Russia wants a cut of the stolen loot on the rumoured Nazi gold train found near the Czech Republic, The Telegraph reports.
According to The Telegraph, the Russian website Sputnik interviewed a “human rights lawyer” regarding the rumored treasure stashed on a train of “military nature” between the Polish towns of Wroclaw and Walbrzych.
“Representatives of Russia should undoubtedly be involved in determining the value of the items discovered if the train is located,” lawyer Mikhail Joffe reportedly told Sputnik.
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“If the property has been taken from territory, including USSR, then the cargo, in accordance with international law, must be passed to the Russian side, Joffe said, according to The Telegraph.
Polish culture minister Piotr Zuchowski spoke out against Russia’s attempt to preemptively claim some of the contents on the train.
AP Photo / Alik KepliczPolish culture minister Piotr Zuchowski.
“The analysis we have conducted with our lawyers quite clearly states that if the train is found, it will be owned by the State Treasury,” Zuchowski said in an interview with the Polish radio station Jedynka.
Zuchowski reportedly said in a news conference that if valuables are discovered on the train, the items will be “returned to the heirs of their former owners,” the Telegraph reports.
Robert Singer, CEO of the World Jewish Congress, released a statement on Friday saying, “Any items now being discovered in Poland may have been stolen from Jews before they were sent to death … it is essential that every measure is taken to return the property to its rightful owners or to their heirs.
“We very much hope that the Polish authorities will take the appropriate action in that respect.”
There’s a huge probability that the train is booby-trapped
Earlier this month, two unidentified men said they found a lost Second World War train, prompting military-history buffs, rail enthusiasts, and treasure hunters to search for the train.
Zuchowski asked people to stop looking for the cargo, saying, “There’s a huge probability that the train is booby-trapped.”
Police spokeswoman Magdalena Koroscik told the Associated Press that another growing concern was train accidents.
People can’t escape “a train that emerges from behind the rocks at 70 kph,” the Associated Press reports.
Therefore the exact location of the 90-metre-long train is unknown except for that it is somewhere along a 4,000-metre track that winds through the Polish towns of Wroclaw and Walbrzych.
According to local folklore, the German train is believed to have vanished in 1945 with stolen gold, gems, and weapons while fleeing the Russians.
To secretly transport materials, the Nazis built several underground tunnels in the mountainous region of Walbrzych during World War II.
Janek Skarzynski / AFP / Getty ImagesThe Ksiaz castle, under which the 'Nazi gold train' is supposedly hidden, on August 28, 2015 in Walbrzych, Poland.
Despite some doubt of the train’s existence, Poland has requested that its army to investigate the site, according to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, investigators in Poland have suggested that the recently discovered train “could be the first of many,” The Telegraph reports.
On Friday, Zuchowski said in a news conference that he was “99% convinced” that a Nazi military train was buried near the southwestern city of Walbrzych, the BBC reports. During the same news conference, Zuchowski referred to ground-penetrating radar images that show contours of an armored train equipped with gun turrets.
Local politician Lukasz Kazek claims that just one third of the vast tunnel network built by the Germans during the Second World War, dubbed the Riese project — German for “giant” — have been discovered, raising the possibility that several more trains could yet be unearthed.
Kazek, 37, who also works as a tour guide at the town’s Wlodarz tunnels, part of the Riese network, said: “In this region there are a lot of treasures, because when the Soviet army arrived, the Germans had to flee but they thought they would be coming back.
“They were hiding to retrieve it — everything from money, to documents and gold jewellery.”
With files from the Telegraph
