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The Last Hunt for Nazi Gold - Season 1 Episode 6 - Lake Toplitz Cash
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00:02Austria, 1945.
00:04As the war reaches its final days, the Third Reich begins to cover its tracks.
00:11Documents are destroyed, evidence is buried, and entire operations are pushed into places so remote and so hostile
00:19that nature itself becomes their last line of defense.
00:25One of those places, high in the Austrian Alps, 98km from Salzburg, is Lake Toplitz.
00:34In the final weeks of the war, wooden crates are lowered into its black waters.
00:39Inside them, forged British banknotes produced by a secret SS counterfeiting program known as Operation Bernhardt.
00:54After the war, divers will recover thousands of fake pounds from the lake bed.
00:58But the operation was never fully accounted for.
01:01And 80 years later, the question still lingers.
01:06Was Lake Toplitz merely a disposal site, or the last vault of a secret that was never meant to be
01:12recovered?
01:28I'm Guy Walters.
01:30I'm a historian.
01:31I'm a journalist.
01:33And I'm a sort of explorer of all the hidden secrets of the Second World War and the Nazi period.
01:42Hi. I'm Justine. I'm the International Woman of Adventure.
01:46I speak many languages. I'm the perfect person to hunt for some Nazi gold.
01:57Together we've crossed borders, tracked rumours, and dug through more than our fair share of cold mud.
02:03And even colder archives.
02:10Now we're on the trail of one of the most mysterious operations of the Second World War.
02:15Following the forged money, the missing crates, and those rumours that refused to sink.
02:21Who knows which documents are still sealed up somewhere?
02:24You know, which tunnels are still unexplored?
02:27You know, which other lakes like Toplitz?
02:30Our mission? Follow the trail left behind by one of the most secret operations of the Second World War.
02:37And find out what really happened to that forged money and missing crates dumped in and around Lake Toplitz,
02:44as the Third Reich collapsed.
03:061942. As the war on the Eastern Front intensifies, the SS launches a secret operation unlike anything attempted before.
03:19Its aim isn't to build weapons, but to print money.
03:25Inside concentration camps, prisoners with backgrounds in printing, engraving, and artistic design are forced to work under constant threat.
03:36Their task is to recreate British banknotes down to the smallest details.
03:43Paper, ink, serial numbers, even the very feel of the notes themselves.
03:50The operation is codenamed Bernhardt.
03:56Bernhardt may have been the largest counterfeiting operation in history.
04:01By flooding the economy with fake notes, it might have created some form of economic panic.
04:07This oversupply of pounds might cause inflation and once people realised there were fake banknotes everywhere.
04:15British people would lose faith in their banks and the currency.
04:19And the idea is that this would weaken the economy so much that Britain's ability to trade would be completely
04:26threatened,
04:27and therefore her ability to finance the war would be imperiled.
04:31It's a pretty ambitious thing, to be honest.
04:36By 1943, the counterfeits are so convincing that they even fooled banks and financial experts.
04:44Millions of pounds are produced.
04:49Now, at the same time, pound sterling, you know, was an international currency.
04:52It was used in international trade, and the Nazis did successfully use those forged notes in the intelligence game.
05:00You know, by paying spies, buying supplies on the black market in places like Spain, Turkey and Switzerland.
05:07You know, these are the kind of places that have become real hubs of espionage.
05:16And in Switzerland, the Nazis were able to convert those forged notes into gold and other stable currency,
05:24and therefore kind of, you know, laundering the notes and therefore giving the Reich clean money to fund operations.
05:31And while the counterfeits, you know, disappear into circulation abroad to be used by people completely unaware that they were
05:38fakes.
05:44As defeat looms in 1944 and 1945, the forged money is rushed out of Berlin alongside other Nazi assets.
05:57Other crates are dumped into remote mountain lakes.
06:04Some of it simply vanishes, possibly converted into gold before slipping into the shadows of the Reich's final months.
06:14When the war ends, the presses fall silent.
06:18The prisoners survive.
06:20But much of the money, and whatever it was turned into, does not.
06:26And leave behind one of the strangest financial trails of the Second World War.
06:31You know, those deep, dark lakes in the Alps may still hold some wartime secrets.
06:37Or some Nazi gold.
06:52Our destination is Lake Toplitz.
06:56A remote alpine lake that in the final months of the war became part of the Reich's last retreat.
07:05In 1945, as Germany's defeat became unavoidable, SS units arrived here in total secrecy.
07:14Crates were lowered into the lake.
07:17Forged British banknotes from Operation Bernhardt.
07:21Along with documents and equipment the regime did not want falling into Allied hands.
07:28What went into the water was meant to disappear.
07:33But now, what remains is still an open question.
07:41After the war, Allied and Austrian teams began diving the lake, recovering thousands of counterfeit British pounds.
07:48Proof that something very real had been hidden here.
07:50But that work was dangerous.
07:53The lake's cold, dark water, submerged trees and lack of oxygen claimed lives.
07:59Earning Toplitz a reputation as one of the most treacherous dive sites in Europe.
08:10What was recovered is on record.
08:13What wasn't is where the mystery begins.
08:18But before we head to the shores of Lake Toplitz, I need to speak with someone who knows the lake
08:22firsthand.
08:25He lives in Hausstadt, not far from here, and has dived Toplitz many times.
08:32He knows what lies beneath the surface and why this place has never fully surrendered its secrets.
08:42We're in Hausstadt, which is an absolutely beautiful, clearly Instagrammable type town.
08:48And we're going to talk to a man who knows something more about the hunt for Nazi treasure.
08:53So, are you ready?
08:53I'm very excited. Let's go.
08:57Waiting for us is Gerhard Zauner, a man who has spent decades diving these waters, hunting for Nazi gold, and
09:04who's about to prepare us for our own descent into the lake.
09:15We're in Hausstadt, in the heart of the Austrian Alps, meeting a man who has dedicated his entire life to
09:22hunting for Nazi gold.
09:24Gerhard Zauner is a highly experienced diver, and he knows more about one of the most infamous, final refuges of
09:33Nazi treasure than anyone else on earth, Lake Toplitz.
09:42I was born in 1945, and I dedicated my whole life to the past.
09:55After seeing that the war was coming to an end, all the treasures were brought to the Alpine fortress.
10:02The Salzkammergut was the core fortress of the Alps. Everything was stored and hidden here.
10:13We were doing dive operations there regularly, and were looking for treasures, and were able to make adventurous dives.
10:21You have to remember that many people, war participants and many people of the upper SS, were afraid that we
10:27would find something from the past that could harm them.
10:29You could find something that could bring moral damage to the state.
10:33What exactly?
10:34Documents.
10:37They don't rot under water. They can lie in Lake Toplitz for a hundred years.
10:44You can recover them and read what is written on them.
10:48And people don't want that. They want to sweep the past under the rug.
10:52We've unearthed a lot of beautiful things, such large spherical mines.
10:57I discovered them all and also lifted them with the demining service.
11:02Do you believe that there is still gold in Toplitzay?
11:07Captain Lüde claims that in the back part of the lake it was also sunk.
11:11And no one had ever dived there, and there is no diving permit.
11:15If you say, I want to dive there, it is not 80 meters deep.
11:19It is 40 meters deep. There is no danger at all.
11:25What's it like diving in it?
11:32There is nothing dangerous at all.
11:34The dark is only because there is very little sunlight, because there are so many mountains.
11:40It's a gorge.
11:41So it's not true that it's dangerous?
11:44No.
11:45Why is it said that it is so dangerous?
11:48A lot of underwater explosions were made here.
11:52Ignition systems were developed at the Naval Research Station, and the trees normally lie flat on the ground.
12:00But they are all over the place because they were set up by the explosions.
12:05And for centuries, only leaves have fallen in, and there is no oxygen, so it doesn't rot.
12:14If you follow the rules, which you learned in diving, it is not dangerous.
12:20If you drive with the car on the left, it will crash. That is dangerous.
12:26If you don't follow the rules, then it is dangerous.
12:34The entire underwater world is extremely interesting, and you don't just have to dive during the day, but also in
12:40the night, because the biological world is completely different than during the day.
12:45And we also went diving at night, and I particularly like to go where diving is forbidden.
12:51I don't want to die stupid. I leave that to those who forbid diving.
12:58You can't dive there officially, but you can go in the night and still dive.
13:02If people are willing to risk diving late toplets at night, outside the rules, it makes me wonder whether I
13:08should be doing the same.
13:11But before I even consider it, I need to speak to someone who's already done it, and who claims to
13:18have found the banknotes down there.
13:29Hennig Clovercorn is a treasure hunter who has spent years on the trail of Nazi gold and the remnants of
13:35Operation Bernhardt.
13:36He's from Australia, and he's about to tell me what it's really like to dive Lake Toplitz.
13:47So, I mean, look, Toplitz is the kind of daddy of the Nazi gold hunt, if you like.
13:54Why do some people think there is gold at Toplitz? What's the story?
13:58Well, really, it all starts 1946, when Helmut Mayer and Ludwig Pichler were climbing above the Toplitz Zee, and they
14:10were searching for something.
14:12And that in itself may not be extraordinary.
14:15A lot of people climb the area, and they may be looking for things, but these two climbers were brutally
14:21murdered.
14:22And what makes this even more astounding is that they were found in an area where Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the chief
14:30of the Reich Security Main Office, a very high-ranking Nazi, had actually gone into hiding.
14:36And he was captured there in that very same spot by the Americans towards the end of World War II.
14:45Kaltenbrunner was one of the most senior figures in the Nazi regime, the head of the Reich Security Main Office,
14:52responsible for the Gestapo, the SS intelligence services, and the whole coordination of terror, persecution, and mass murder across occupied
15:02Europe.
15:07But that's not the only thing that's been found in these Alpine lakes.
15:12Then in 1950, we have another person die, a gentleman by the name of Gert Gerdens, and he is climbing
15:19again in the Toplitz area.
15:21And it is also said he was earlier diving for something at the Toplitz Lake, and he falls to his
15:29death.
15:30Now, with him is a gentleman called Dr Keller.
15:33And Dr Keller, we know, was a former member of the SS Nazi Marine Testing Station in that very location.
15:44So these are now no longer just coincidences.
15:47We've got murder, we've got death, and that's why people began to explore.
15:53I'm absolutely convinced that there are millions if not billions of dollars worth of Nazi treasures, be it gold.
16:03The story of the Nazi gold or Nazi treasure at Toplitz is not just a story about finding the treasure.
16:11It's potentially a story about murder.
16:13It's a story about protecting reputation.
16:16And in some ways, I actually feel a little bit uneasy about talking about this part of the Toplitz myth,
16:22because there may well be people today who want to protect their reputations
16:27and who don't want anyone to look further into that myth.
16:32And as I said before, if the myth of the Toplitz Sea counterfeit money has turned out to be true,
16:40which it has,
16:40perhaps some of the other myths are also true.
16:45The more Henning tells me, the more uneasy I get,
16:48because I'm getting a little bit concerned that if we start poking around in Lake Toplitz,
16:52we might be courting danger from sinister forces.
16:56I mean, maybe Justine and I won't be safe.
16:59We clearly need to tread very carefully.
17:08I decided in 2008 to swim the lake over a period of five days in summer.
17:16Even in summer, it is absolutely freezing in that lake.
17:19And to do it in a grid pattern.
17:22And this builds on my theory that the counterfeit notes could not have been
17:29or should not have been sunk for a successful retrieval at a depth of 80 metres,
17:33which is almost impossible, if not suicidal, to retrieve at that depth,
17:37particularly used in 1945 technology.
17:41So having done that and having gone through a grid exercise and swimming the lake in a legal capacity,
17:49I was incredibly fortunate to recover one of these Nazi Operation Bernhardt Bank of England counterfeit notes.
18:24And I'm going to show you, because obviously a friend that usually hangs in the office.
18:35And just like that, Henning was able to recover some banknotes.
18:39Proof that these stories aren't just rumours,
18:41and enough to give me some confidence and a clearer idea of how I might find one for myself.
19:04With Henning's words of encouragement ringing in my ears,
19:07it's time for Justine and me to head up to the final destination in our quest for Nazi gold,
19:13the shores of Lake Toplitz.
19:36That is Justine Lake Toplitz. I mean, this is our journey's end.
19:40We've been basically all over Central Europe, and this is where I want us to end up.
19:45This is Lake Toplitz, high up in the Austrian Alps.
19:49What are we, like two and a half thousand feet above sea level.
19:51This is more legendary, more mythical.
19:55There are more stories about this place than almost any other on our great big adventure we've just been on.
20:00This is the place where you'd hide gold. It's far away, hidden.
20:05That's where I've put my money, you know.
20:06If you are a senior Nazi in 1945 and you want to hide your treasure, dump it in this lake.
20:15There is one small problem. If you dump it in this lake, you've got to get it out.
20:22By the shore of the lake, we meet a really nice guy called Albrecht Zion, and he is owner of
20:27the Fisherhutter Restaurant.
20:29The Fisher Hut. The Fisherman's Hut.
20:33He's got all these boards lined with photographs of all the history of exploration at Toplitz.
20:39Those post-war dives, when crates of counterfeit British pounds were brought up from the lake bed.
20:46And he recalls all these salvage teams hauling up these old chests, bits of weaponry.
20:59I have been here at Lake Toplitz for 70 years.
21:03In 1959, there was a reporter from Stern magazine.
21:10Mr. Loede found the trail to Toplizzi.
21:13He then recovered the first crates.
21:15And so everyone knew that this was counterfeit money from the Operation Bernhard.
21:19And with that, the trail has disappeared again.
21:24Those were the first boxes of counterfeit money, I remember that well.
21:28The lake was white with counterfeit money, because the boxes had been broken open.
21:33And of course, we boys quickly jumped into the water, grabbed the counterfeit money, and stuffed them in our swimming
21:38trunks.
21:43The detective arrived at the shore and said,
21:45come on, give it back.
21:48You are not allowed to keep that.
21:50You are not allowed to keep that.
22:01It has been said, time and again, that there is a great deal of gold in the lake.
22:06Many boxes of gold, precious stones, works of art, but nothing has ever been found.
22:13Not yet?
22:14Not yet.
22:19It has always been assumed, and there have been many people who said, there is a false bottom in the
22:24lake.
22:28That means, under the floor of the lake, there are two layers.
22:32One is further up, and one is at the very bottom.
22:36And underneath this floor are the boxes of gold.
22:41Gold is very heavy.
22:43It would sink through to that lower layer.
22:45And you can't get to these boxes.
22:47And attempts to find these boxes have been in vain.
22:51People have often searched.
22:54The English were here.
22:55The Americans were here.
22:57The Germans were here.
22:58Swiss people were here trying to salvage the crates.
23:01It was all for nothing.
23:04Counterfeit money was found.
23:05Documents were found.
23:07A large number of weapons, explosives and rocket parts were found.
23:12Perhaps it is somewhere else.
23:14Perhaps something has been found, but not officially.
23:20After a quick stop with Albrecht, it's time for me to start thinking seriously
23:24about how I might hunt for gold inside this lake.
23:29Justine and I are not going to be able to dive it officially,
23:32however much we might want to.
23:34We are going to need to find another way.
23:40I present to you Goldfenger 9000.
23:45We have our underwater drone, which is a GoPro on a fishing line.
23:50And obviously this fishing line is definitely going to hold this GoPro.
23:54It's not going to sink to the bottom of Lake Toplets.
23:57Otherwise, it might end up being the most valuable thing on the bed of this lake.
24:08OK, we're about to set off in this very strange sort of double hulled boat.
24:11And we have the underwater drone ready to find sacks and sacks of gold ingots.
24:18I mean, this is our last chance, Justine.
24:20It is. I'm just looking at this.
24:23This fishing line, presumably even on the most high definition of television you're watching at home,
24:28is presumably invisible.
24:29That's how thick this line is, so it better be strong.
24:33I can't tell you how stunning this place is.
24:37It is absolutely impossibly beautiful.
24:41Look at that. Look at that.
24:54You can really see why this lake was used by the German Navy during the war
24:58as a testing station for torpedoes and explosives,
25:02because this is really, really a top secret kind of place.
25:05You are not going to be disturbed here.
25:07It's going to be very hard for Allied bombers to locate this place.
25:10So you can see why it's so secretive.
25:13I mean, you've got these enormous cliffs and trees all around you.
25:18You can't really walk around this lake.
25:20It's impossible.
25:20It just goes straight into the water.
25:25Compared to the other lakes we've been to,
25:27the water is very dark and oily here,
25:31so it's not the beautiful blues that we've seen before.
25:35It is the perfect place to hide.
25:36It is. It has a very sort of ominous quality to it.
25:41One of the things of what's so unique about Lake Toplet
25:44is that below about 20 metres there's no oxygen in the water,
25:48so there are no fish.
25:49And what's also unique about it,
25:50what makes it so dangerous for diving,
25:52and that's why you're not going in the water today,
25:54is when these trees fall into the lake
25:56and they hit that salt water, they don't decompose.
25:59So below us we've got this enormous forest of undecomposed trees,
26:04which for a diver is absolutely fatal.
26:08So we know one diver died in 1947,
26:11and then another diver died in 1963,
26:14and it's possible that other divers have also died here in Lake Toplets.
26:19So this is not a place in which you can just sort of put on a scuba gear
26:23and go 103 metres to the bottom of the lake.
26:25It just doesn't happen.
26:27Not even you am I going to risk on this.
26:29Well, I'll put it this way.
26:31I would love to dive in here, but I'm just not allowed.
26:34Kind of strange to think that it's just possible
26:37that 100 metres below us is billions of pounds worth of gold.
26:42And that GoPro is going to prove it.
26:45Right, let me turn it on.
26:46Turn it on.
26:50And it's rolling.
26:51That's on, yeah.
26:52OK.
26:54When the boat has slowed down.
26:56OK.
26:58It's floating.
27:05Oh, there we go.
27:06I don't want it to get caught up in the propellers.
27:09OK, we've got some great footage here.
27:10OK, this is going well.
27:11It's not breaking the fishing line,
27:14and we are filming hopefully not the underside of the boat,
27:17but we are seeing how dark that is.
27:24And yet, it was into this darkness
27:26that the first officially sanctioned team ventured after the war.
27:32In 1959, divers employed by Stern magazine arrived at Lake Toplitz
27:37and began searching its depths.
27:41What they brought back to the surface was unambiguous.
27:49Thousands of forged British banknotes preserved by the cold water.
27:53Unmistakable evidence that Operation Bernhardt had reached its final stage.
27:59The lake had done its job.
28:01It had concealed the crime.
28:12I don't know whether it's slow.
28:18OK, I am now officially going to work with David Attenborough
28:22on underwater photography.
28:24This is perfect.
28:26Success!
28:26We found gold!
28:28But my efforts to capture at least some underwater footage
28:31are thwarted by the local marine life,
28:33who seem determined to ensure the secrets of Lake Toplitz
28:37remain hidden for now.
28:44All right, while we may not have struck gold straight away,
28:47we do find treasure of a different kind.
28:49The local delicacy, which will enable us to finally enjoy something
28:54other than schnitzel.
28:56The local dish is fish.
28:59That is our main business.
29:01That's a char.
29:03Now a little distance.
29:04Spritz.
29:05OK, spritz.
29:08This is the real gold of Lake Toplitz.
29:11It's those fresh Zeibling.
29:13They look amazing.
29:14I don't want to stop outright cooking.
29:18.
29:45You know, and when we're sitting here
29:46on the banks of, you know, what is the beautiful Lake Toplitz.
29:51We haven't found any gold today.
29:52In fact, we haven't found any gold at all.
29:56We've failed. We've completely failed.
29:59But what we have found is that the appeal of Nazi gold,
30:03it's never, ever going to end.
30:06I don't think we have gone as far as we can.
30:10I still think there are many places we need to go.
30:12You up for that? I'm up for that.
30:14But I need to eat my fish first.
30:16OK, you eat your fish.
30:17Bon appetit.
30:18Bon appetit.
30:19Guten appetit.
30:22That's good.
30:26Justine and I did not come away from our journey
30:28with neat answers or dramatic discoveries.
30:31Sorry about that.
30:33Some questions remain unresolved,
30:35and if anything was deliberately hidden,
30:36it may still be where it was placed,
30:39beyond reach,
30:40perhaps 103 metres below the surface of this lake.
30:47I know that people are always going to ask me,
30:50do you know where there is any Nazi gold?
30:53But what I've learned
30:55is that I can't just laugh at them now,
30:57because there's a part of me which thinks
30:59it could still be out there,
31:01and I really want to find it.
31:13And to do that,
31:14I returned to London.
31:15I was all dressed in grey,
31:17kicks on sweat,
31:18benzene, clash, whatever.
31:20To follow the trail of the Nazis' forged banknotes
31:22to the very place
31:24which they were designed to deceive.
31:41After the war,
31:42Operation Bernhardt didn't simply stop,
31:45it unravelled.
31:47As Germany collapsed in 1945,
31:49the presses were shut down,
31:51prisoners were evacuated,
31:52and the counterfeit notes were scattered.
32:01In the years that followed,
32:02forged Bernhardt banknotes continued to surface,
32:05used by agents,
32:06trades on the black market,
32:08and even appearing in London
32:09long after the Reich
32:10had ceased to exist.
32:19Those responsible were pursued
32:21with mixed results.
32:23SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Bernhardt Kruger,
32:26the officer who ran the operation,
32:28was arrested by the British
32:30and interrogated,
32:31but he was never convicted
32:32and eventually released.
32:38Many of the prisoners
32:39who had been forced to produce
32:40the forgery survived.
32:42Not through mercy,
32:43but because their skills
32:44made them so valuable
32:45right until the very end.
32:50What remained
32:51was an uncomfortable truth.
32:54Operation Bernhardt
32:55didn't end with surrender.
32:57Its effects lingered in bank vaults,
32:59intelligence files,
33:00and currencies quietly withdrawn
33:02without explanation.
33:05The war may have been over,
33:07but that fake money
33:08was still moving.
33:16Oh, boy,
33:17am I thrilled
33:18to have discovered this.
33:19It's an original
33:21Operation Bernhardt
33:22fake £10 note
33:24made in Sachsenhausen,
33:27and it's right here,
33:28and I'm going to go in
33:29and buy it.
33:30And just like that,
33:31the lesson becomes clear.
33:34If you can't find it,
33:35you buy it.
33:37And with that,
33:38our Operation Bernhardt story
33:40comes to an end.
33:41Does it?
33:51Does it?
33:56Our journey isn't over yet,
33:58because there's still
33:59one more story
34:00I need to share.
34:06We've been hunting
34:07for Nazi gold
34:08for months,
34:10it seems like,
34:11and we've been scouring
34:12all of Central Europe,
34:14and yet,
34:15ironically enough,
34:17there is Nazi gold
34:18right under my feet
34:20in my hometown
34:21in the city of London,
34:23because where I am standing
34:25is outside
34:26one of the most venerable,
34:28one of the most iconic buildings
34:29in the whole of the capital,
34:30and that
34:32is the Bank of England.
34:36Now,
34:37you're probably wondering
34:38why two bars of Nazi gold
34:41end up in the Bank of England.
34:42I mean,
34:42this is meant to be
34:43a sort of honourable
34:44and venerable place.
34:45It's not a place
34:46where Nazi gold
34:46should be stored.
34:48Well,
34:48the story goes back,
34:50actually,
34:51to all those hills
34:53and mountains
34:53above Balkansay,
34:54where we went in episode one
34:55with Cornelia.
34:56Now,
34:57if you remember,
34:58there were lots and lots
34:59of bars of gold
35:00from the Reichsbank
35:01taken all the way
35:03up the mountain
35:03and hidden,
35:04and obviously,
35:05we tried to find some
35:06unsuccessfully.
35:07But,
35:07what we also know
35:09is that two bars of gold
35:11were not taken up the mountain,
35:13so what did they do with them?
35:14Well,
35:14they thought,
35:15you know what,
35:15we're just going to hide them
35:16in a chimney flue.
35:17Well,
35:18you can guess what happens next
35:19when someone tries to light a fire.
35:21The chimney doesn't draw
35:22any smoke,
35:24and they think,
35:24well,
35:24what's blocking it?
35:26And what a thing to find
35:27blocking your chimney.
35:28You reach up,
35:29you pull out a bag
35:30marked Reichsbank,
35:32and inside
35:33are two lovely bars
35:35of Nazi gold.
35:37Now,
35:38how do they go
35:38from that chimney in Bavaria
35:40to under my feet?
35:46To understand
35:47how those bars
35:47ended up in the vaults
35:48of the Bank of England,
35:50I need to go
35:51to the National Archives,
35:53a place where the paper trail
35:55finally catches up
35:56with the mystery.
36:07The two Nazi gold bars
36:09held at the Bank of England
36:10were amongst
36:11the most tantalising mysteries
36:12of post-war Europe.
36:17Unlike thousands
36:18of other bars
36:19accounted for
36:20by Allied forces,
36:21these two had vanished
36:22from the official trail.
36:25Their disappearance
36:27was noted
36:27in the seminal investigation
36:28by Ian Sayre
36:30and Douglas Botting,
36:31published in their
36:32best-selling book,
36:33Nazi Gold.
36:34It's a must-read.
36:37Sayre began probing
36:39the fate of looted
36:39Reichsbank gold
36:40in the mid-1970s.
36:43Armed with wartime records
36:45and persistent questions
36:46about the whereabouts
36:48of bullion
36:48that should have been handed
36:49to the Tripartite Commission
36:51for the restitution
36:52of monetary gold.
36:54He alerted the United States
36:56Department of State
36:56in 1978
36:57and that initiated
36:59an inquiry
37:00that was stretched
37:01for nearly two decades.
37:06It's not until the 1990s
37:08that people start taking
37:09the whole question
37:10of Nazi gold
37:11really seriously
37:12and it's in Britain
37:13that the government
37:14calls for something
37:16called the London Gold Conference
37:18that meets in December 1997.
37:2141 countries attend
37:22and the big question
37:23is this.
37:24Where is the missing
37:25Nazi gold
37:26and if we find it,
37:28who does it belong to?
37:46The most important concept
37:48we have been promoting
37:49is transparency,
37:50the search for the truth.
37:52That is contradicted
37:54by the Vatican's unwillingness
37:56to make available
37:57to scholars
37:59and appropriate researchers
38:01those archives
38:02that are relevant
38:03to this period.
38:04It's not just a matter
38:05of the United Kingdom.
38:06The United States
38:07and France
38:07are part of the Tripartite Commission
38:10and therefore
38:10each government
38:11will have to address
38:12both what is legally possible
38:13and what might be desirable.
38:17December 1997.
38:19London fills with delegations,
38:21governments, historians,
38:22central bankers
38:23drawn by one nagging question.
38:28What really happened
38:29to the Reich's stolen gold?
38:34Inside conference rooms
38:35the language is careful
38:36but it's firm.
38:39Open the archives,
38:40follow the paper trail,
38:42try to prove
38:43what has long been hidden.
38:46Soon it becomes clear
38:48there will be
38:48no cinematic revelation.
38:51Much of the gold
38:52was melted down
38:53quietly converted
38:54and absorbed
38:55into the post-war system
38:56until the records
38:58simply stopped.
39:01Unfortunately
39:01what seems to have happened
39:02is that in the process
39:04of arranging the conference
39:06the conference
39:07is much more likely
39:08to be a talking shop
39:10about history
39:10than really about
39:12the resolution
39:13of the problem
39:14of the gold.
39:15The Germans
39:15sent a lot
39:17of gold coins
39:18to Switzerland
39:19at the time,
39:20tons and tons
39:21of gold coins
39:21and they were smelted
39:23to gold ingots
39:24so it's impossible
39:26to trace it back
39:28to the individual owners.
39:29the Allies
39:31as also Nazi
39:32Deutschland
39:33were very much
39:35interested
39:36to having
39:37a neutral
39:40little place
39:41inside of this hell
39:44of the Second World War
39:45just to have
39:48business as usual
39:49inside.
39:50The banks say
39:51we have nothing
39:52to hide
39:54but in fact
39:55they're hiding
39:56all this
39:56which was
39:57disclosed.
40:00The resolution
40:01of the London conference
40:02isn't closure
40:03it's acknowledgement
40:04that not everything
40:06was recovered
40:06and that some parts
40:07of the story
40:08may never
40:09be fully answered.
40:32you know what
40:33we've come
40:34to the end
40:35of our hunt
40:36for Nazi gold
40:36and I'm really sad
40:37to say
40:38we never found any
40:39unless you count
40:41damp socks
40:41bad coffee
40:43and a growing
40:44suspicion
40:44that my jeep
40:45was held together
40:46by optimism.
40:48But we've had
40:50some remarkable
40:51adventures
40:51and this journey
40:52was never just
40:53about gold
40:54it's about what
40:56survives
40:56when a regime
40:57disappears
40:58rumours
40:59missing assets
41:00and stories
41:01that refuse
41:02to die.
41:06We've chased
41:08all around Europe
41:09bunkers
41:10hidden rooms
41:11places where
41:12the past
41:13still feels
41:13a little too
41:14close for comfort
41:15and we have
41:16met
41:16some extraordinary
41:18people
41:18some helpful
41:20some eccentric
41:21some downright
41:23alarming
41:24you don't forget
41:25that man
41:26with a Nazi flag
41:27on his porch
41:28that's not
41:29just some
41:30historical interest
41:31that's a person
41:32with a personality
41:33problem
41:36to be fair
41:37I started
41:37this trip
41:38as a skeptic
41:39I thought
41:40that Nazi gold
41:41treasure
41:41was mostly
41:42folklore
41:43now
41:44you know what
41:45I'm not so sure
41:46because a lot
41:46did vanish
41:47in those final
41:48months of the war
41:48and not all
41:50of it
41:50has ever been
41:51accounted for
41:51so yes
41:53I do think
41:54something could
41:55still be out there
41:56and I'm not
41:57stopping
42:04I've also learnt
42:05that I really
42:06don't like
42:06dark narrow tunnels
42:08and I really
42:09don't like spiders
42:10which is really
42:11unfortunate
42:12because every
42:12secret location
42:13we visited
42:14was basically
42:15a hangout
42:16for spiders
42:19and then
42:20there's Justine
42:21calm under
42:22pressure
42:22sharp as a
42:23blade
42:23and somehow
42:24always about
42:25two steps
42:25ahead
42:25she was my
42:27perfect
42:27adventure
42:28partner
42:28honestly
42:29without her
42:30I think
42:30I'd still
42:30be somewhere
42:31in Austria
42:31confidently
42:32walking
42:33the wrong
42:33direction
42:38so the hunt
42:38ends here
42:39for now
42:42but I think
42:43the truth
42:43is
42:43I don't think
42:44the gold
42:45is buried
42:45in tunnels
42:46in mines
42:48in mountains
42:49sides
42:50in caves
42:50places like that
42:51I think
42:52that the gold
42:52and the truth
42:53about the gold
42:53is located
42:55in archives
42:55and the gold
42:56itself
42:57is in banks
42:58and I think
42:59that is where
43:00my attention
43:01should next
43:02turn
43:11is where
43:31the gold
43:32to be
43:32it was
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