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The Search For Nazi Gold (3x3)

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The dying days of World War II. Hitler was in his bunker, unable to accept defeat. But most Nazis knew the game was up. It was time to start hiding evidence of their crimes. A unit of SS officers were instructed to transport boxes to the Salzgammergut lake district in the Austrian Alps. Their destination was one of the most remote and deepest lakes in the region: Lake Toplitz. On 1st May 1945, eyewitnesses still alive today saw the SS Officers throwing the boxes into the lake. Local rumours grew: the boxes were full of stolen gold. It was the biggest bank heist in history. The Nazis stole $500M of foreign gold. When the gold ran out, they tore it from the mouths and fingers of concentration camp victims. Most of the gold was sent to Switzerland, but as the war turned, the Nazis knew they had to hide it wherever they could, and most was sent south, to Bavaria and Austria. In 1959 a German journalist and former Marine decided to get to the bottom of the mystery of Lake Toplitz once and for all. He persuaded his editor to finance the first large-scale underwater exploration of the lake using a rope, lights, a camera and a grappling hook. After 10 days they found a box and heaved it to the surface. Would it really be full of gold? What Lohde found was evidence of something even more extraordinary.