Original subtitles

♪♪

I Can't -- I Can't Believe You Found This.

Something Here Is Sticking Out Of The Reeds,

Looks Manmade.

♪♪

[ Engines Rev ]

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. What Do We Got?

-0.74. -Back Up. Back Up.

Back Up. Back Up. Everybody, Back Up.

Oh, My God.

Holy [Bleep] It's A Grenade.

We Got An Old German Grenade Down Here.

♪♪

My Name Is Josh Gates.

With A Degree In Archaeology And A Passion For Exploration,

I Have A Tendency To End Up In Some Very Strange Situations.

Good Lord!

[ Laughs ]

My Travels Have Taken Me To The Ends Of The Earth

As I Investigate The Greatest Legends In History.

We're Good To Fly. Let's Go.

This Is "Expedition Unknown."

--Captions By Vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions Paid For By Discovery Communications

70 Years After The End Of The Second World War,

The Crimes And The Secrets

Of The Nazi Party Are Still Being Revealed.

There Really Is A Lot More Here Than I Really Realized.

Recently, Authorities Have Recovered

And Repatriated Priceless Art Confiscated By The Third Reich

And There Are Legends Of Much More Yet To Be Found.

Wow. This Is Incredible.

What Is This Place? -Nobody Exactly Knows.

In Poland, I Joined A Subterranean Investigation

To Seek A Vanished Train Car Full Of Stolen Nazi Gold.

Wow!

This Is So Cool.

The Search Led To Never-Before-Documented Tunnels,

Part Of An Elaborate Nazi Construction Project.

Oh, My Lord!

I've Never Seen A Place Like This.

♪♪

And Here In Austria, The Hunt Is On To Solve One

Of The Strangest Mysteries Of World War Two.

In 1945, With The Allies Closing In,

Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop

Is Rumored To Have Hidden His Entire Fortune,

Including Gold And Jewelry Worth Millions,

Personal Possessions Of Adolf Hitler Himself,

As Well As The Entire Contents Of His Family's Wine Cellar,

Reputed To Be Among The Best In Europe.

Just Beyond His Castle, He's Believed To Have Rode Out

Onto An Alpine Lake, Where He Dropped

The Loot, Books, And Booze Into The Dark And Deep Waters.

I've Joined Salvage Expert Wolfgang Falch Just Offshore

From The Von Ribbentrops' Mountain Retreat,

Which Still Looms Ominously Over Lake Fuschl.

Together, We've Deployed Cutting-Edge Side-Scan Sonar

To Find Their Lost Fortune.

Okay. So, Tow Fish In The Water, Sonar Scan Underway.

After The Sonar Detects Several Anomalies In The Lake Bed --

Ooh. What Is That, Right There?

What's That Square Object?

We Deploy A Remote-Operated Vehicle, Or Rov,

And Discover A Significant Clue

That Suggests We're Looking In The Right Place.

It's A Boat!

-Yes. -How [Bleep] Cool Is That?!

♪♪

Now, We've Used The Rov's Onboard Sonar To Search Nearby

And Have Found Something That Looks Like It Could Verify Part

Of The Von Ribbentrop Legend.

You See That? -Okay. Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.

Right There. You See That Dark Thing?

-Yes, Yes, Yes. -What Is That?

-Well, Okay. I've Got It. -See?

-Oh. Hold On. Okay. -Yeah. Yeah.

So See If You Can Rotate

-Yeah. -Around The Neck?

That's A Champagne Bottle! -That Is A --

That Is A [Bleep] Champagne Bottle.

That's A Great Bottle. It's Unbelievable.

♪♪

Though The Label Is Long Gone,

This Is Clearly A Very Old Bottle Of Wine

And It Aligns Perfectly With The Legend

Of The Von Ribbentrops.

Perhaps The Rest Of Their Fortune,

Including Some Of Hitler's Personal Possessions,

Really Is Down Here.

Can We Haul It Up?

Sure, We Could, You Know,

But Let's Just Put It Down Where It Is Right Now

And Let's See If There Is Any Stuff

Close To It, Around It.

Not Wanting To Drift Too Far From Such A Promising

Target Area, We Set The Bottle Back Down

And Sweep The Surrounding Lake Bed In Concentric Circles.

Whaddya Got, Anything?

No, Not Really. There's A Lot Of Growth,

You Know, At The Bottom. -Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

And This Is Shielding Off Our Sonar Signal.

But, With So Much Vegetation In This End Of The Lake,

The Rov Is Rendered Nearly Blind.

If You Really Wanna See What's Down There,

I Would Say, You Know, You Got To Dive.

D-Dive In The Water?

Yeah. I Would Say So.

How Warm Is The Lake?

Well, It's A Good Question,

But I Think It's Not Too Cold.

I Wouldn't Wanna Do It.

[ Laughter ] "I Wouldn't Wanna Do It."

Right. Okay.

You Know Some Divers?

-I Got The Best. -Yeah?

Yeah.

Hello.

Enter Gerhard Kaiser.

He And His Team Meet Us On The Shores Of Lake Fuschl

To Help Take This Investigation To The Next Level.

How Long Have You Been Diving In Lakes Here In This Region?

Since 1987. You Can Say

I'm A Little Bit Experienced.

Yeah, I Would Say So. Our Aim Here Is To Attempt

To Verify This Story Of Whether Or Not, You Know,

Ribbentrop May Have Dumped Things In The Lake.

We Had A Great Sonar Run And Actually Found

A Bottle Of Champagne, Which Is Amazing, You Know.

-Yeah, This Is Great. -And I Know Those Have Been

Found Here In The Past, And So, That Really Puts

A Whole Different Layer On This, Saying That, "Okay.

At Least A Part Of This Story Seems To Be True."

Now, Whether Or Not, Along With The Champagne,

There's Gold And Cannisters And Things Like That, Who Knows?

But, Yeah. -We Will Discover.

Yeah. Are You Ready? -We Are Ready.

Please Tell Me That You Have A Very Warm Drysuit For Me.

-Yes, I Promise To You. -Yeah?

-Yeah. [Chuckle] -Okay. Thank God. Here We Go.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

Diving In Near-Freezing Water High In The Alps

Wasn't On My Itinerary, So Gerhard And His Team

Generously Loan Me Some Essential Equipment.

After Gerhard Zips Me Up,

We Slide Into The Icy Waters Of Lake Fuschl.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

♪♪

We Head Directly To The Area Where The Sonar Got A Hit.

This Dive Gets A Whole Lot More Difficult

Once We See What's Under The Surface.

The Thick Vegetation Makes It Nearly Impossible

To See What The Sonar Picked Up.

And Beneath The Plant Growth, There's A Heavy Layer Of Silt

That Produces Thick Clouds With The Slightest Touch.

This Is Not The Best Way To Find Anything.

We Search The Lake Bed By Hand,

Groping Around As If In A Dark Room.

But It Pays Off As Gerhard Makes A Major Discovery.

This Is A Bayonet Blade,

Which Is A Genuine Artifact From World War Two.

Gerhard Is So Overwhelmed With Excitement

That He Puts The Blade In His Mouth.

Gerhard Is Weird.

As Luck Would Have It, I'm The Next Person

To Discover Something Down Here.

Unfortunately, It's About The Last Thing

You'd Ever Hope To Find.

Wow. I Mean, Josh,

I Am Not Sure If This Is Good

Or Not, You Know.

I Mean, Be Cautious.

I'm Not Looking To Become The Last Casualty Of World War Two,

So I Leave The Grenade Right Where I Found It And Swim Away.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

We Spend The Remainder Of Our Air Searching

For Gas Cans, Crates, Anything

To Further Corroborate The Story Of The Von Ribbentrops.

But In These Conditions, We Can't Even Locate The Bottle

We Initially Found, Another Piece Of The Legend

Reclaimed By The Swirling Silt.

Very Good, Josh.

Waiting To See You Here.

With Our Tanks Running Low And The Temperature Dropping,

We Resurface And Head For The Shore.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

♪♪

Couple Amazing Things Down There.

Really Cool Grenade, Which I Was Not Going To Take Up.

Really Cool, Though. -Yeah.

And This Bayonet Blade, Which Which He Has,

Which Is Just Gorgeous. I Mean, Really, Really Cool.

But, No Gold.

But I Have To Tell You -- It Feels Like

We Can Say With Certainty

That Things Were Dumped In This Lake

And That, Probably, There's A Lot More To Be Found Here.

No. I Agree.

I'll Let You Know What I Find.

It Was Great. All The Best, Wolfgang.

While Von Ribbentrop's Fortune May Still Be Out There,

I Settle For The Justice That Only History Can Provide.

Joachim Von Ribbentrop Was Arrested In June Of 1945

And Tried At Nuremberg.

He Was Convicted For His Role In World War Two

And Enabling The Holocaust And, On October 16, 1946,

He Became The First Nazi War Criminal To Be Hanged.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

As Those Nuremberg Trials Would Prove,

The Nazis Went To Great Lengths To Conceal More Than Just Gold.

♪♪

Only 100 Miles From Lake Fuschl,

Researchers May Have Uncovered An Explosive Secret,

Which The Nazis Moved The Earth Itself To Keep Hidden.

There, A Historian Claims To Have Found

A Top-Secret Underground Facility.

And Inside May Be The Answer

To One Of History's Greatest Mysteries.

How Close Was Hitler To Having An Atomic Bomb?

You're Saying That, Beyond What We Know,

There May Be More Tunnel Systems?

Yeah. We Are Talking About The Largest

Underground Facility Ever Built.

Ooh. [Bleep]

Oh, My God.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

♪♪

Gates: I'm In The Austrian Alps,

Continuing My Investigation Into Nazi Secrets.

With Majestic Hills All Around, I Can't Help But Think Of --

[ Suspenseful Chord Strikes ]

You Know What? Hang On A Second.

I Gotta Do Something.

[ Music Swells ]

I Can't Afford The Rights To It.

It's Just Too Expensive.

More Twirling? Okay.

[ Upbeat Tune Plays ]

Okay. That Feels Better.

The Hills Here Truly Are Alive With The Sound Of Music

And, Right Now, It's Coming From The Nearby Town Of Linz.

♪♪

And, When In Linz, It's All But Required

To Stop In This Historic Bakery.

Hello. A Linzer Torte, Please.

Yes.

Which Size You Like? -Big.

-Big? -Big. Yes. Are You Kidding?

Thank You.

Here Is The World-Famous Linzer Torte,

First Made In The 1600S.

I Actually Think This One Might've Been

From The Original Batch.

A Little Dry, If I'm Being Honest.

Linz, Of Course, Famous For One Thing --

Its Pastries.

Well, Hitler Grew Up Here, But, Mostly, The Pastries.

Let's Stick With That.

Yep, This Is Hitler's Hometown.

But, Believe Me, It Doesn't Come Up A Lot.

They're Not Exactly Naming High Schools After The Guy.

But That Doesn't Mean He Didn't Have An Impact Here.

Hitler Had Big Plans For Linz.

He Wanted To Turn This Into The Cultural Capital

Of The Third Reich.

He Even Wanted To Design A Fuehrer Museum,

An Art Museum That Would Display Many

Of The Nazi's Stolen Treasures From Around Europe.

But It Was Never Meant To Be.

Though He Had Ambitious Plans For This Town, The Only Thing

He Ever Managed To Build Here Was This One Bridge.

Which, By The Way, Is Super Ugly.

♪♪

With Linz In The Rearview Mirror,

I Motored The Porsche On Toward My Next Investigation.

So, Coming Into The Town Of Gusen,

Which Is A Place With A Really Dark History.

Seems Kind Of Appropriately Gray And Overcast Here.

This Is A Stop That...

I Think Is Gonna Be Tough.

[ Ominous Music Plays ]

Almost Immediately After The Invasion Of Austria,

The Nazis Built A Network Of Concentration Camps,

One Of The Most Infamous Of Which Was Mauthausen,

Which Has Been Preserved As A Gutwrenching Reminder

Of The Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Who Perished Here.

But Down The Road Was Another Concentration Camp, Named Gusen,

Whose History Has Been Largely Overshadowed.

In Fact, You'd Hardly Know It Was Ever Here.

♪♪

The Camp Has Been Turned Into A Residential Neighborhood.

♪♪

Prisoner Barracks Are Now Used For Storage.

♪♪

The Main Administrative Building Is Actually Someone's Home.

♪♪

Only One Small Part Of The Original Facility Remains --

A Memorial Built Over The Crematorium.

[ Dramatic Music Plays ]

♪♪

It's Impossible To Just Tidily Sum Up

The Experience Of This Place, So I'll Just Say This --

The Phrase "Never Forget" Is Not A Slogan.

It Is An Imperative.

We Mustnever Forget Places Like This.

The Alternative Is Unthinkable.

I'm Meeting With Rudolf Haunschmied,

An Author And Expert On The Legacy Of The Nazis In Gusen.

Why Was This Spot Chosen?

Why Did They Wanna Build A Camp Right Here?

It Is One Key Location In Nazi Germany,

In Terms Of High Technology,

Projects That Were Done For The Nazi War Machine,

And Part Of That Was The Construction

Of Large, Underground Facilities.

The Largest Of Those Facilities

Is The Bergkristall Complex.

Bergkristall Was Built

To Manufacture The World's First Jet-Powered Fighter,

One That Was Supposed To Help The Nazi Luftwaffe

Finally Defeat The Allies.

It Was Constructed Beneath The Mountains,

A Bombproof Megafactory That Was Entirely Dug By Hand.

Concentration Camp Prisoners Were Forced

To Work 24 Hours A Day

To Create This Underground Labyrinth,

Much Of Which Has Never Been Explored.

What Do You Think Stands To Be Found In These Tunnels?

I Mean, What Do You Think Is Down There?

We Don't Know About Everything.

It Is Likely That Some Chemical Laboratories

Serving The War Industry Can Be Found

And Some People Believe That There May Even Be

Bodies In These Tunnels.

Bodies, Laborers From The Camp?

Yes.

And How Many Do They Estimate Could Be There?

It Could Be Thousands Or Ten Thousands, Or More.

20,000 Jews Were Liberated By The Americans

When They Took Gusen, But Records Show

Thousands More Unaccounted For, Leading Some To Speculate That,

In The Closing Days Of The War,

These Tunnels May Have Also Been Used As A Tomb.

Rudolph Isn't The Only One

Who Suspects There's A Lot More Beneath Gusen

Than Historians Have Previously Suspected.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

♪♪

In Fact, A Local Researcher Recently Claimed

To Make A Remarkable Discovery About The Tunnels.

He's Agreed To Meet Me At A Nearby Remnant

From The War, An Old Rifle Range

Where The Nazi Ss Once Practiced Their Marksmanship.

[ Gunshot ]

Andreas. -Hey, Josh.

Hi. Nice To Meet You. -Nice To Meet You.

Yeah, It's A Pleasure.

Andreas Sulzer Has Shaken Some Ivory Towers

With His Controversial Theories About Bergkristall.

So, Officially, We Know There Are

Some Pretty Large Structures Underground Here, Right?

But You're Saying That, Beyond What We Know,

There May Be More Tunnel Systems?

Yeah. There Is Definitely Much More.

We Know About Bergkristall Complex,

Which Is Said To Be

Around 5 Miles Of Tunnels,

But We Know, From Other Documents

We Found In Archives That We Are Talking Here

About 25 Miles Of Tunnels,

So There Are 20 Miles Of Tunnels

It's Not Known What's Down There

And It Has Never Been Revealed.

This Idea That There Could Be As Much As 20 Miles

Of These Tunnels. I Mean, That's

A Crazy Number. It's A Hugenumber.

It's Huge, Yeah.

You're Talking About, Now,

3, 4 Times The Size Of What We Know About.

Yeah. So, Based On The Documents,

We Are Talking About The Largest

Underground Facility Ever Built.

Wow.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

♪♪

Gates: At A Former Ss Rifle Range Near Gusen, Austria,

Researcher Andreas Sulzer Shows Me Documents That May Prove

That The Nazis Built A Secret Underground Facility Nearby.

This Is A Spy Report.

Uh-Huh. -It's Dated From February '45.

Right. And This Is Saying That An Eyewitness Here

Personally Saw The Following Excavations.

-Yeah. -Due North Of St. Georgen Gusen,

Just After The Road Is An Ss Rifle Range

And Just North Is A Mountain

Where A Large Excavation Has Been Made.

I Mean, That's Literally Where We're Sitting.

And This Is Known To Nobody.

Right. So, Who's Spearheading This Effort

To Put All This Stuff Underground?

A Really Very Important Person -- The Ss General

And Ss Obergruppenfuehrer Hans Kammler.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

Hans Kammler Was An Ss Engineer

Who Designed Many Of Hitler's Concentration Camps.

His Proven Efficiency For Slaughter

Earned Him Numerous Promotions

And He Eventually Oversaw The Secret Weapons Projects

Of The Reich, Including The V-2 Rocket

And, It Is Believed, The Nazi Nuclear Program.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

This Is From, Essentially, A Company

That Worked With The Nazis -Yes.

And Talking About Gusen, They List 1, 2, 3,

4 Different Facilities,

4 Different Underground Facilities.

And I See Kammler's Name On Here Quite A Bit.

So They're Essentially Saying That Kammler Oversaw This?

Yes.

We Know Kammler Oversaw One Underground Facility

Near Here, Called Bergkristall, But Seeing His Name

And The Additional Sites Listed On These Documents

Indicates That Other Important Subterranean Facilities

Could Be Located Right Near This Rifle Range.

So, When You Found All Of This Stuff,

Did The Authorities Here Agree That This Stuff Exists?

No. They Said It's All Fantasy.

That's, Uh, [Bleep] Yeah?

Lucky For Us,

Andreas Isn't The Type Of Guy To Take No For An Answer.

He Even Dug Up Spy Photos From The British Archives

That Show Something Very Strange.

Today, There Are Only Woods Behind The Rifle Range,

But The Wartime Photos Clearly Show A Road Emanating

From The Building And Headed To A Structure Beyond.

So We Are Now Sitting Here At The Rifle Range.

Sitting In Right In Front Of This Exact Building.

Yeah, Exact Building.

So This Is A Road Of Some Kind?

Yeah. It Looks Like A Road Of Some Kind.

But, For Me, Based Just On The Documents,

It's A Camouflaged Entrance For Trucks.

To Verify That There Was Once Something There,

Andreas Even Scanned The Forest Floor.

We Made Geophysical Survey

With Ground-Penetrating Radar And We Really Found

What We See In The Documents.

So We See, In 60 Meters' Depth,

Huge Tunnel Structures.

And This Is Running North Here

To This Direction, Where We Sit.

This Looks, I Mean, Undeniably Like A Tunnel.

It's Very, Very Interesting.

It's More Than Interesting. -Yeah.

It's Astounding.

Forget The Archives, Even.

If This Doesn't Convince You -- When You Look

At Something Like This, How Can You Not Be Convinced

That There's Something Underground Here?

Andreas Was Convinced, So Much So,

That He Picked Up A Shovel, Fired Up A Few Backhoes,

And Started Digging.

So You Started Digging And What Did You Find?

Did You Find Anything? -Yeah.

We Found A Huge Structure Out Of Granite

With Concrete Steps Going Down.

Wait, So You Actually Found An Entrance To This Tunnel?

Yeah.

I Mean, That's -- That's It.

It's Crazy, But We Got Stopped By The Police.

So, Effectively, They Shut You Down.

Yeah.

The Austrian Government Didn't Take Kindly

To Andreas's Homespun Investigation

And Immediately Declared The Area Off-Limits.

Andreas Has Even Been Threatened With Arrest,

If He Moves So Much As One More Shovel Of Earth.

Is It Possible For You To Show Me What You Found Back Here?

Yes, Of Course. Let's Go.

Great.

[ Ominous Music Plays ]

He Leads Me Behind The Shooting Range,

To The Area He Excavated.

Here We Go.

So This Is The Interesting Area.

Uh-Huh.

So This Is The Prohibited Area?

That's Prohibited. It's Prohibited Here.

Even Though He Can't Dig,

He's Still Allowed To Access The Site,

So We Casually Step Under A No-Trespassing Sign,

Which Is One Of My Favorite Things To Do.

♪♪

Well, This Was All Made

From Autumn '43 Onwards. -Uh-Huh.

There Are Clearly Echoes Of An Old Road Here.

There Are Even The Rusted Remains Of A Barricade.

Why To Build This Here,

If It's Just A Shooting Range?

You Just Do That If You Want To Secure

A Very Important Object.

Right. And, When You Came Here

And You Started Excavating, Where Was The Soil Level?

You See, This Was A Hill.

You Excavated All Of This? -Yeah.

And You Had What, Like Heavy Equipment

You Came In Here With? -We Had Heavy Equipment.

Armed Only With Determination, A Well-Used Library Card,

And A Freakish Amount Of Gut Instinct,

Andreas Is Convinced There's A Nazi Secret Here.

But The Question Is -- Can He Prove It?

And This Is What We Found.

Oh, My God.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

Gates: At A Nazi Rifle Range

Near A Former Austrian Concentration Camp,

Researcher Andreas Sulzer Has Shown Me

Previously Classified Documents And Compelling Spy Photos

Of What He Believes Is A Top-Secret Nazi Facility.

Is It Possible For You To Show Me What You Found Back Here?

Yes, Of Course. Let's Go.

Great.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

He Leads Me Through The Woods To Where His Team Excavated.

And, While It All Sounds Very Exciting, I'm Not 100 Percent

Convinced That He's Really On To Something.

And When You Came Here And You Started Excavating,

Where Was The Soil Level?

You See, This Was A Hill.

You Excavated All Of This? -Yeah.

And You Had What, Like Heavy Equipment

You Came In Here With? -We Had Heavy Equipment.

And This Is What We Found.

Oh, My God.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

Are You Kidding Me?

This Is Me, Speechless, Maybe For The First Time, Ever.

Look At This.

This Is Like -- This Is Real.

Yeah.

It Turns Out That Andreas Wasn't Just Chasing

A Conspiracy Theory About A Secret Nazi Structure.

He Actually Hit Paydirt.

This Is Crazy.

I-I-I Don't Know What I Thought I Was Gonna Find Here.

I Thought You Were Gonna Show Me Like

A Natural Cave Or Something -No, No, No.

That May Have Been Used By People.

This Is Like From The Basement Of A Castle.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

And Where Does This Go?

So, Come On. I Will Show You.

It's Really, Really Interesting.

This Is Nuts.

Whatever This Is, It Was Meant To Be Permanent

And No One But Andreas Suspected It Existed.

♪♪

This Is Unbelievable.

I Can't --

I Can't Believe You Found This.

I Mean, What Was Your Reaction When You Found A Staircase?

Unbelievable.

Digging Out All This Soil, -Yeah.

What Did You Find?

We Found Some Interesting Artifacts.

I Will Show You. -Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

Yeah. So We Digged Out Of At The Deepest Point.

That's An Original --

It's A Helmet. It's An Ss Helmet, Yeah?

It's An Ss Helmet, Yeah.

You're Right.

This Is Insane.

Wow.

Okay. Ss Helmet.

I Mean Doesn't Get Much More Concrete Than That,

When It Comes To Evidence, Right?

Right. So That's Definitive Proof --

This Is Not Some Farmer's Basement, Right?

Yeah. That's The Point, So.

Okay. What Else You Got?

This Is Strange.

I Don't Know What That Is.

So This Is A Truck Step.

It's The End Of A Truck.

Oh, To Step Up Onto The Back. -To Step Up...

-Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. -...Onto The Back.

It's A Broken Step.

So At This Point, You've Got Really Compelling

Archival Evidence. You Have Dug Down

And Found A Subterranean Facility

And Found Nazi Artifacts. -Yes.

I Don't Know What Could Be More Airtight Than That,

To Indicate That This Is Somehow A Facility Of Some Importance.

Physical Proof.

Now, The Same Local Authorities

Who Insisted This Place Didn't Even Exist

Are Dismissing It, As Just Part Of The Rifle Range.

But Andreas And Others Aren't Buying That.

Military Experts Say It's Definitely An Entrance

Into A Tunnel System.

And It's Not Typical Design Of A Shooting Range.

No. I Mean, It Looks Like Dracula's Basement.

Another Sign That This Isn't Just Part Of The Rifle Range

Is Right In Front Of Us --

This Staircase Keeps Going.

Here's The Next Steps, Going Down.

This Is The End Of The Line.

Yeah.

I Can See What Looks Like Another Stair.

Yeah. Here's Another Stair.

Here's The Next Stair. -And You Think It Keeps Going?

Yeah, It Keeps Going Down.

And Then, Here, It's Just Flooded Out.

-Yeah. -What's Your Theory?

Where Does This Go?

Because, Right Now, We're At A Dead End, Right?

We've Got A Few More Stairs Here

And Then, I'm Lookin' At A Pool Of Water.

So, Beyond This, In My Opinion,

Is A Tunnel Entrance

Where Trucks And Cars Could Drive In.

And You Think That That Tunnel Leads

Into These Facilities That Kammler Described,

To These Other Secret Facilities?

Yes.

Below This Flooded Stairwell

Could Be Hitler's Top-Secret Weapons Lab

And The Austrian Government

Won't Allow Anyone To Dig Deeper Here.

But That Doesn't Mean That Andreas

Is Ready To Call It Quits.

The Uncovered Documents Mentioned Nazi Engineer

Hans Kammler, Which Led Andreas To This Mysterious Staircase.

He Believes The Stairs Go Down To A Truck Tunnel

That Connects To The Secret Facility.

We Already Know That Kammler Built The Massive

Underground Jet-Airplane Factory Known As Bergkristall.

Could There Be Tunnels At Bergkristall

That Lead To This Never-Before-Discovered Lab?

That's What We Plan To Find Out.

Andreas Arranges To Borrow An Atv And A Dirt Bike

From The Owner Of The Rifle Range And We Hit The Road.

[ Engines Rev ]

♪♪

A Few Miles Later,

Andreas Pulls Up In Front Of A Strange-Looking Edifice.

♪♪

What Is That? -This Is The Only Left Entrance

To The Known Underground System Bergkristall.

You Think There's Layers Beneath This, Though,

That Have Never Been Seen? -Yeah.

We Know, From Documents, That There Is,

Beyond The Known Tunnel System,

A Much More Huger System... -Right.

...Which Was One Of Kammler's

Top-Secret Facilities During World War Two.

And Do You Think That It's Possible, From Inside There,

To Reach These Lower Levels That You're Talking About?

If You Start Drilling From Inside,

But They Have Found High Radiation In There.

When You Are In There For One Hour,

You Have Already Your Yearly Dose Reach,

So It's Really Dangerous.

Wow. One Hour In There Is A Year Of Radiation?

The Radiation Is A Potential Clue

That The Nazis Were Working With Nuclear Materials,

But It Also Means That We're Not Walking In There

Without Getting A Serious Tan.

Okay. So, Radioactive.

Yeah. Not Nice.

No, Not Nice At All. Let's Find Another Way In.

-Yeah, Okay. -Okay. Let's Go.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

It's Clear That We're Not Getting In Here.

But Andreas Has One More Idea Up His Sleeve.

We Navigate Overgrown Dirt Roads That Date Back To The War.

Here, Deep In The Forest, The Documents Reveal The Nazis

Began Excavating A Series Of Sandstone Tunnels

That Andreas Has Been Attempting To Map.

♪♪

Okay.

So, Here It Is.

This Is A Very Promising Area.

And How Many Entrances Are Known Here?

We're Still Mapping These Tunnels

And I'm Convinced A Lot Of Tunnels

Are Not Yet Known Or Not Yet Found.

We Think That These Tunnels Could Be

Connected To The Rest Of The Larger Tunnels.

We Have A Look Now. If We Find

A Small Entrance To Climb In,

If It's Open, And See How Far We Can Go.

Okay. Well, Let's Look Around.

-Okay, Great. -Let's Do It. Come On.

You Look Around There And Let Me Know If You See Anything.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

We Criss-Cross The Woods On Foot For Hours,

For Any Sign Of An Opening That Might Lead Underground.

♪♪

It Isn't Looking Good.

Until...

You Find Something? -Yeah.

Here's A Small Entrance, It Looks Like.

Oh, That Definitely Goes In.

Yeah.

That Goes In.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

♪♪

Gates: In The Forest Of Austria,

Researcher Andreas Sulzer And I May Have Found A Way

Into A Top-Secret Atomic Nazi Facility.

Here, It Looks Like There Is A Small Entrance.

Oh, Look At That. It Looks Like

All The Roots And Stuff Eroded Away.

It Was Probably Covering The Whole Thing.

The Side Of The Hill Has Collapsed In A Recent Storm,

Revealing A Cavity Underneath.

Yeah. Let's Take A Look Down There.

Ooh. [Bleep]

Oh.

It's Okay. I Got It. -Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

♪♪

-Really Small. -That Definitely Goes Back.

Let's See Where It Goes.

Okay.

Let's Go. -After You, Please.

Yeah, Okay.

We Pull Ourselves Through The Narrow Opening

And I'm Amazed To Feel The Earth Sloping Down Ahead Of Me.

Holy [Bleep]

Oh, It's Huge. -Ooh.

These Tunnels Feel Very Different

From The Manufactured Stairwell That Andreas Discovered.

Here, It's Floor-To-Ceiling Sandstone

That Appears To Be Crumbling All Around Us.

It's Spooky As Hell, And We Aren't 50 Feet In Yet.

Yeah, It's A Huge Labyrinth In Here.

Now That We're In Here, What's The Plan?

We Need To See If There's Any Connecting Tunnel

That Leads Deeper To The Unknown System In Gusen.

Right. In Terms Of Leading Us To Those Other Tunnels,

What Are We Looking For?

We Are Looking For A Tunnel That

Leads Deeper And Also Important

And Have A Look If There Is Radiation.

If It Goes Down Into Those Tunnels,

Some Of Which We Know, From Bergkristall, Were Radioactive.

-Yeah. -Okay, Yes,

We Should Definitely Keep An Eye On The Radiation.

Yeah. Okay.

Let's Get To It. You Ready?

Okay.

Andreas Hasn't Been In These Particular Tunnels,

But He's Done Extensive Exploring In Similar Systems

Near Gusen, So He's Prepared.

A Geiger Counter Will Track The Radiation,

Bringing Us Closer To The Possible Weapons Lab,

Hopefully, Without Picking Up A Lethal Dose On The Way.

These Caves Are Not Reinforced, Right?

No. So --

It's Just Sandstone. -Yeah, It's Raw Sandstone.

They Were Built By Hand, By Prisoners,

So They Had No Drilling Machines.

Wow. These Are All Pickmarks, Yeah?

Yeah.

From The Concentration Camp Laborers?

Yeah.

Each Mark In The Walls

Represents The Slave Labor Of A Prisoner,

Many Of Whom Were Worked To Death Here.

The Tunnel Stretches Out Into The Darkness,

The Marks Too Numerous To Count.

So Let's See What's Over Here.

♪♪

The Tunnels Run In Several Directions.

Some Are Partially Blocked, Some Completely Collapsed.

Here's A Huge Collapse.

Yeah. Big Collapse.

I Mean, Big Pieces Here. -Yeah.

The Collapses In The Tunnel Walls Demonstrate

How Brittle The Sandstone Can Be

And Just How Dangerous It Is For Us To Be Down Here.

The Crazy Thing Is That

This Whole Tunnel Is Essentially Sand.

I Mean, It's Almost Like Walking On A Beach.

Yeah.

Andreas And I Scour The Dark With Our Flashlights,

Until We Find The Very Thing He's Been Looking For.

And, Oh, That Goes Down. That Goes Down.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

See That? -Yeah, That Looks Good.

That's Really, Really Spooky.

Okay. So That Goes Down To A Lower Level.

The Side Tunnel Goes Downward, Deeper Into The Facility.

We Keep Our Geiger Counter Nearby,

In Case The Atoms In Here Get A Little Jumpy.

Radiation Is Raising A Little Bit.

0.21. -0.21.

Going Up. Going Up. -Yeah.

Okay. So Let's Go...

Let's Go Down. -...Down Here.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

Okay. This Works Good

Down Here.

You Okay? -Okay. I'm Ready.

-Yeah. -Okay.

♪♪

Okay.

My Crew Deserves Some Serious Credit Here.

I've Dragged Them To A Lot Of Weird And Dangerous Places,

But At Least They Weren't Radioactive.

All Right. Let's Go.

Yeah. So, All Right.

Radiation? -Radiation Is Going Up.

Going Up, 0.32. -Yeah.

Still Safe.

So We Have To Be Careful Here.

Getting Tighter And Tighter.

Okay. What's Here?

Here Is Going Into Next Chamber.

Oh, It's Unbelievable, So. -Yeah.

So -- -Whoa. Stop.

Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop.

That Looks Like It Drops Into A Big Chamber,

But It Goes Straight Down.

We've Found Yet Another Level Down.

The Deeper We Go, The Higher Our Radiation Readings.

It's Like Following A Trail Of Breadcrumbs

Out In The Woods, Except The Breadcrumbs

Can Kill You And The Woods Are

A Secret Doomsday Lab Run By Mad Nazi Scientists.

Uh, Okay. Let's Try To Get Down There.

Okay.

Andreas Has Brought Some Climbing Gear

For Just This Kind Of Obstacle.

The Only Problem Is That The Sandstone Is So Soft,

It's Hard To Trust Our Anchor Points.

We Find An Iron Stake Around Which To Tie A Rope

And Then Pray The Rock Beneath

Is Strong Enough To Hold It In Place.

Andreas, I Don't Think This Is Goin' Anywhere.

-Okay. -We Got One Anchor Point Here.

Okay. That Works. That's Perfect.

Okay. I'll Lower You Down -Yeah.

And I'll Be Right Behind You. -Safe. Great.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

Okay. It Works, Great.

Slowly.

Lower Me Down A Little Bit.

Great! I'm Down!

You're Down? -Down!

-Off Pulley. -Great!

Okay.

Now, It's My Turn.

Rope's Comin' Down. You Ready?

-Okay. I'm Ready. -Okay. Here We Go.

-Got It. -Okay.

[ Suspenseful Music Plays ]

-Take Care. -Yep.

Okay. Looks Good.

Slowly.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!

[ Suspenseful Chord Strikes ]

Wanna Know More About Tonight's Expedition?

Then Set A Course For Travelchannel.Com,

Where You Can Go Behind The Scenes

With Exclusive Photos, Never-Before-Aired Footage,

And More.

[ Suspenseful Chord Strikes ]

I'm 200 Feet Beneath Austria

In A Previously Uncharted Nazi Tunnel System.

Now, We're Rappelling Deeper, In Order To Follow

A Radioactive Trail Down To A Secret Atomic Laboratory.

And I'm Taking The Express Route.

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!

Holy [Bleep]

I'm Okay. I Think I'm Fine.

Rope Slipped.

Ooh, Super Crumbly In Here. -Yeah.

Lucky For Me, The Soft Sandstone

Only Took Out One Of My Anchor Points,

Leaving Me Shaken, But Not Interred.

Okay. Comin' Down.

Walls Are Just Comin' Apart, I Mean, Really Sandy.

Sulzer: Okay. Almost Done.

Almost There. -Great.

-Okay. -We Did It.

Phew! Whoa.

Okay. Big Room. -Yeah.

[ Ominous Music Plays ]

Andreas And I Follow The Tunnel Further Down,

Keeping One Eye On Our Geiger Counters At All Times.

Okay. -Okay.

So. [ Counter Beeps ]

So, Here, Radiation Is Going Up.

Yeah. -It's Going Up, Up.

Wherever This Heads, It's More Radioactive.

I Mean -- -Yeah.

[ Eerie Music Plays ]

Okay.

♪♪

Here, In This Area,

The Radiation Is At The Highest Point.

Radiation -- 0.61. -Yeah.

[ Beeping ]

The Device Shows More Than Triple

The Normal Background Radiation At The Surface.

It's Still Safe For Human Exposure,

But The Numbers Are Rising.

You Think There's Another Doorway Here?

So, Probably, There Is Something,

A Chamber, Beyond Our Feet.

Yes.

You Can Hear It. -Yeah.

Something Under There.

There's Lots Of Loose Sand On The Floor Here

And We Can Feel A Hollow Space Beneath Our Feet.

Could It Be Another Chamber, Even Further Down?

[ Eerie Music Plays ]

[ Counter Beeps ]

The Deeper We Descend,

The Higher The Radiation Levels Rise.

[ Beeping ]

[ Rapid Beeping ]

Whoa, Oh, Oh! What Do We Got?

0.74. Look At This.

Okay. Back Up. Back Up. Back Up. Back Up.

Everybody, Back Up. -Okay.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

Guys, Back It Up. Come On. -Yeah. Let's Go.

Here, Back Up. Back Up. -Yeah.

Let's Go Back. Yeah. -Okay. Too Hot. Too, Too Hot.

-Yeah. Oh. -So That's Like...

Yeah, 5 To 7 Times Higher Than Outside.

Yeah.

While I'm Willing To Risk A Lot For My Audience,

Hair Loss And Sterility Are Off The Table.

Could There Be A Concentrated Natural Pocket Of Radiation

Just In This Tunnel?

It's A Sign That There Is

A Hollow Chamber Somewhere Down.

So Whatever Is Down There Is Gonna Require Excavation?

-Yeah. -Whatever It Is, Is Important.

If It's Weapons And Things

That Could Help Us Understand World War Two Better,

It's Important. -Of Course.

And If It's Bodies, Then That's The Most Important.

There's Definitely Something Down Here.

And The Answers May Be Further In These Tunnels.

Yeah.

My Hope Is That You Get The Permits

That You Need And That You Keep Digging.

Yeah. And Thanks For Your Help And Expertise, So.

Once You Get Through That Radioactive Area,

I'll Be Back In A Heartbeat. All Right. Hey, Man.

Thank You Very Much. -Thank You Very Much.

Andreas Makes A Note Of The Location, In The Hopes

That He Can Continue His Investigation One Day,

Preferably With Hazmat Suits And Some Heavy Equipment

And With The Austrian Government Unwilling

To Allow That, Further Answers Will Have To Wait.

[ Suspenseful Music Climbs ]

We Are Now A Full Lifetime Away

From The Scourge Of Nazi Germany,

Yet The Grave Damage They Did To Europe Lingers.

We Are Still Coming To Terms With The Genocide

They Committed, The Cultural Treasures They Stole,

And The Scientific And Financial Resources

They Perverted For Evil Ends.

To Pry Open The Last Locked Doors Of That Era,

I've Traveled To Three Countries

To Examine Three Very Different Mysteries.

Near The Lakeside Mansion

Of One Of The Third Reich's Most Notorious War Criminals,

We Discovered Historically Significant

And Potentially Deadly Artifacts.

In Poland, I Scoured The Remnants

Of The Infamous Project Riesa And Found, Not Gold,

But Miles Of Uncharted Tunnels That Shine A Spotlight On One

Of The Great Undertold Stories Of World War Two.

And, In The Sinister Shadow Of An Austrian Concentration Camp,

We've Witnessed A Sensational Find By A Determined Explorer

And Found Possible Evidence

Of An Advanced Weapons Program Deep Underground.

And While It Will Take Time To Uncover All The Answers

To These Mysteries, We Must Continue To Look For Them.

The Defeat Of The Nazis Will Only Be Complete

When Their Last, Darkest Secrets Are Exposed To The Light Of Day.

♪♪