TREASURE hunters believe they are one step closer to finding the £250million Amber Room stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. The room was built for Russian Csar Peter the Great in the 1700s and it was filled with precious jewels, gold and amber before it was looted by the Nazis in 1941. Its […]
TREASURE hunters believe they are one step closer to finding the £250million Amber Room stolen by the Nazis in World War Two.
The room was built for Russian Csar Peter the Great in the 1700s and it was filled with precious jewels, gold and amber before it was looted by the Nazis in 1941.
Its contents disappeared at the end of WWII and for decades treasure hunters have searched throughout Europe without any luck.
However, bosses at the Mamerki Bunker near the north eastern Polish town of Wegorzewqo claim a hidden entrance to the treasure may have been found using geo-radar.
Bartlomiej Plebanczyk from the museum said: “We can categorically say we’ve made a breakthrough in the search.
“Thanks to the use of a professional geo-radar, we were able to determine the location of an underground tunnel.
“After digging up the place indicated by the device, we actually found a hatch, which has almost certainly not been opened since the war.”
He continued: “Until the tree is cut down, there is no physical possibility of opening the entrance.
“The presence of a trunk proves that no one has opened the manhole for the last several decades.”
The group will also need government permission before they can start digging, but they are optimistic they will be given it by the end of this month.
Mr Plebanczyk said: “Several dozen years have passed since the entrance was buried. At that time, on the original 1.5m x 1.5m plate, which closes the entrance, a tree has grown.
“To open the manhole to the tunnel, it is necessary to remove the ground and cut down the tree blocking the plate.”
The site used to be the eastern headquarters of the German Army and was close to Hitler’s first Eastern Front military headquarters – the infamous Wolf’s Lair.
It was said to be home to Hitler’s looted treasures, including the Amber Room.
The Nazis stole the items from the room during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
When they arrived at Catherine the Great’s White Palace near St Petersburg, they took the precious contents to Koienigberg Castle, in what was then East Prussia and now just two hours away from the bunker.
The contents disappeared in January 1945 after air raids and an assault on the city.
Some claimed it was destroyed by the bombs and other suggested the Nazis moved it to safety.
The Amber Room was a gift from Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia to Peter the Great in 1716
It was made up of six tonnes of amber resin and took 10 years to completeI
In 1755, it was moved to the Catherine Palace – 17miles south of of St Petersburg
In 1941, Nazis surrounded the city, which was known as Leningrad during the Soviet era
Nazis looted the room and took the precious contents ot the Prussian city of Koenigsberg Castle
The contents of the room have not bene seen since 1945
The search for the Amber Room has been on since the end of the war.
It is not the first time searches around the Mamerki Museum have taken place.
Searches in 2016 for the amber panel near the former German bunkers in Mamerki village, Mamerki Museum, Poland, failed.
In 2017, amateur treasure-hunters believe they have discovered the fabled room in a cave used by the Nazis in the Hartenstein hills near Dresden, Germany, but nothing was found.
Last summer, The Sun reported how one Red Army veteran believed the Amber Room was under the England’s World Cup fan zone.
The dad-of-two told The Sun: “It was the last place it was seen. It could still be down there.”
He was there when the castle was stormed and continued: “The fighting was very heavy.
“The Nazis were very experienced soldiers and Königsberg was surrounded by minefields, trenches and barbed wire.
“When we entered the city it was a complete ruin. On April 9, 1945, we took the castle and for the next two nights I slept inside the ruins.
“We didn’t hear about the Amber Room at that time, it was much later. The cellars had been hit by a bombs and had caved in so we didn’t go down there.
“I don’t believe the Amber Room was destroyed by our missiles. The Germans would have moved it to a safe place.”
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