Nazi shipwreck loaded with ‘mysterious cargo’ could have carried £100m of Hitler’s gold with legendary ‘Amber Room’
SOME of the most valuable items ever stolen by Adolf Hitler’s Nazis during the Second World War may lie beneath the waves of the Baltic Sea today.
A stunning collection of gold worth £100 million is believed to have sunk aboard the German ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff almost 80 years ago.
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The Amber Room, also called the ‘eighth wonder of the world’, was one of them Russia‘s most treasured artifacts – until it was looted by the Nazis Germany and lost forever.
It was installed in the City Palace of Berlin and donated to the Russian Empire by the Prussian King Frederick William I in 1716.
Reinstalled on the summer The chamber, home to the imperial family in Catherine Palace in modern-day Pushkin, contained more than six tons of amber, which would be worth around £240 million today.
Hitler believed the works to be of German origin and wanted to take them back, sending a detachment of soldiers to loot the artifacts.
Read more about warships from World War II
The room was dismantled and taken to Königsberg Castle, in present-day Kaliningrad, Russia, where it remained on display for two years.
When the tide of war turned in the Allies’ favor, Hitler ordered the goods to be moved again.
Some unconfirmed eyewitnesses claimed to have seen the Amber Room being loaded onto the Wilhelm Gustloff.
The gold is said to have been stored in Hitler’s personal suite, which also served as a safe, and placed under armed guard.
Nazi officers reportedly tried to smuggle three tons of stolen gold bars, now worth £100 million, out of Germany on the ship.
But Wilhelm Gustloff never reached his intended destination and was sunk by the Soviets on January 30, 1945.
An estimated 9,400 of the total 10,600 people on board the ship died, making this the largest loss of life from a sinking ship.
The disaster was six times worse than that of the Titanic.
Former commercial diver Phil Sayers met a survivor of the sunken ship, Rudi Lange, who supposedly revealed the secret of the ship.
The then 17-year-old Rudi, from the ship radio operator, allegedly witnessed crates of Nazi gold being loaded into a harbor in Wilhelm Gustloff Poland, Daily star reported in 2019.
Rudi was reportedly the person who sent the SOS signal after the 700-foot liner was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13.
Mr Sayers dove into the wreck in 1988 and discovered that the ship had completely collapsed, meaning any gold on the ship would now likely be buried under thousands of tonnes of crumpled metal.
THE AMBER ROOM
THE glittering Amber Room was a room decorated with amber panels topped with gold leaf and mirrors.
It was built in Prussia in the 18th century and installed in the Berlin City Palace.
Considered by some to be the “eighth wonder of the world,” the Amber Room was given by Prussian King Frederick William I to his ally Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire in 1716.
It was reinstalled in the summer home of the imperial family in Catherine Palace in modern-day Pushkin.
Before it was dismantled during World War II and lost forever, the chamber covered more than 55 square meters and contained more than six tons of amber.
The room was looted by the Nazis during the Second World War and taken to Königsberg for reconstruction and exhibition.
In 1944, when Allied forces approached Germany, it was dismantled and stored in the castle’s basement.
Some claim they saw the Amber Room being loaded onto the German military transport ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff.
The gold is said to have been stored in Hitler’s personal suite, which also served as a safe, and placed under armed guard.
The Briton, from Essex, recovered a pair of portholes from the wreck, which he later realized had metal bars over them, suggesting they could have been the window to the vault where the gold was kept.
He told Daily Star: “We know first-hand that a whole load of trucks came alongside and brought a cargo on board the ship with high security.
“This all comes from survivors’ accounts the night before they left.
“Rudi Lange went onto the quay to smoke and happened to be there when he saw the gold bullion transport arrived.
“He was initially unaware of what was being done, but it wasn’t until 1972 that he met another survivor – one of the guards tasked with looking after the gold and he revealed what was in those huge coins.” fallen.”
Sayers said Polish treasure hunters “blew apart” parts of the ship as they searched for the fortune.
Wilhelm Gustloff, originally a luxury cruise ship, was converted into a hospital ship during World War II and then used in a mass evacuation from Prussia as the Soviet Union’s Red Sea Ship. Army [1945progressed[1945vooruitgegaan
It now has the status of an international war grave, so diving near it is prohibited, although pirates have attempted to plunder the wreck.
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