1 00:00:00,076 --> 00:00:16,448 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:16,448 --> 00:00:20,972 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations but not necessarily 3 00:00:20,972 --> 00:00:27,977 the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:35,983 --> 00:00:43,989 April 1945. As Allied forces obliterate German cities, Nazi party functionaries scramble for cover, 5 00:00:43,989 --> 00:00:50,995 carrying with them far more than their own worldly goods. 6 00:01:00,002 --> 00:01:05,005 From D-Day the 6th of June to the complete collapse of German military strength, 7 00:01:05,005 --> 00:01:07,007 a brief eight months had gone by. 8 00:01:07,007 --> 00:01:12,011 There had been little time for the looters to hide their ill-gotten wealth. 9 00:01:15,013 --> 00:01:24,020 By war's end, hundreds of millions of dollars in jewels, gold and artworks were being stuffed into strong boxes 10 00:01:24,020 --> 00:01:28,023 to be hidden in the most unlikely places. 11 00:01:31,025 --> 00:01:35,028 The plunder set off one of the greatest treasure hunts in history. 12 00:01:45,036 --> 00:01:57,045 From the east, Russian forces hammer Berlin in the last days of World War II. 13 00:01:57,045 --> 00:02:14,058 In the spring of 1945, Adolf Hitler ordered the German army to defend Berlin to the death of the last man. 14 00:02:15,059 --> 00:02:24,065 Russian soldiers sealed off Berlin as American troops mopped up the scattered pockets of German resistance east of the Rhine River. 15 00:02:24,065 --> 00:02:34,073 In the closing days of the war, every foot of land was paid for with a life. 16 00:02:45,081 --> 00:02:57,090 The once haughty German legions defended Hitler's capital city with companies made up of old men and young boys. 17 00:02:57,090 --> 00:03:05,097 Russian infantrymen poured into the marble halls of the capital and sounded the death knoll of the so-called Thousand Year Reich. 18 00:03:05,097 --> 00:03:15,104 Even as the Allied armies were writing an end to the Third Reich in Berlin, 19 00:03:15,104 --> 00:03:18,106 Hitler's henchmen were scurrying to save themselves. 20 00:03:18,106 --> 00:03:23,110 Men like Martin Borman, the architects of Nazi power for a dozen years, 21 00:03:23,110 --> 00:03:27,113 weren't about to surrender or commit suicide as their leader had done. 22 00:03:27,113 --> 00:03:32,117 They had access to the plunder of Europe, gold bullion worth hundreds of millions of dollars, 23 00:03:32,117 --> 00:03:35,119 and priceless works of painting and sculpture. 24 00:03:35,119 --> 00:03:42,125 They snatched what they could and ran for their lives, some to be caught later, others never to be seen again. 25 00:03:42,125 --> 00:03:48,129 Their disappearance touched off the greatest manhunt in history and the greatest search for treasure. 26 00:03:48,129 --> 00:04:02,140 As Berlin fell, more than 500 top-ranking Nazis disappeared from sight. 27 00:04:02,140 --> 00:04:11,147 They took to the roads, wearing civilian clothes and using any means of transportation they could beg, borrow or steal. 28 00:04:12,147 --> 00:04:19,153 The stolen treasures they carried would have been passports to a new life. 29 00:04:19,153 --> 00:04:32,163 The departure from Berlin of Nazi leaders was a far cry from their triumphant marches through conquered cities just six years earlier. 30 00:04:32,163 --> 00:04:38,167 On a spring day in 1940, the streets of Paris played host to a strange caravan. 31 00:04:38,167 --> 00:04:47,174 Riding in an open-staff car, selected officers accompanied Adolf Hitler on a tour of the city of light. 32 00:04:47,174 --> 00:04:54,179 In less than eight hours, Adolf Hitler would leave Paris never to return. 33 00:04:54,179 --> 00:05:07,189 Himself a frustrated artist, he would order his troops to confiscate the great art treasures of private and public collections and bring them back to the Third Reich. 34 00:05:09,191 --> 00:05:16,196 Art historians have often attempted to trace the plundering that occurred during the Nazi occupation of Western Europe, 35 00:05:16,196 --> 00:05:24,202 but an impossible jungle of documents has subverted most of their attempts. 36 00:05:24,202 --> 00:05:33,209 Like children playing with newfound toys, Hitler and Goring examined each new collection that was brought to Germany. 37 00:05:39,214 --> 00:05:50,222 Countless hundreds of millions of dollars in paintings and sculpture adorned the walls of the Nazi Museum in Munich. 38 00:05:56,226 --> 00:06:02,231 Still other great treasures were hidden in a 15th century castle called Nuschwanzstein. 39 00:06:02,231 --> 00:06:07,235 The castle was the creation of Ludwig II, the Mad King of Bavaria. 40 00:06:07,235 --> 00:06:14,240 In a sense, one madman's monument had become a storehouse for the greed and fantasies of another. 41 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:25,249 For a time, Ludwig's collection of cheap glass and plaster fixtures was dignified by some of the finest works of Europe's old masters. 42 00:06:26,249 --> 00:06:35,256 As World War II ended, American GIs were sent to the castle to recover its treasures. 43 00:06:35,256 --> 00:06:43,262 What they found were the works of incomparable artists haphazardly grouped with paintings of little or no merit. 44 00:06:56,272 --> 00:07:04,278 A salt mine had been the Nazi treasure repository. 45 00:07:13,285 --> 00:07:20,290 In the perfectly controlled humidifier, an elaborate vault had been created in which the paintings could be safely housed. 46 00:07:21,291 --> 00:07:24,293 To this day, the salt mine remains. 47 00:07:24,293 --> 00:07:33,300 It is possible to enter each of the wood clad rooms and conjure up images of rack upon rack filled with priceless art. 48 00:07:50,313 --> 00:08:00,321 The search for treasure taken from the salt mine was assigned to men like Walder Horn, a German-born art historian who worked with U.S. military intelligence after the war. 49 00:08:00,321 --> 00:08:05,325 He was then sent to the castle to find the treasure. 50 00:08:05,325 --> 00:08:21,337 The search for treasure taken from the salt mine was assigned to men like Walder Horn, a German-born art historian who worked with U.S. military intelligence after the war. 51 00:08:21,337 --> 00:08:32,345 I was assigned to an intelligence unit which was in charge of the recovery of treasures, art treasures that had been displaced or stolen. 52 00:08:32,345 --> 00:08:36,348 There were two very interesting cases. 53 00:08:36,348 --> 00:08:46,356 One of them was the recovery of the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire, five of the most important pieces of which had disappeared. 54 00:08:46,356 --> 00:09:01,367 The other one, psychologically perhaps more interesting because the key figure in that story was a woman, was the disappearance of two million dollars worth of gold coins from the salt mines of Altaussi. 55 00:09:03,369 --> 00:09:19,381 The only thing that was known about them was that they were lost in the hands of an SS major called Bum Hummel, who was the right-hand man of Martin Bormann, who was the right-hand man of Adolf Hitler. 56 00:09:19,381 --> 00:09:24,385 The problem was to find a man who had disappeared six months earlier. 57 00:09:24,385 --> 00:09:33,391 Disappeared from a burly and under fire. Martin Bormann left the bunker where Hitler was to die and made a frantic race for freedom. 58 00:09:38,395 --> 00:09:44,400 Years later, his chauffeur retraced the escape route used by Bormann and his men. 59 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:51,405 As Russian tanks bombarded the area around the Reichstag, they made their way across the Spree River. 60 00:09:51,405 --> 00:09:56,409 In the very center of the city, they took refuge in an underground train station. 61 00:09:56,409 --> 00:10:06,417 In the subway tunnel, wearing civilian clothes, they mingled with frightened Berliners, praying that their meager concrete roof would stand up under the bombardment. 62 00:10:10,420 --> 00:10:18,426 Once they reached the western edge of the city, they took temporary refuge in a broken ruin, hoping to last out the day. 63 00:10:19,426 --> 00:10:32,436 I went on to the normal, using the normal methods of searching for a man by trying to meet the people who saw him last and see whether his tracks disappeared or did not disappear, they disappeared. 64 00:10:33,437 --> 00:10:41,443 Apparently, the escapees weathered that night in an abandoned building, and the next day set out on a prearranged escape route south. 65 00:10:42,444 --> 00:10:52,451 Bormann's face was well known to almost every German. In the chaos surrounding war's end, however, he slipped out of Berlin and made his way to the Alps. 66 00:10:53,452 --> 00:11:08,464 After about two weeks in the Austrian mountains, including a search in the Alpine huts and a search in Slamiers all the way down from the high Alps to the valley of Salzburg, 67 00:11:08,464 --> 00:11:11,466 I had come to the conclusion that he was lost. 68 00:11:11,466 --> 00:11:16,470 Were it not for the dedication of the hunter, the treasure might have been forever lost. 69 00:11:17,470 --> 00:11:21,474 I had no other choice now than to approach Mrs. von Hulm. 70 00:11:21,474 --> 00:11:36,485 At the end of the conversation, rather than interrogation of about 45 minutes, she admitted that she knew where he was and declared her willingness to go and see him and to inquire about the whereabouts of the points. 71 00:11:37,486 --> 00:11:50,496 I left her alone for three days, saw her again, and she declared, Lieutenant Horn, I'm happy to report that the points are in the hands of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg. 72 00:11:50,496 --> 00:11:55,499 I said, this is fine, Mrs. von Hulm, my mission is accomplished. 73 00:11:56,500 --> 00:12:04,506 Other pieces of treasure, however, were not found, and years later would become the subject of life and death struggles. 74 00:12:07,508 --> 00:12:12,512 Trainloads of priceless treasure rolled across the German countryside. 75 00:12:12,512 --> 00:12:16,515 Hitler's officers made sure the plunder of Europe was complete. 76 00:12:16,515 --> 00:12:21,519 It included the most precious thing of all, humanity. 77 00:12:21,519 --> 00:12:29,525 Hundreds of thousands of Jews would be herded aboard Hitler's trains. Many would die of starvation along the way. 78 00:12:29,525 --> 00:12:35,530 The trains leaving collection centers throughout Europe were expressions of fundamental Nazi philosophy. 79 00:12:35,530 --> 00:12:42,535 To be other than German was to be inferior. To be Jewish was to be despised. 80 00:12:42,535 --> 00:12:51,542 At the end of the line with the concentration camps, they were foul stockyards of humanity stripped of hope. 81 00:12:56,546 --> 00:13:03,551 With the Jews, Hitler found the scapegoat he needed to explain Germany's failures between the wars. 82 00:13:03,551 --> 00:13:09,556 The Nazis were stealing lives now, and they weren't above making a profit at it. 83 00:13:10,556 --> 00:13:15,560 Grizzly crimes were committed by the Nazis in their dozen year reign of terror in Europe. 84 00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:21,565 Worse to these were the assaults on human dignity, typified by the robbing of gold from the mouths of murdered Jews. 85 00:13:21,565 --> 00:13:29,571 Another atrocity was the collection of huge sums in gold and diamonds from concentration camp inmates who thought they could buy back their lives. 86 00:13:29,571 --> 00:13:33,574 They couldn't, but they made their killers rich trying. 87 00:13:35,575 --> 00:13:39,578 The horror of it struck home when the Allies took over the camps. 88 00:13:39,578 --> 00:13:47,584 They entered as liberators, but there were no cheering crowds. They beheld instead a tragic spectacle. 89 00:13:50,587 --> 00:13:57,592 Treasure could be recovered, but lives could not. The task would be enormous. Perhaps it would never be completed. 90 00:13:58,593 --> 00:14:02,596 The great bulk of Nazi plunder would be recovered immediately after the war. 91 00:14:02,596 --> 00:14:10,602 Uncounted millions, however, disappeared with Hitler's henchmen, men who, like Martin Borman, are still at large. 92 00:14:10,602 --> 00:14:18,608 Among them, Dr. Joseph Mengele. He conducted unspeakable research on the inmates of concentration camps. 93 00:14:18,608 --> 00:14:22,611 Inmates would have sooner faced the ovens than Mengele's knife. 94 00:14:23,612 --> 00:14:29,616 At Nuremberg, the Allies tried top Nazi leaders captured at war's end. 95 00:14:31,618 --> 00:14:37,622 But the colonels and majors of the Third Reich carried their treasures with them into peacetime Europe. 96 00:14:39,624 --> 00:14:48,631 Austria's Lake Toplitzsee, gold bars and hundreds of thousands of counterfeit English pounds were recovered from the lake in 1957. 97 00:14:49,632 --> 00:14:56,637 What better place for hiding treasure quickly than a deep alpine lake? How much remains to be discovered? 98 00:14:56,637 --> 00:15:00,640 Two men have disappeared trying to answer that question. 99 00:15:05,644 --> 00:15:15,651 The search goes on in spite of the lake's ominous history. The Austrian government tries to discourage treasure hunters, but the lure of Nazi gold is powerful. 100 00:15:19,654 --> 00:15:26,660 Two volunteer firemen from a nearby city have dreamed of the riches that may lie beneath the lake. 101 00:15:26,660 --> 00:15:32,664 The dream brings them to Toplitzsee again and again. Perhaps this will be the day. 102 00:15:32,664 --> 00:15:38,669 The quest is exhilarating, but not without danger. Vigilance is important. 103 00:15:38,669 --> 00:15:49,677 Treasure hunters are optimists, and it is a fine day for a dive. 104 00:15:59,685 --> 00:16:05,689 Optimists, yes. But the treasure hunters know other hunters may be abroad. 105 00:16:06,690 --> 00:16:13,695 The men who hid the gold were not strangers to killing. Who knows where they are now? 106 00:16:16,698 --> 00:16:23,703 The water is deep and cold. It is easy to see how it has kept its secret for more than 30 years. 107 00:16:24,704 --> 00:16:35,712 The divers are spurred by the knowledge that the quest paid off once. 108 00:16:41,717 --> 00:16:46,721 There was another time when blood may have been spilled to keep the secret of the lake. 109 00:16:47,721 --> 00:16:54,727 The secret was born in 1945. The Nazi hierarchy, not killed outright, was in flight. 110 00:16:54,727 --> 00:17:02,733 If they were caught, they might lie their way out of long prison sentences, but not if they were caught with treasure. 111 00:17:02,733 --> 00:17:09,738 Fortunes must have been hidden in haste. Lakes along the escape route beckoned. 112 00:17:10,739 --> 00:17:15,743 Almost 20 years later, some of the treasure has already been found. 113 00:17:15,743 --> 00:17:20,746 Perhaps someone was there to make sure no more would be. 114 00:17:33,756 --> 00:17:40,762 Did the divers find something? Something that cost them their lives? We only know that they vanished. 115 00:17:40,762 --> 00:17:45,765 Something the underground Nazi movement called Odessa was involved. 116 00:17:45,765 --> 00:17:52,771 It is 1976. No one will vanish on this dive. There will be no treasure either. 117 00:17:52,771 --> 00:17:59,776 It is possible that the gold remaining in Toplitzet was moved years ago when its guardians felt others closing in. 118 00:17:59,776 --> 00:18:05,781 The gold remains in Toplitzet, but it is not. 119 00:18:05,781 --> 00:18:12,786 It is possible that the gold remaining in Toplitzet was moved years ago when its guardians felt others closing in. 120 00:18:15,788 --> 00:18:18,790 There are many other lakes and many secret bank accounts. 121 00:18:22,794 --> 00:18:30,800 Serious investigators don't dismiss the notion that there are still men in hiding who would see Hitler's nightmare world reborn. 122 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:37,805 Great treasure would have to be close at hand to once again unleash the dogs of war. 123 00:18:41,808 --> 00:18:48,813 That prospect alone may be enough to drive men to continue the search for Nazi plunder. 124 00:18:48,813 --> 00:18:52,816 The Capital of Renaissance Culture 125 00:18:58,821 --> 00:19:07,828 Florence. The capital of Renaissance culture is the center for the continuing search for the plundered art treasures of Europe. 126 00:19:07,828 --> 00:19:12,832 Rudolfo Siviero is the most active of the art detectives. 127 00:19:13,832 --> 00:19:20,838 He stayed on the trail of Nazi art thieves long after others had given up. 128 00:19:20,838 --> 00:19:30,845 Siviero has searched thousands of German documents for clues. With them, he has recovered dozens of stolen masterpieces. 129 00:19:30,845 --> 00:19:39,852 Manifests, bills of lading, army memos, reminders of past outrages. 130 00:19:43,855 --> 00:19:52,862 The collections of the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace in Florence have been reconstructed for the work of Siviero and his colleagues. 131 00:19:52,862 --> 00:19:58,866 Yet Siviero estimates that a third of Italy's plundered art is still missing. 132 00:19:58,866 --> 00:20:03,870 He thinks much of it is hidden behind the iron curtain in East Germany. 133 00:20:04,871 --> 00:20:13,878 One of his hardest tasks has been to root out the fake masterpieces that began showing up after the war. 134 00:20:13,878 --> 00:20:19,882 Museums, anxious to restore their collections, often fell victim to swindles. 135 00:20:19,882 --> 00:20:24,886 A flood of copies has made it even harder to trace the fate of the originals. 136 00:20:24,886 --> 00:20:36,895 Siviero remains dedicated to restoring his nation's art heritage, no matter how difficult the task. 137 00:20:54,909 --> 00:20:59,913 It is important for men like Siviero to believe that beauty can endure. 138 00:20:59,913 --> 00:21:04,917 It must endure if man is to banish the ugliness of war. 139 00:21:04,917 --> 00:21:12,923 Perhaps if beauty endures, the flaming destruction of the past can finally be cast aside. 140 00:21:13,923 --> 00:21:18,927 The History of the World 141 00:21:18,927 --> 00:21:30,936 Lost civilizations, extraterrestrials, myths and monsters, missing persons, magic and witchcraft, unexplained phenomena. 142 00:21:30,936 --> 00:21:35,940 In search of cameras are traveling the world seeking out these great mysteries. 143 00:21:36,941 --> 00:21:43,946 This program was the result of the work of scientists, researchers and a group of highly skilled technicians. 144 00:21:44,947 --> 00:21:49,951 Coming up next, in search of continues with the journey to Peru to find Inca treasure. 145 00:21:49,951 --> 00:21:55,955 Then an agent has no alibi when he's accused of murder on FBI, the Untold Stories. 146 00:21:55,955 --> 00:22:02,961 And later tonight, History's Mysteries brings you the true story of Robin Hood at 8, here on the History Channel.