200 Million treasure in the Ship Wreck?
Poles want to dive on the Wilhelm Gustloff by Werner Kahl:
24 years after the battle for Koenigsberg in East Prussia Polish frogmen are preparing to undertake an attempt to find the ‘million’ treasure made of Amber. The Poles intend to search the wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff, which sank off the coast of Pommern near Kolberg carrying over 5000 refugees. The total value of the Amber Room that the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I gave to the Russian Tsar Peter I is estimated by experts to have a value of around 200 million Deutsche Mark. According to reports from Warsaw a special delegation from Russia recently gave Polish authorities information concerning the whereabouts of the lost treasure and asked for official help from its socialist friends to search for the missing Amber Room treasure. The collective term ‘Amber Room’ includes a collection of art treasures , which were removed from the residence of the Tsars during the siege of Leningrad in World War II. As the Soviets moved to capture East Prussia the individual parts of the Amber Room in Koenigsberg were re-packed in transport cases. From this moment all trace of the Amber Room was lost in the fog of war. Since 1950 a special soviet Unit has been searchi8ng various hiding places in Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad)where the treasure could be hidden. The totally destroyed Koenigsberg Castle has been thoroughly searched, right down to the basement and subterranean cellars have been dug out. The Amber Room however remains lost. The new attempt by the Poles to dive onj the wreck has raised hopes that the missing cases may be found again. The 19 year long trail, which has been followed by the Soviets now leads to the wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff. The 25,000 gross register tons ship set sail from the port of Gotenhafen at around mid day on the 30th January 1945. At the time thousands of refugees from East and West Prussia were on board. At around 9pm when the vessel approached the Stolpebank, she was hit by three torpedoes fired from the tubes of a Russian submarine. The ship sank very quickly, taking two thirds of the refugees to the sea floor. It was one of the greatest maritime disasters in history. Presently one can only speculate over the art treasures , which Gauleiter Erich Koch had taken onj board shortly before the ship set sail. Erich Koch, who was sentenced to death, still sits in the execution cell and claims that the Amber Room is still located in the vaults of Koenigsberg Castle. The last Mayor of Koenigsberg however, Dr Helmut Will believes that the ‘Amber Room’ was stored in the basement of the west wing of the castle, but not even the soviet officials really know what happened after the fall and the sacking of Koenigsberg by the Red Army hoards.
Clues to the location of the “Amber Room”
Warschau (dpa). The lost treasure of the Amber Room, stolen by the Nazis from the summer residence of the Tzars is probably in the wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff at the bottom o0f the Baltic Sea. The Warschauer newspaper “Zycie Warszawy” reported on Friday that they had received new evidence from the DDR which supported this theory. A citizen of Weimar, Hans Soadelmann reported that early in 1945 his Unit had received orders to prepare a freight ship for a transatlantic crossing. The freighter was due to rendezvous with the MS Wilhelm Gustloff near the island of Bornholm and take on around 1,5 tons of freight. These cases would include a type of ‘Alter’. The special transfer however never took place as the “Wilhelm Gustloff” was sunk by a Russian submarine near the Stolpe Bank
Amber treasure in a brewery cellar ?
Moscow. In 1941 German soldiers packed the famous Amber Room looted from the Tsars palace near Leningrad in 27 boxes. Since then no trace of the Room has been found. Now a document has been found in Soviet Union: The treasure lies in the cellar of a destroyed brewery in Koenigsberg. BILD Zeitung 3.8.1988
Daily Telegraph article by Kate Connolly from 13 Nov 2004
