most important Nazis,

yet he's one of the
ones, ironically,

that we don't know a lot about.

He held a number of
important positions.

He oversaw the
V-2 rocket program

which Wernher von Braun had
been involved in at one point.

He was given the gruesome task

of making Auschwitz even a
more efficient death camp.

And of course to make Kammler
even more intriguing is

we don't know what happened
to him at the end of the war,

so he remains this
absolutely intriguing Nazi

whose fingerprints were

on some of the most
heinous crimes of the war

and on some of the
most futuristic

and fantastical weapons
research of the entire war.

- [Narrator] Could Hans
Kammler or his team

have been developing
futuristic weapons

here in the Wlodarz Complex?

- One speculation that an
object that they were working on

that could have generated energy

looked a little bit like
what science fiction writers

would have described
as flying saucer,

but that was in fact not at
all what its purpose was.

They were using different
kinds of devices and structures

to try to work out how
they could generate energy.

- Air supremacy was
going to be part

of what determined the
outcome of the war,

so maybe they were playing
with some type of technology

that would look
like a flying saucer

that had glowing
propulsion systems.

I wouldn't be entirely
surprised at all

if this Flytrap were
associated with the development

of that kind of a device.

Where you wanted it
to lift off the ground

you would need some
type of structure

to initially support it,

allow the air to flow
out from underneath it,

underneath the pillars.

- It's infuriating
that we don't know

why this Flytrap is there.

I mean, no matter if
you're a historian or not,

anyone, if you see this site,

you're scratching your
head and you want answers.

- One of the challenges

of getting to the
bottom of the mystery

is the fact that not
only did the Nazis

treated it as a secret,

but then of course it falls
into Soviet Russia hands

and they have no
interest in transparency.

- [Narrator] May 1945.

The Red Army arrives in the
region and the Nazis flee.

- Hitler issues his
infamous orders to destroy,

to liquidate all evidence.

If they can't have it, then
no one's going to have it.

- [Narrator] Taking
whatever they can with them

and destroying as much
as they can manage.

- The Soviets arrive and
they do what they do best.

They take all of the machinery,

anything of any value,

and ship it right
back to Russia.

- And they essentially strip
East Germany for parts.

There was a concerted
and sustained effort

to burn all available evidence

about what the
tunnels were used for.

They would have had
enough time I think

to get rid of quite a bit

before the Red Army
actually arrived.

- The recordkeeping of the Reich

was in many respects
quite methodical.

They did keep a lot
of accurate records

about important things,

but not everything.

- The Nazis were
obsessed with secrecy,

they were obsessed with keeping
information to themselves

and not allowing people

who weren't directly
involved in the project

from knowing anything about it.

- And then you have to
marry that to the fact

that in its desperation
in the dying days

Reich officers destroyed
a lot of documents

in part to protect the secrets

and in part to
protect themselves,

because their next
plan was to blend in

to post-war German society

and to not be a Nazi.

And then of course you have
to deal with [mumbles] of war,

bombing and artillery
and soldiers

and the regular conduct
of war destroying things,

the evidence from
the war itself.

- If you admitted that you
had worked on this project,

if you had been involved in it,

if you had intimate
knowledge of it,

you may have been
setting yourself

to be exposed as a war criminal.

- And that's what leads to
the fact that so many secrets,

so many stories
have been buried,

and so the mystery
remains, perhaps forever.

- [Narrator] Yet to this day

Nazi conspiracy
theories still hang on

like mist in these mountains.

- There are all sorts of
conspiracy theories out there

that the Nazis went to the Moon.

The Nazis found UFOs and they
were using alien technology.

The Nazis it was said
even went to Antarctica

with big research teams

and dug out caves and were
conducting alien research.

Now all this belongs
to the realm of legend.

However, there are
some facts behind it.

For example, in 1938,

the Nazis did mount an
expedition to Antarctica.

The Nazis did have a program
to actively pursue UFOs.

They were also looking for
the lost city of Atlantis.

The Nazis were actually
spanning the globe

to find biblical artifacts,

hoping that all that
could imbue Hitler

with mythical powers.

A Nazi scientist named Oberth

was looking at the idea
of a massive mirror,

a one-mile-wide mirror,

and he thought if they
launched it into space

it could capture the
sun's heat and rays

and be used for energy.

However, the Nazi military
commander saw this

as kind of a death ray.

In fact, there was a blueprint
for a mile-wide mirror

to be launched into space.

So separating fact from fiction

is a little more difficult
than it usually is.

- The question becomes,
how close did they get?

And what happened to all
the research and technology

that they did develop?

Was it stolen by the Allies?

Or perhaps it was
amongst the spoils

that the Soviets
got their hands on?

- The world will
remain fascinated

by this futuristic
fantastical research,

some of which was
utterly implausible.

On the other hand,

what's alarming is a
lot of this technology

was very close to being
operationalized during the war.

And if that something
was an atomic program,

that's a nightmare
to even think about.

[dramatic music]