(JTA) — Treasure hunters in Poland said they failed to find a hidden train long rumored to be filled with Nazi gold.
The search led by Andreas Richter and Piotr Koper, who a year ago said they had located the train using ground-penetrating radar, also could not locate the tunnel in which the train was believed to be hidden at the end of World War II.
Richter, a German, and Koper, a Pole, led some 35 volunteers on the privately funded dig in southwestern Poland. After digging extensively, they told The Associated Press on Wednesday that they found “no train, no tunnel.” They are now filling in the three 300-foot-deep holes that were drilled with special equipment in an effort to locate the train.
According to local legend, as German forces fled the Soviet army in 1945, they hid the train containing gold, gems, weapons and valuable art in a secret tunnel near Wroclaw. Despite decades of rumors and amateur searches, the train’s existence has never been proved.
Richter and Koper last year reported finding soil anomalies that hinted at the train’s existence. A study by the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow found no such evidence, but concluded there may be a tunnel at the site.
During the Holocaust, the Nazis melted down jewelry from Jews and other prisoners sent to concentration camps. As Allied forces advanced at the end of the war, the Nazis sent the gold back to Germany. According to experts, not all the gold has been found.
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