All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Bases.S02E06.Secrets.of.Hitlers.Castle.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] In 1941,

the Nazis take over
a Renaissance castle

and begin to make
ominous changes.

- They really took this
structure and altered it

to suit a super
secretive motive.

- [Narrator] Behind
opulent walls,

strange retrofitting
takes place.

- It's really not the
ideal installation

from a military point of view.

Why do we have this castle?

- [Narrator] And
below the castle,

a massive underground tunneling
project is taking shape.

- Something much bigger

than just renovation
is taking place.

- [Narrator] Why would
the SS be so interested

in a building so vulnerable?

- You can see it from the air.

It's literally a
little sign saying,

"Hey, here might be
something important here."

- [Narrator] What dark secrets

could be buried
underneath Castle Ksiaz?

[dramatic suspenseful music]

[dramatic music]

Located in modern-day Poland,

Castle Ksiaz would appear

to be a typical European
Renaissance castle.

- That castle is massive.
It's an impressive structure.

- [Narrator] Filled with the
opulence expected of royalty.

- This is a stunning
Baroque castle.

As you come through the hills,
you start to see it emerges

from the gloom, from the mist,

and it literally takes
your breath away.

- [Narrator] But behind
these walls lie anomalies.

Secret staircases, passageways,

and massive tunnels
belie this residence.

In 1941, the SS
seizes the castle

and set about
massive renovations.

- What on earth
did the Nazis want

with a 13th century castle?

It seems like a very
strange decision

and very unlike many of the
other Nazi structures we're

more familiar with.

- [Narrator] At this
time in the war,

the Nazis were furiously
fortifying the width

and breadth of the Third Reich.

Bunkers, command nests,

and massive defensive
structures dot the continent.

But their interest in this
castle is very different.

- So by the time Adolf
Hitler takes power,

this area has been in German
control for centuries.

It's part of the
Silesian district.

So today, this area
is in Polish hands,

but when Adolf Hitler came
into power, this land,

he would've seen this
as ethnically German,

as German as German could be.

- Caste in fortified
position has been here

since the 13th century and
it belonged to a succession

of kings and princes
and, in the 16th century,

landed in the hands of
the Hochberg family.

- It was one of the richest
family in the Germany.

- They run afoul of the Nazis.

The heir of the castle ends up

marrying a British aristocrat.

- [Narrator] Born
Mary Cornwallis-West,

she became known as
Princess Daisy of Pless

when she married into
the Hochberg dynasty.

But her story ends in mystery.

- She was related by marriage
to Winston Churchill.

She was an English woman,
and she had married

into this very high-ranking
German aristocratic family

and had moved to Germany, and
she lived a very fancy life.

She was at one point
deemed to be one

of the most beautiful
women in Europe.

- [Narrator] Castle Ksiaz
was the summer residence

of Princess Daisy, her husband,

Prince Hans Heinrich XV,
and their three sons.

- One of the sons decides that
he's going to move to the UK,

and he actually ends up
joining the British Army,

and then his brother goes
and joins the Polish Army.

- [Narrator] With two sons
firmly in allied camps,

the SS became increasingly
suspicious of the family.

- They would have known that
she was an English woman.

They presumably knew about
her connection to Churchill,

and in the 1930s, one of
her sons was actually taken

into Gestapo custody
and tortured.

She had to pay a large
ransom to get him back,

but he actually died
of his injuries.

So she was no friend of
the Nazis and, in fact,

became targets for the Gestapo

and for the Nazi
Security Services.

- So the Nazis
seize their castle.

- We know that the
Nazis were looting

and stripping assets as they
advanced through Europe.

But for some reason, they've
decided to occupy this castle.

[dark dramatic music]

- Everything inside, art,
paintings, sculptures,

they took it away,
secure somewhere.

- Part of the mystery is
we don't know what happened

to a lot of the objects
inside the castle.

The legendary Princess
Daisy Pless pearls,

an alleged 20-foot-long
pearl necklace,

invaluable, maybe
one of the largest,

most expensive pearl chains
or necklaces in history,

and it disappeared.

- [Narrator] Sometime after
the Nazis take over the castle,

the princess dies under
mysterious circumstances.

- And there's a story
that her servants had

to hide her body.

They buried her in
an unmarked grave,

so we still don't know
where she was buried.

And for a long time,
there was a rumor

that she had been buried
wearing the pearls.

- [Narrator] Where the
German police actually

after this priceless item?

Recent research claims that
Daisy actually sold most

of her pearls before
the Nazis arrived,

but it remains a family
secret to this day.

So you still have treasure
hunters around the area

and around the castle
trying to find out

what happened to
Princess Daisy's pearls.

- [Narrator] With the former
royals out of the picture,

strange changes are immediately
made to the building.

- The Nazis take this castle,

and they change it to
suit their aesthetic.

They stripped it of some
incredible features,

some various
architectural elements

that they plastered
over, essentially,

to tone down the
extravagance of it.

- One of the best examples
of this is the ballroom.

You walk in now, it's
a simple ceiling.

What you don't realize is
that Nazis plastered over.

It was once an elegant,
ornate octagon ceiling.

They're trying to reimagine
this castle, reenvision it.

Reenvisioned is part of
this new Third Reich.

- [Brooke] From the outside,
it's a big, beautiful castle,

and inside it tells a
really different story,

pretty stark and definitely
not a warm, welcoming feeling.

- [Piotr] Maybe in 1941 or 1942,

the Organisation Todt
arrived and start

to adopt it for
their own purposes.

- Organisation Todt

was effectively the Nazis'
construction company

during the Second World War,

and they built tunnels
and bunkers right

across the Third Reich.

- They were staffed with some
of the best engineers in all

of Germany and given a
virtually unlimited budget.

- And for them to
be involved here

on this castle project
meant that whatever it was,

it was hugely important to
the senior Nazi command.

- 'Cause at one
stage, it's thought of

as a potential location for the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

And you have to ask
yourself, why would that be?

Why would they want to place
that important ministry

so far away from
the center of power,

the gravity of power, Berlin?

And that begs the question,

is this something else
that the Nazis are planning

for this location that
we don't yet know about?

- [Narrator] One witness,
Dorota Stepowska,

still recalls the
mysterious comings

and goings of the Nazis once
the castle is taken over.

She remembers it as the
beginning of a dark period.

[speaks in foreign language]

- [Rob] But the Third Reich
has castles all over the place.

For centuries, German
princes and states

had been building
castles of various forms.

- [Narrator] Could this
sink be a propaganda move

on behalf of the Nazis?

- The castles were,
I think, a draw

and an attraction
because it was a reminder

of the greatness
of Germany's past.

- [Narrator] Hitler and
the Nazi Party tapped

into the nationalism festering

inside a humiliated and angry
post-World War I Germany.

- [Deborah] By setting
themselves up in a castle

that had a very long
historical pedigree in Germany,

they were linking themselves
to a celebrated Germanic past.

- [Narrator] But the
massive presence of the SS

and large secretive projects
seem to negate this theory.

Within the castle, features
added included a guard room,

room replacing or adding
several staircases,

modernized rooms, communication
equipment, bunkers,

and an elevator that leads
far below the castle.

[dramatic music]

- This is quite clearly
not a good defensive site.

Back in its day, yes, it was.

That's what it was built to do,

but its walls stand
absolutely no chance

against Second
World War weaponry.

- These castles were
built to be a castle.

They weren't designed
to be a bunker.

They weren't designed to
any sort of Nazi standard.

It was built as a castle.

They're fancy houses for
wealthy people to live in,

not necessarily to withstand
any sort of attack.

If you had a distinct plan,
if you knew what you wanted

to do and where you wanted to go

and why you wanted to go there,

starting from something
that's already there,

that isn't fortified, that
isn't up to your standards,

that doesn't suit
your aesthetic,

is a strange way to approach it.

- It's not an ideal facility
the way it's constructed

to do a lot with it.

You have to make a
lot of modifications.

It's almost better from
a military point of view

to construct a
brand new building

that has modern
communication systems,

modern electric vacation.

It's very difficult,
if not impossible,

to build on top of those
existing structures

'cause they're not
really designed to
take additional loads.

So there's a lot of
engineering and thought

that needs to go into
redesigning these
type of buildings

to make sure we're
not compromising them

and to actually upgrade them.

It's not a
straightforward process.

- [Narrator] Even
as a young girl,

the surviving witness
remembers clearly the attempts

of the Nazis to hide
much bigger construction

than simple renovations.

[speaks in foreign language]

- The thing you have to
realize about the Nazis

is that they were genuine
masters at concealing

what was important to them.

So everywhere we go,
we can find evidence

that they really
understood that they had

to protect their
key military sites,

and yet there's no extensible
military value to this.

[laughs] For anything else,
you can see it from the air.

It's literally a sign saying,

"Hey, there might be
something important here."

- The challenge for
them is this castle

was a public landmark,

one the most beautiful
in that region of Europe,

sitting atop a majestic hill.

- This castle goes completely

against the Nazis'
obsession with secrecy.

This building is
very well known,

and dignitaries have come
to visit this for years.

There would've been photos
taken of the inside.

There's something
odd going on here

unless the castle
itself is just a decoy

and it's actually
what's going on inside

and underneath the castle
that's important to the Nazis.

- [Narrator] Unearthed
documents, witness testimonies,

and recent excavations
begin to pull

back the curtain on
much darker plans.

- And then you discover that,

underneath that castle,
there's a secret.

[dark dramatic music]

[soft dramatic music]

- [Narrator] In 1941,

German forces begin a
full-scale renovation

of Castle Ksiaz.

Shrouded in secrecy,

they've not only modernized
this Renaissance building

but also begin a massive
construction project.

- Something much bigger
than just renovation

is taking place
underneath this castle.

- [Narrator] Construction
underneath the castle itself

provided the perfect cover.

Even if allied
planes flew overhead

between the massive building
and surrounding forest,

no one would see the
underground project.

And with extreme security
around the complex,

spies couldn't
get a look inside.

- They start to build a
huge underground structure

below the castle.

- Tunneling is not an
everyday construction project.

Tunneling is a very
highly specialized project

with highly specialized,
skilled workers from the design

of it to the pre-engineering
to the construction of it.

- [Narrator] World War
II expert Patrick Ney

has investigated many
secret Nazi structures,

but this is something
very different.

- [Patrick]
Whatever's out there,

it must've been important enough

to blast a hole
through the rock.

Sounds like a river.

[water rushes in distance]

Was this an escape tunnel,

or when the Nazis bringing
something in here?

- [Narrator] With so
few surviving witnesses

and the Nazis'
scorched earth policy

of destroying documents,

experts must rely on
excavations and archeology

to unravel the
secrets of the castle.

- It's only relatively recently

that we've been able to
get access to the castle,

access to the tunnels, and
start to explore what's here.

You see the rock that
they've bored into,

this is the igneous rock.

- It's really hard.
That's hard rock.

You can't get through
that without blasting.

[speaks in foreign language]

- The tunnels under
this are gigantic.

You can drive a train
into some of these.

These are impressive,
some of the biggest

and most impressive in Europe.

- This tunnel is 175
feet below the courtyard.

Now that's deeper than
most subway tunnels.

- [Narrator] Researchers even
discover secret passageways

that connect the tunnels
back up to the courtyard.

- Escaping down these
stairs and in these tunnels,

deep underground in a
mountain with hard rock,

that would be bomb proof.

- [Narrator] But unlike most
other Nazi excavation projects,

building this system

underneath the castle
created unique challenges.

- When we built in
the 13th century,

we're taking relatively
large stones,

shaping them to a shape,

stacking them on
top of one another,

and putting probably an
extremely weak mortar

in between, if anything, at all.

- The original construction
was likely made out of rocks

and masonry, thousands
of hours of construction

to build these solid rock
foundations, essentially,

and all the way up with masonry.

- It's impressive to me
because of so many unknowns

that would've had
to be addressed

before starting such a project.

Adding to a house on the
side is a different project

than digging
underneath a castle.

- Digging through solid rock
would've been hard enough,

but digging underneath a castle,

it had to have been
extra sensitive

to all that weight above.

Some theories suggest that
certain parts of the castle

were replaced to
lessen the weight

that sat over the
tunnels down below.

Now, could this be why one
of the marble staircases

was replaced with a wooden one?

- [Patrick] Why would you need

to have this many smaller
tunnels off this main shot?

- This was a massive
project and yet there

are nearly no documents
that survived to explain

what was planned here,
which is strange,

and it also makes
it very difficult

to say what this place was for.

- [Narrator] One
challenge facing those

who would unlock
the castle secret

is the years under
the Iron Curtain

after the defeat
of Nazi Germany.

At the end of the war, the
area fell into Soviet hands.

Control over Lower Silesia

was transferred from
Germany to Poland.

- And then Poland, occupied
Poland, as it now is,

lies in the Iron Curtain, which
means that the whole region,

the castle itself, is
shrouded in mystery.

In fact, it lays
abandoned for decades.

So when the castle and the
region fall in Soviet hands,

they take anything that's
useful back to Russia.

Any documentation they found
would've been taken back.

That documentation has
been under lock and key,

never shown the outside
world ever since,

lying for quite
literally decades.

So the question is,
what could we find out

if we could get access to
the real documentation lying

somewhere in Moscow?

- [Narrator] As
recently as 2017,

these forgotten passageways
were inaccessible

to researchers and
the general public.

Immediately, a rush
of experts clamored

to unblock caved-in tunnels

and unearth the
castle's secrets.

- Comparisons to the
concrete tunnels,

they look quite well developed.

This is pretty scary.

One thing is very
clear. [laughs]

They were interrupted
in their building.

You can see the roof over here.

It's not been developed at all,

so this is probably a tunnel
that's not being completed yet.

[slow dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Slowly, as
excavations reveal more

of the tunnels and
underground structures,

new theories on the purpose
of the castle come to light.

- Certainly, if I'm occupying
a castle as a military group,

I wanna have some
place that is safe.

So I might wanna build
safety bunkers below ground

in case the castle destroyed,

egress routes beyond the castle
grounds from those tunnels.

So they could've been
simply a method to protect

against air raids in an attack.

- [Narrator] But
the size and extent

of the tunnels go way
beyond what is typical

for mere escape routes
or air raid bunkers.

The scope of the
project, the secrecy,

and the effort involved
leads many experts

to believe this
facility was far more

than a simple
administrative building

with defensive bunkers.

- What we do know unequivocally

is how it was built,
using forced labor,

under the most horrific
of circumstances.

- What the Nazis did
all across Europe

was repeatedly use
concentration camp labor.

- Over 3,000 workers are
said to have been slaving

away here in
terrible conditions.

- This castle and whatever

was happening underground
were so important

that the Nazis built a satellite
concentration camp next

to it so that there would
be a built-in workforce

to do all the work on the
castle and below grounds.

- [Narrator] The use of
slave labor also helps

to explain why we
have so few witnesses

to the work done
underneath Castle Ksiaz.

- For those Germans who
had worked on the project

and did survive, they
were not interested

in sharing those stories
or implicating themselves

in possible crimes.

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.

- [Narrator] For years,
the shroud of secrecy

around the tunnels
underneath Castle Ksiaz

has obscured
investigator's abilities

to discern the true nature
of this Nazi project.

But when research reveals
the architect of the project,

experts wonder if
the castle was meant

for the most important
figure in the Third Reich.

[crowd roars]
[dramatic music]

- Could a clue to this
site be its architect,

Hermann Giesler?

He was a director
in Organisation Todt

that built many of
the Nazi bunkers,

but he also designed a
house in Munich for Hitler.

- [Narrator] Massive Nazi
tunnels and secret passageways

underneath a Renaissance
castle in modern-day Poland

spark the curiosity
of researchers.

As blocked caverns
are slowly excavated

and documents unearthed,

an important figure
enters the picture.

- One of the ideas that
people have set forth

is that this place makes
a natural headquarter

for the Fuührer.

- It has the makings of
everything you'd want to have,

rapid access, rapid
egress from the tunnels,

a very luxurious
palace-like atmosphere,

and some type of vault
at the lowest levels

to store important
materials that may be needed

by either the Fuhrer himself

or other elite within
the Nazi party.

- [Narrator] As
investigations continue,

the elevator shaft
added to the castle

connects the tunnels
deep below the building

to a room supposedly
intended for Hitler.

But some experts still
questioned the high visibility

of the famous site.

- When you compare the castle
here to the Wolf's Lair,

where Hitler spent
the vast majority

of the Second World War, you
can see a lot of differences.

The Wolf's Lair is in the
forest, like the castle here,

but it's underneath
a tree canopy

whereas the castle is
very, very visible,

and the Wolf's Lair is
completely invisible.

You can't see it from the air.

The whole thing was completely
designed to make sure

that no one knew that
Hitler was there,

and that's perhaps
why he decided

to spend so much time there.

This guy doesn't
think that he's safe.

- Why were they pouring
so much effort and energy

into something this big when
they had other residences

that Hitler was actually
using on a regular basis?

- It doesn't seem at first
glance to be the natural place

to put Hitler until you
think about one thing.

Everywhere Hitler goes,

the entire German war machinery
needs to come with him.

We're talking about
thousands of people,

and this is place could've
housed all of them and more.

And of course, in
the unlikely event

that the allies
would've attacked,

Hitler could've gone
straight down in less

than a minute and
been in the tunnels.

- As the Soviet
union is pushed back

and as Nazi Germany expands
its empire eastward,

this castle would be
more centrally located

in the larger Germani, of
the larger Nazi empire.

So from that perspective,
it makes some sense.

- Hitler didn't really like
being in Berlin very much.

He tended to run the
government for months

at a time from one of
the Fuhrer headquarters.

So he was often in Bavaria.
He was often at Wolf's Lair.

So if he was going to
be at this residence

for long periods of time,
you're effectively trying

to make space for an
entire government.

So the scale of it would fit
with that set of priorities.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Some experts
believe the actual dimension

of the tunnels could provide
proof of this theory.

- The size of this,
absolutely extraordinary.

This is serious effort.
This is no air raid shelter.

This area is not only isolated,

but it's well connected by rail.

So is it possible that this
castle could've been designed

in the future, maybe they
never got round to it,

to take Hitler's
17-car personal train?

The tunnels in this region
would've been perfect

for Hitler's personal train.

- We do know that additional
rail and additional roadways

were built leading
to this castle

to accommodate something the
size of the Fuhrer train.

- [Narrator] One of the most
famous vessels Hitler used

during his reign,
the Fuhrer train,

was initially named
Fuhrersonderzug Amerika

because of his fascination
with the United States.

It was later renamed Brandenburg

after the United
States entered the war.

Before the first permanent
Fuhrer headquarters was built,

the train served as a
mobile headquarters,

and even after Germany
entered the Balkans,

Hitler traveled on it often.

The train weighed 1,200 tons,

and its maximum length
could reach 1,400 feet,

but this was ordinary train.

It contained two locomotives
to guarantee function,

even in the event of
an engine failure.

Two Flakwagens or special
armored anti-aircraft cars

on each side of
the train equipped

with Flakvierling 38
quadruple tube cannon

with a range of
nearly three miles,

a number of baggage cars,
Hitler's personal car,

a command car, including
a conference room

and communication center,
a security force car,

multiple dining cars, press
car, two cars for guests,

a Badewagen, or bathing car,

and sleeping cars for personnel.

The trains were so
critical to Hitler

that special bunkers
were built to house them.

Following their leader, many
of the Nazi's top command,

like Goring and Himmler,
commissioned their own train.

To ensure security, much of
the train's documentation

was destroyed after each use.

And in May 1945, after
Hitler's suicide,

the SS blew up
much of the train.

- If all this construction
was indeed meant for Hitler,

then how come he never
visited the place?

- For decades, people
have been talking about

what exactly the
Nazis were doing here,

and [laughs] everybody seems
to have their own theory.

Local people had no idea
what was going on here.

It would've been fenced
off, barbed wire,

sentries, soldiers,
all, of course,

with the express
purpose of making sure

that the outside world has
no idea what's happening.

Even some people in
the German war machine

had no idea what
was going on here.

If this was an
ordinary complex part

of the overall
German war machine,

then it would've come under
the purview of the Wehrmacht,

the German military forces.

But it's the SS,
Hitler's special troops,

under the command
of Heinrich Himmler,

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

This means that
it's very important

to somebody high up in
the German war machine.

Part of the mystery
of this castle

is actually by design,
not by accident.

So there were probably
people in the SS

who didn't want anyone else
in Germany know about this.

It's even said the Albert Speer,

who was the German
armaments minister,

didn't know what the exact
purpose of the tunnels

that were being built here were.

- Albert Speer
wrote after the war,

it was supposed to be a
regional administrative center

with the Fuhrer headquarters
and industrial facilities.

But people don't
necessarily believe him

because he often was suspected
of trying to throw people

off the trail or trying
to make himself look good.

- [Narrator] After the
death of Fritz Todt at 1942,

Albert Speer took
over as the head

of the Todt Organisation.

Could the work on Castle
Ksiaz had been so secret

that not even the German
minister responsible

for its construction knew

about the true purpose
of this project?

- They may not have even
wanted Hitler to know about it.

After all, We know the
Hitler never came here.

Perhaps he didn't
realize the importance

of this castle to
someone in the SS.

- Or could the SS be
emptying the castle

and creating these tunnels
to store something else?

- [Narrator] Lower
Silesia, World War II.

Someone in the
German high command

orders a massive renovation

and tunneling project
at Castle Ksiaz.

It is later claimed that
the castle was to be used

as a residence for Adolf Hitler.

But does the evidence
support this theory?

- If you try to imagine
what these tunnels represent

as a Fuhrer bunker, it's
not really consistent,

meaning that other
Fuhrer bunkers are
considerably smaller,

far more austere, I suppose.

They're not as cavernous.
They're not as massive.

But it's more consistent, I
think, with other purposes.

- There are few survivors,
inmates who originally worked

at Castle Ksiaz
during World War II,

and because of the testimonies,

they are persuading
off the researchers

that there must be some
camouflaged tunnels.

- Witnesses and documents
describe vast amounts

of crates and boxes
being delivered here,

but no one knows
what was inside them.

[dark brooding music]

- [Narrator] Using the castle
to disguise the SS intentions

has experts coming
up with theories

that even Hitler may
not have known about.

- We know that Nazi Germany

was looting on an
industrial scale,

billions and billions
of dollars of material,

art, jewelry, gold.

Anything of value is stolen,

and we also know with
absolute certainty

that not everything
has been returned.

- One of the things that
the Germans had done

as they swept through
many major centers

in the Soviet Union in
the first half of the war

was to take everything they
could get their hands on.

- [Narrator] Towards
the end of the war,

as the Third Reich
shows signs of collapse,

many in the SS begin to
plot their future post war,

and some didn't want
others to know their plans.

Now, as the SS steal
all of these things,

they have another
problem to solve,

which is where on
earth do they hide it.

- There's numbers of
sites that we know

that were set up for
this purpose alone.

- [Narrator] A rumor
diary said to be held

by Freemasons after
the war is attributed

to an SS officer who outlined
11 sites the Nazis used

to hide stolen goods.

- Millions of pieces
of artwork, sculpture,

paintings, you name
it, they had looted

from every single corner
of occupied Europe.

- Renoir. There is Pissarros.

There is even Michelangelos
that are still missing

- Almost one million
pieces, masterpieces of art,

are still missing on the least
of the Ministry of Culture

and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

- Which is basically a
cradle of civilization

when you think about it, right?

If you go through
your average museum

and even the big
spectacular ones,

and you count the
number of artifacts,

it's dwarfed by
what's been taken.

- [Narrator] It is
nearly impossible

to estimate the full value
of all that is missing,

but it would easily be
in the billions today.

- [Piotr] So there
is a lot of suspicion

that many of them may be still
stored somewhere in the area.

- Are they somewhere
in this tunnel complex?

- [Narrator] But is it more
than just rumors leading experts

to think great treasures
are lying hidden here?

Two dozen Renaissance portraits

were found in nearby Walbrzych,

and a chest of
103 silver objects

were discovered under
the Nowy Sacz Castle,

to name just a few examples.

[dramatic music]

- And right to the very end,

at least some of
them somehow imagined

that they'd survive all
of this and, therefore,

wanted a kind of
insurance policy.

- Well, the castle,
the tunnels underneath

would've been the perfect place.

Nobody would've known
what was under here.

- [Narrator] Evidence
shows that one

of the most valuable
historical collections

in the world was
briefly stored here,

the priceless Prussian library.

It included original
written scores by Bach,

Mozart, Beethoven, original
manuscripts by Goethe,

as well as a Gutenberg Bible.

- The Prussian library was
stored originally in the Berlin,

but because of the
threat of the bombardment

and because of the threat
it could be destroyed,

it was necessary to put it in
a much, much more safer area.

So that's why it was
evacuated to Lower Silesia

and stored for awhile in
Castle Ksiaz as a safe place.

- This may have been a
very opportune location

to stash all of this
stolen loot they had taken.

You need somewhere to
put those, [laughs]

so you're going to move them
somewhere like Castle Ksiaz

because you have the perfect
underground storage system.

- The looting was orchestrated
and carried out by commanders

with directives
from the top dogs,

guys like Himmler and Goring.

This is important enough
that both the American Army

and the Soviet Army
had specialized
divisions of experts,

specialized units
within their military,

whose job it was to try
to trace some of the loot.

- [Narrator] Famously, the
allies had the Monuments Men

who, throughout the war,
went on dangerous missions

to recover lost masterpieces.

- They did find stuff
in private residences.

They found it in museums.
They found it in salt mines.

They found it all
over the place.

- If you go to the Soviet Union,

there's stories about
burying great works

of art in the gardens
and covering them over

and to keep them
out of German hands.

- And certainly that
was done with an intent

that at the end of
this, we need that art

to represent the
survival of our people

and of the cultural historical
legacies of our country.

- But no matter how
heroically they tried

to defend some of
these artifacts,

many of them were stolen and
taken out of the Soviet Union.

- [Narrator] The tunnels
under Castle Ksiaz

have only recently been open
to the public and researchers.

However, not all the
tunnels are accessible.

- And you can clearly see
the shot leads up here,

but it's been
completely blocked off.

It looks like it's
been done deliberately

because there's way
too much stuff here.

- [Narrator] As
the Nazis retreated

near the end of World War II,

many of the were sealed off.

- The war's ending.
Everybody knows it's over.

So why, as an SS commander,
which you go to the trouble

and the expense, 'cause
it took dynamite,

to seal all these tunnel off?

Well, there can
only be one reason.

You don't want anyone
to know what's in there,

and you want to come back
to it when you're ready.

[dramatic music]

[car rumbles]
[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] As the fates
change for Nazi Germany

and the Red Army pushes
towards the region,

the SS takes extreme steps
to seal off the tunnels

and camouflage entrances to
the caverns below Castle Ksiaz.

- The Nazis blew up
and blocked off tunnels

when they eventually
left the area.

Now, why would they do that?

Unless they had something
really big to hide.

- [Narrator] It is thought
that many looted riches

are buried in these tunnels.

But what exactly were the
Nazis so eager to hide?

- If you're a senior Nazi
at the end of the war

and you've managed
to get your hands

on some loot or gold or
valuables, wouldn't you want

to make sure it survived
the enemy conquest,

maybe hidden away somewhere?

- [Piotr] The Lower Silesia

is an eastern
province of Germany.

If you're losing the war,
Germany haven't been expect

that they will lose
this territory.

- [Narrator] However,
after the war,

at the Soviet's insistence,

the region became
part of Poland.

- After the war, so
many masterpieces of art

had been found in the
local palaces and castles.

So probably, they
were sure indeed

that it was very
safe place forever.

- [Narrator] Rumors
abound about the fate

of the most famous artifact
looted by the Nazis,

the Amber Room.

- the Amber Room is a
symbol of looted art

which has been lost and never
uncovered and never found,

a very mysterious case.

- [Narrator] It was
assembled in Prussia

and given as a gift to Czar
Peter the Great of Russia.

It measured over 590 square feet

and contained over
six tons of amber.

- And then those
thin pieces of amber

that they paneled the walls with

were all backed with gold leaf.

It must've been gleaming.

The room must've felt like
you were sitting in the sun.

- [Narrator] It was
installed in a permanent home

in the Catherine Palace
and remained there

until it was
dismantled and moved

by the Nazis during
World War II.

Dubbed at the time the 8th
wonder of the world, today,

its estimated worth is well
over half a billion dollars.

In January 1945, Hitler
ordered the movement

of looted possessions
from the region.

- And completely disappeared.

Many treasure
hunters, journalists,

and even secret services
were searching for

and were looking for
this masterpiece of art.

It's very famous, but
it never was found.

- [Narrator] Could
it be hidden away

in the tunnels
underneath the castle?

- That's a good
example of something

that continues to
fascinate treasure hunters,

but also, there's plenty
of Russians who work

in cultural institutions
who would very much like

to recover some of these
very important parts

of Russian heritage.

- [Seika] It was
all put into crates.

Much like we move
artifacts from Egypt

or anywhere else in the world

when you're shipping something.

- [Narrator] In October 2020,

Polish divers found the
wreck of the SS Karlsruhe,

a ship which took part
in Operation Hannibal,

a sea evacuation
which allowed more

than a million German
troops and civilians

from East Prussia to escape
the advancing Soviet forces.

The wreck holds many cranes
with unknown contents,

and some believe this may
be the final resting place

of the Amber Room.

- What was the purpose of
taking these kinds of artifacts?

What was to be done
with them in the future?

And what purpose did they
serve in the Third Reich?

- [Narrator] Much of the
art loaded from Europe

was destined for
the Fuhrer Museum,

a European cultural
center planned

to be built in Hitler's
hometown of Linz, Austria.

A massive model
of the development

was created for Hitler
by Hermann Giesler,

the architect of the
Castle Ksiaz tunnels.

The museum was a grand
project and not scheduled

to be completed for
many, many years.

Thus, the Nazis had
to find somewhere

to store all the
looted art until it

could be moved into
its permanent home.

- The Nazis envisioned
themselves to be the defender

of European culture, not
just of Germanic culture,

to entrench German culture
and German nationhood

at the head of a
European civilization.

- [Narrator] While
we still don't know

if we will ever
find the Amber Room,

there were rumors of
another treasure looted

by the Nazis so valuable,

it makes the Amber Room
seem small in comparison.

And as recently as 2015,

two treasure hunters
claimed they had proof

that it was somewhere in one

of the lost tunnels
near Castle Ksiaz.

[dramatic music]

A secret series of
tunnels connected

to a Renaissance castle.

- One thing's very
clear. [laughs]

They were interrupted
in their building.

So what were their plans?

- [Narrator] As the Nazis
retreat at the end of the war,

many of the tunnels
are sealed up.

- Obviously, if
you are doing that,

you probably have
something to hide.

- [Narrator] Today,
treasure hunters are still

in these hills in search of
alluded treasures so vast,

it dazzles the mind.

- Stories of the Nazi
gold train refuse to die,

and there are still people
actively looking for it.

In fact, many are convinced
that it's hidden somewhere

in a blocked off tunnel.

- This train was
filled with what today

would probably be about a
billion dollars worth of gold.

- We know that the Germans
actually did hide treasures

in tunnels and that there
had been treasure troves

of art found in odd places
throughout the Reich

in the post-war period
that there could be art

and treasure hidden
in these places.

Why not a train?

- Original, the gold
train story came

from the 70s where the
ex miners from Walbrzych

have heard the story
from his German colleague

who told him about
the train with a load

of gold and other valuables,

which have been traveling
from Wroclaw to Walbrzych.

It drive in into the tunnel
and disappeared forever.

[dark brooding music]

- In 2015, two local enthusiasts
finally put their hands up

and say, "We found the train.

We've been searching
underneath and underground,

and we found some
geological signs

that say that something's here."

- And they had a contact
with Polish government,

and they announced that they
found the gold train, actually.

- And they spent a lot of money,

and there was a lot of publicity

around their activities in
trying to recover this train.

- The very high
Polish officials said,

"We are sure for 99% that the
gold train is down there,"

so everyone believe it.

- Well, all hell breaks
out, controversy.

Everybody's arguing about

whether they finally
found the train.

- And that's why so many people
and so many media came here

and made it this huge story.

- [Patrick] The
Polish Army come in,

but they say there's
no sign of it.

- And in 2016 was a huge
digging and drilling campaign,

but unfortunately, nobody
found his gold train.

- By 2018, it became apparent
that where they had hoped they

would find the train, the train
was not there, and in fact,

one of the men dropped
out of the project.

So there are still
many who are hopeful

that there may be a train
full of gold somewhere

in these tunnels
near the castle.

But as of today, no such
train has been found.

- We can safely assume
that there's plenty

of treasure out there
that we've yet to find.

There's plenty of secrets
that we need to uncover,

and there's plenty of questions

that haven't been answered
about these mountains.

Why did they build
tunnels that this shape?

If this was simple storage
places for munitions or food,

you wouldn't build
them this way.

The tunnels are telling us

that there's something
else out there.

- The tunnels seem
like travel conduits.

They seem like a point of
entry to get to somewhere else,

and the castle just happens
to be the point of entry.

Where were those tunnels going?

What were they supposed to
do? Who is traveling in them?

- The first thing I
noticed when I looked

at the map of the tunnels is
they're pointing outwards.

They're not interlinked,
so in other words,

they must be built
to go somewhere,

and we know that the
Nazis had further plans

that they didn't get
round to actually building

because the war ended.

So the question is what
were they planning,

and how much of what they were
planning do we know about,

and how much have
we yet to find?

- Not far from the
castle, there are a number

of enormous tunnel complexes
over in the Owl Mountains.

This was known as
Project Riese or Giant.

Now, is it possible
that, at one point,

all these tunnels were, in
fact, meant to be connected?

- [Patrick] This doesn't look
like the same kind of rock.

Maybe they've got deeper
into the mountain.

While we still don't
have the evidence

to prove it one way or
another, it's a theory

that more and more people
are coming around to.

- It'd be a really ambitious
undertaking to tunnel

from the castle over to
the other facilities,

basically through Owl
Mountain, a hard rock mountain.

It would take a
really long time.

It would take massive
amount of efforts.

There would be huge
loss in terms of deaths,

but the Nazis were
ambitious in their goals,

and I wouldn't put it past them.

- [Piotr] If we
imagine that the finish

of this construction works
at the Riese complexes

should be in the 50s, even,

there was enough time to
connect it underground.

- We're still discovering
additional tunnels,

additional facilities all
the way to the present.

So there's still
mysteries that are waiting

to be discovered.

And as an historian, you
hesitate to say such things,

but the record is clear.

We continue with every passing
year to find new evidence

of new Nazi tunnels,
new Nazi facilities,

and this is so extensive
under the castle

that I'm sure over
the next few years,

they're gonna uncover
even more tunnels

and more passageways
that were unknown.

[birds chirp]
[dark brooding music]

[dramatic suspenseful music]