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A labyrinth of secret underground tunnels believed to
have been used by the Nazis to develop a nuclear bomb has been
uncovered.
The facility, which covers an area of up to 75 acres, was discovered
near the town of St Georgen an der Gusen, Austria last week, it has been
reported.
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Excavations began on the site after researchers detected heightened
levels of radiation in the area - supporting claims that the Nazis were
developing nuclear weapons.
Documentary maker Andreas Sulzer, who is leading the excavations, told
the Sunday Times that the site is 'most likely the biggest secret
weapons production facility of the Third Reich'.
It is believed to be connected to the B8 Bergkristall underground
factory, where the Messerschmitt Me 262 - the first operational jet
fighter - was built.
There are also suggestions that the complex is connected to the
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.
Slave labour from the camp was used to build both complexes - with as
many as 320,000 inmates in the harsh underground conditions.
But while the Bergkristall site was explored by Allied and Russia after
the war, the Nazis appeared to have gone through greater lengths to
conceal the newly-discovered tunnels. |
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Its entrance was only uncovered after the excavation team, which
includes historians and scientists, pieced together information in
declassified intelligence documents and testimonies from witnesses.
The team is now in the process of removing layers of soil and concrete
packed into the tunnels and heavy granite plates that were used to cover
the entrance.
Helmets belonging to SS troops and other Nazi relics are among the items
that have been uncovered so far.
The excavation was halted last week by police, who demanded the group
produce a permit for conducting research on historic sites. But Mr
Sulzer is confident that work will resume next month.
He told the Sunday Times: 'Prisoners from concentration camps across
Europe were handpicked for their special skills - physicists, chemists
or other experts - to work on this monstrous project and we owe it to
the victims to finally open the site and reveal the truth.'
The probe was triggered by a research documentary by Mr Sulzer on
Hitler's quest to build an atomic bomb.
In it, he referenced diary entries from a physicist called up to work
for the Nazis. There is other evidence of scientists working for a
secret project managed by SS General Hans Kammler. |
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Kammler, who signed off the plans for the gas chambers and crematorium
at Auschwitz, was in charge of Hitler's missile programmes.
Mr Sulzer searched archives in Germany, Moscow and America for evidence
of the nuclear weapons-building project led by the SS.
He discovered that on January 2, 1944, some 272 inmates of Mauthausen
were taken from the camp to St Georgen to begin the construction of
secret galleries.
By November that year, 20,000 out of 40,000 slave labourers drafted in
to build the tunnels had been worked to death.
After the war, Austria spent some £10million in pouring concrete into
most of the tunnels.
But Sulzer and his backers believe they missed a secret section where
the atomic research was conducted.
The Soviets were stationed in St Georgen until 1955 and they took all of
the files on the site back with them to Moscow.
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Experts are trying to discover if there is a link between St Georgen and
sites in Germany proper where scientists were assembled during the Third
Reich in a bid to match American efforts to build the ultimate weapon.
In June 2011, atomic waste from Hitler's secret nuclear programme was
believed to have been found in an old mine near Hanover.
More than 126,000 barrels of nuclear material lie rotting over 2,000
feet below ground in an old salt mine.
Rumour has it that the remains of nuclear scientists who worked on the
Nazi programme are also there, their irradiated bodies burned in secret
by S.S. men sworn to secrecy.
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