So potentially, there is a nazi tunnel
In a volcano in the middle of this town.
Oh, my god. Look at this place.
Rare books, documents, works of art, this still is
The greatest treasure hunt in history.
[josh] got an opening. [laughs]
Oh, my word.
Okay, well, let's make history. Come on.
Oh, wow.
Get the [bleep] out of here.
Back up! Back up!
Between 100 to 300 tons of gold.
Guys, I got something here.
Is that a picture frame?
I'm sorry. Did you say 100 to 300 tons of gold?
Talk about mystery, this is it.
May 8th, 1945, v-e day,
Nazi germany surrenders to the allies,
And the world celebrates as the war in europe ends.
For almost 80 years since, witnesses, scholars, and historians
Have fought to reveal all of the nazis darkest secrets,
But many remain stubbornly buried.
That's because in occupied poland,
The nazis built dozens of mysterious and massive subterranean complexes
To house everything from factories to futuristic weapons labs,
To vaults hiding the vast wealth they looted from europe.
Even today, we don't know the full extent
Of what these installations conceal,
And it turns out that their contents
May change what we know about the end of the war.
Recently unearthed documents could point to tunnels
Hiding experimental technolo and priceless art
Plundered by the nazis.
The ruins of a demolished fortress
May contain a trove of hidden artifacts
In a top-secret bunker.
And an enigmatic diary may point to literally tons
Of stolen gold stashed beneath a crumbling mansion
So let's get digging into history
And into the earth itself, as we attempt
To uncover the secrets the nazis fought to hide.
My name is josh gates...
Hello!
...Explorer,
Adventurer...
Amazing.
Help!
...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
Oh, [bleep]!
Whoo! That was exciting!
With a degree in archeology and a passion for the unexplained...
Yeah!
...I travel to the ends of the earth
Investigating the greatest legends in history.
Okay, let's punch it.
This is expedition unkno.
I was gonna take a 5d with me.
Yeah, definitely take a 5d.
[josh] my journey into the underground secret of world war two.
Was supposed to begin a few weeks from now.
[ryan] anyone see the backup drone?
But in the world of expedition unknown, plans change fast.
We have cameras?
-[ryan] we have cameras. -[brian] we have cameras.
-[josh] we got media? -[ryan] we got media.
-[josh] we got batteries? -[ryan] we got batteries?
-[brian] yeah. -We can make a tv show.
Come on. Let's do it.
By now, my crew is surprisingly comfortable
Preparing for an unexpected overseas trip.
What's happening?
I think we're going to poland.
Okay, so here's the story, uh, there is a group in poland that we have been tracking.
We have heard that they found some sort of a document,
A diagram in an archive somewhere
That is leading them to a potentially buried nazi installation.
We've been tracking their progress.
We think they have found some sort of tunnel,
It was all filled in. That's what we know.
Boom, then we just heard today that not only have they found a tunnel system,
But they believe they are about to
Bust into an entire underground network,
A bunker system, we don't know what.
So we are literally rushing to jfk.
We are buying plane tickets on the road and trying to get over there
I have no idea what's gonna happen.
It could be a disaster, it could be amazing.
We're hoping to be the first ones on the scene. Let's do it.
Okay, everybody, we gotta get in a car.
Is everybody ready to go?
Okay, everybody in a car. Let's go.
[brian] here we go.
-[ryan] all right. -Everybody in?
-[brian] in. -Okay.
Somebody jump on the horn with the car behind us
-And make sure we're going to terminal one at jfk. -[brian] yep. I got it.
-[crew member on phone] -um, terminal one, lufthansa, right?
All right. Here we are.
Hello, hello.
[flight attendant 1] one more passenger.
[flight attendant 2] one more. Okay?
[josh] don't close without me.
A few hours later, and we're flying comfortabl over europe, toward poland.
Three quarters of a century ago,
The landscape below was one of total destruction
The nazi blitzkrieg swept into poland
With the intent of wiping the country clean
And replacing it with a pure german state.
The plan would later includ the industrialized genocide of the jewish people,
The holocaust.
I say a silent prayer of thanks
That this is not the poland in which we land.
Wasting no time, we take to the roads
And rush to the southwester corner of the country
Into the city of luban.
Today, luban is tranquil, a charming town lined with quiet streets.
It's hard to believe that this was ground zero
For one of the nazi's last victories.
Prior to the war, this was all part of germany
But by February of 1945, the soviets took control of the city,
Pushing in from the east.
A month later, two german panzer divisions repelled the red army,
And the city returned to nazi control until the end of the war.
In one of luban's abandoned nazi-era tunnels,
I'm meeting with the representative of a grou
That believes they've discovered a secret nazi installation nearby.
That is, if I can find him.
I hear voices.
Hello!
Sebastian?
-[sebastian] yes? -[josh laughing] are you here?
[sebastian] yes.
Hey!
[sebastian] hey! Hello josh!
-[josh] how are you? -[sebastian] yes.
-Hey, hey. -[josh] nice to meet you.
-Hey. -Welcome to luban.
Thank you so much.
This is project manager, sebastian terenda,
Who's accompanied by translator, oliver kruger
First of all, thank you for meeting with us on such short notice.
I appreciate it.
This place is incredible. Where are we right now?
[speaking polish]
This is an air-raid shelter for the population of luban,
And he wanted to meet you here because there's many other
Secret places like this in luban.
So let's talk about these secret places.
Tell me about your group. What does your group do?
[speaking polish]
So their group is investigating into places like this,
And one of the most interesting ones is in a park here in luban.
And when we say a park you mean, like, a recreational park?
-[oliver] yes, yes, yes. -[sebastian] yes.
And it actually used to be a volcano many million years ago.
So potentially, there is a nazi tunnel
In a volcano in the middle of this town.
Exactly.
Sure. Okay.
After world war two, they found this, um, depression in the park,
And they didn't know what it is,
And there were stories about that there might be
Some kind of a secret underground bunker.
[speaking polish]
Several years ago, a member of their group, named tomas bernatsky,
Went to the archives and more or less accidentally found something incredible.
He found a map that indicates that in this mountain, there's a secret bunker.
He found an actual map?
Yes, do you want to see?
-[josh] you have it? -Yeah.
[josh] yes, absolutely.
Get out of here.
Are you kidding me? Look at this.
The nazis were adept at building underground
To hide and protect their assets from allied air-raids.
Several years ago, just a few hours from here,
I investigated a cluster of subterranean construction
Codenamed project riese, or giant.
Riese consisted of seven massive underground installations.
Their true purpose remains mysterious as they were never finished
It is believed they were intended to be top-secret weapons factories,
Possibly even connected to the nazi effort to build an atomic bomb.
If this map does show undiscovered tunnels here in luban,
Could they be connected to the shadowy world of project riese?
Might they contain evidence of wonder weapons
That could have turned the tide of war,
Or caches of stolen gold and art?
Sebastian aims to find out.
So we see what looks like a very extensive compound here with tunnels and rooms.
And then is this a big tunnel here?
-Yeah. -Wow.
This is incredible. We have an actual blueprint
That shows a secret nazi compound in a volcano.
But the million dollar question is is it real?
Is this whole thing actually buried down there?
Yeah, come to the park and show you.
-You'll show me. -[sebastian] yeah.
-Please. -Okay.
I'm right behind you. Come on.
In the middle of town, sebastian leads us
To an open field surrounded by soaring rock walls.
We're strolling in an ancient caldera.
Turns out, finding a nazi tunnel comple in an extinct volcano
Is a walk in the park, literally.
What is now a playground was once a battleground.
Just a few short miles from here once stood
A state-of-the-art wurzburg-riese radar station one of the first of its kin
And a now destroyed secret german factory,
Which was conducting experiments to design electromagnetic weapons.
Could sebastian's tunnels be connected to this researc
To find out, he brings me to meet a few other members of his team.
Nice to meet you guys. Okay, so I see lots of gizmos and wires.
What's going on here?
Uh, I correlate that map that we found. We are above the tunnels.
So right where we're standing here,
We should be above these tunnels?
-That's right. -All right.
We drilled the holes to investigate what's below us.
-You drilled this out? -[kamil] yes, that's right. That's right.
[josh] how deep does that go?
About 30 meters down.
-You drilled a 90 foot hole here? -[kamil] that's right.
Now, I'm starting to understand here. Is this a camera?
[kamil] yes, it's one of the probes.
-[josh] can I see this? -[sebastian] yes, of course.
[mateusz] this is something I designed and built.
-You made this? -[mateusz] yes.
High five. This is awesome.
And what is this for?
-I can show you. -Okay.
[kamil] uh, with this remote, I can move this like that.
To look around.
[josh laughing] I love... This is the controller?
-[kamil] that's right. -[josh] of course. Okay.
All right. So can we put it down there?
Sure. Why not?
Why not? Okay. Let's do it. Come on.
Our flexible snake cam should be able to give us
A 360 degree view of whatever's under our feet
Okay, camera is on and recording.
Here we go. You ready?
Oh, look at that.
Okay, it's going down.
This is so cool.
Ooh, okay so this is the end of the pipe,
And now, it's just a raw bore hole. Okay.
So now, we're through the pipe.
Okay, we're two-thirds of the way there.
Sebastian, you're killing me what is down here?
[laughing]
Ooh! Stop, stop, stop!
What? It's a tunnel!
Are you kidding me?
-[josh] are those tracks? -[sebastian] yes.
-[josh] like railroad tracks -[sebastian] yes, tracks. Yeah.
It's a [bleep] tunnel.
This tunnel carved through an extinct volcano by the nazis
Has been rediscovered after 80 years,
And we're getting our first look at what's inside.
-What is that? -[sebastian] it looks like that is stone.
-[josh] stone? -[sebastian] stone, yes, a pipe, a steel pipe.
-A steel pipe? -Yeah, a steel pipe.
Get out of here!
This is proof that the nazi map is real.
But what lies out of our cameras field of view?
-Can we look up? -Yes.
-[josh] so is it this? -[mateusz] yes, that's right.
Okay so up, up, down, down,
Left, right, left, right, b, a, start?
[mateusz] you can try it?
It's the konami code, come on.
Okay, I'm coming up.
Oh, there is a tunnel.
Look at that!
Wait, what is that?
[sebastian speaking polish]
-[josh] it's a what? -[oliver] it's a minecart.
-It's a minecart? -[sebastian] yes.
[kamil] on the tracks.
-It's a huge tunnel -[sebastian] yeah
Look, just in and of itself, this is an absolutely astounding view.
But the fact that it's right under our feet,
The fact this is live underneath us is crazy,
That this was here and nobody knew about this.
[oliver] that's right.
Okay, so does this tunnel go further?
[speaking polish]
-That we don't know. -You don't know?
So how do you get into this tunnel, like, really get into it?
[speaking polish]
That's what we're trying to do right now.
How?
Sebastian leads me downhill where I quickly realize
The scale of his group's ambition.
Wow.
-Cutting lumber? -[sebastian] yeah.
[josh] is this all part of the project?
[sebastian] yes, lumber and then the steel and the machine.
-[josh] wow. -[sebastian] all to the project.
[josh] and since confirming the map is accurate,
They have worked non-stop, three shifts a day,
Just to get where they are now.
[oliver] spectacular undertaking.
-[sebastian] yeah. -[josh] get out of here.
Oh, my word. Are you...
-This is the tunnel? -[sebastian] yes.
[josh] this whole thing was covered?
This all was overgrown, but this was the depression that he mentioned.
[josh] and the place where we dropped the camera,
-That's directly behind this? -[sebastian] yes.
-[josh] up there? -[sebastian] yes.
So have you made it to the minecart that we saw?
[speaking polish]
-[oliver] no, no. -Why not?
[oliver] because we are still facing stacked up rocks,
And behind there, there is another wall.
[josh] so it's blocked?
Yes, it's blocked.
Can we go in there?
Yes, uh... [speaking polish]
We need to wear protective gear and helmets.
Okay, let's do it. Let's gear up. Come on.
-Okay, go. -Yeah.
[josh] hard hats are wisely required
For a first trip into an unstable tunnel
Running through a nazi volcano.
Oh, my god. Look at this place.
Huge amounts of construction here.
-Hey, sebastian. -[sebastian] yes?
-[josh] this is all new construction? -[sebastian] yes.
-[josh] you did all this? -[sebastian speaking polish]
[josh] so they had to build up all of this,
All of this that you see around us here.
We continue slowly into the mountain
Until we seemingly reach the end of the line.
Okay.
[speaking polish]
We are on meter 36 here.
So the big tunnel with the minecart is past this wall?
-Yes. -Yes.
[josh] the wall consists of stones
That have been stacked floor to ceiling
And extend deep into the passage.
10 meters from here, it was all stacked like this
-On purpose. -[sebastian] yes.
[josh] 10 meters of stones?
-Yes. -10 meters were a buffer.
They don't know exactly why, but it was put here on purpose.
So for 30 feet, there's been stacked stones being pulled out of here?
-Yeah. Yeah. -[oliver] yes.
[josh] so whatever's on the other side of this wall
Was intentionally sealed behind 30 feet of rocks.
I can think of anything I've ever seen that was as well protected.
[sebastian speaking polish]
[oliver] okay, it's, like, they can see through it.
Until this point, we only were there with cameras,
But this today, when we removed the stones, we can actually enter.
-[josh] can I see? -[sebastian] yes.
Oh, [bleep], yes! There is a tunnel.
[sebastian] ghost?
[laughing] ghost! Yes! It is a ghost!
-[sebastian] ah, yeah. -[josh] look, look, look.
[sebastian] yeah?
-[josh] yeah? -[sebastian speaking polish]
-[josh] and it's not collapsed? -Not collapsed, yes.
-[josh] no? -Yes.
[speaking polish]
[josh] that is amazing. That goes way back.
I mean, it just goes into darkness.
Okay, so what is behind this wall?
Okay, well. Let's make history. Come on.
The team begins removing the stones one after another,
And we stack them in a wheelbarrow
To haul them out of the tunnel.
Stone-by-stone, the wall continues to come down.
The darkness on the other si conceals the ultimate unknow
What could the nazis have been hiding here in luban?
-Woah! -[sebastian] woah, woah.
Slowly.
[whispering] this is crazy.
[sebastian] whoa.
Talk about mystery, this is it.
[josh] careful.
Any air?
The air from inside begins to mix with that from outside.
It isn't just stale. It's bitter and thin.
[sebastian speaking polish]
[speaking polish]
So, what are they saying?
So, they're saying that it's unsafe to go further
Because they say that
Due to the fact that we are removing
Parts of this constructions here,
-It can become unstable. -Right.
Okay, so what do we do from here?
So, they're going to take the wall down.
The engine is come in,
And then, the wall's down and we can enter.
-If it's safe, we can go forward? -[both] yes.
[josh] a team of engineers arrives to buttress the tunnel ahead
And deploys ducting to pump in breathable air.
Meanwhile, archaeologist pawel zawadzki joins us inside the entrance.
Eventually, the engineers gi us their technical assessmen
Which roughly translates to, "hey, it's your funeral.
Okay, let's see where we're at.
Okay, we're going over the wall. Here we go.
So, you can see they've put these in
To try to stabilize this.
So, okay, past the wall.
[sebastian terenda] we pass the wall.
[josh] once we get past the rubble of the entrance,
The first thing we see is more rubble,
Blocking an offshoot from the main tunnel.
So, we've got our main tunne going down this way.
But this whole thing that's filled in,
There's actually more to be found back there.
Do you think all of this was put in here by hand when they left?
[sebastian speaking polish]
And why do you think they blocked the tunnel this way?
[sebastian speaking polish]
[oliver kruger] probably because they want to hide something.
Right.
Okay, let's go back and see how far this goes.
Everybody be very careful, guys.
This section of the tunnel I muddy and flooded,
And the supports have been soaking it all in for 80 years.
The threat of collapse is ever-present.
[oliver] oh, it's very interesting. Look at that here.
[gasps] look at this!
-It's like a cross section of whole structure, you know? -This is insane.
[josh] they've got steel beams.
The roof is not finished.
No, but it is much more supported than the other part of the tunnel, yeah?
Yes.
[josh] what's above us is remarkable,
But nothing compared to what we find at our feet
Look at this. So now, we have...
...Railroad tracks.
And these go all the way to the entrance
-To the tunnel, yeah? -Yes, yes.
And we don't know how far back.
And we have material, wood material, prepared to...
So, are these...
These are, what, these are beams that never got put up?
Yes.
-So, kind of... -And here, for example, there's another part.
[josh] look at this!
[oliver speaking polish]
[josh] pickaxe. Look at this.
Just literally left here, leaning against the wall.
How crazy is that?
It's actually kind of...
...Kind of eerie,
Because you can just imagine a worker here,
Just laying that down, you know what I mean?
It's like somebody was just here.
Despite how it looks,
This tunnel wasn't a mine.
It was a project, but in process of becoming what?
We're looking for clues to the answer
When we find a big one.
Hey, josh. [speaking polish]
-What do you have? -[speaking polish]
Oh, my god. Look at this.
-[josh] is it, like, a bowl? -[oliver] yes.
You know, it's a personal item so it's really unique.
[josh] I'm walking through the heart
Of an extinct volcano in poland,
Part of the first team in 80 years
To explore this sealed nazi tunnel system.
[oliver] I think it's...
It was used by workers and left here after a meal.
Somebody was sitting here, having a meal.
This is the first thing we've seen here
That's not, you know, a tool,
That's not a part of the work project.
It's something more, more personal.
Sebastian's team photograph and documents the bowl for preservation,
And we move further into the tunnel.
Here is a part of original electricity.
[josh] oh, this is part of the old electrical system here. Wow.
Look at that.
-[oliver] yes. -Oh, and it's a socket. Look.
-Ah, yeah. -Right, so this is part of the lighting system in here.
-Yes. Yes. -So this, all this old wiring that we see here,
All of this fed into the socket.
So this would've all been electrified and lit up.
Okay, so let's keep moving here.
Whoa, look at this, another shovel head.
All of this looks like they were just in the middle of construction.
I'm also amazed, just when you really see without the wood
What they were drilling through here,
I mean, this must've been a huge amount of effort.
This is not, like, soft earth.
They're drilling through the salt, I mean...
That's incredible.
It's very possible that it was made by prisoners.
[josh] yeah, exactly.
During world war ii, germany established
Over 450 forced labor and extermination camps inside poland,
As the nazis implemented hitler's "final solution"
To his so-called, "jewish problem."
Some of their names, auschwitz, treblinka, sobibo
Are burned into history like a brand,
But others have been tragically forgotten,
Like the work camp here in the town of luban.
The tunnel I'm in now was likely a product of some of that slave labor.
It is a literal scar in the countryside of poland
One that time alone cannot fully heal.
Wow.
We follow the rotting electrical cables
Toward the mine cart we saw from the surface
Until the tunnel widens in the darkness.
[chuckles] my word.
A big intersection here.
Now it just opens up.
There's our mine cart,
And we've got a four-way intersection here.
-We can go to here? -Yes, to this place.
-We've gotta... -[oliver] this part here, this roof is very dangerous.
[josh] the supports above have long rotted away,
Making every second we spend here
A calculated risk.
I wanna know what's in that mining cart. Anything?
Carefully...
[whispers] oh, look at this.
We got tools in here.
Shovel, and then a broken shovel head, another shovel here.
Ooh, and there's a second cart.
[oliver] it looks like, uh, some accident, because this crashed.
[josh] right, they look like they're,
Kind of like they hit each other or they're piled up.
[oliver] this one is empty.
[josh] this is empty?
[oliver] mmm-hmm.
And then, a kind of a turntable here
For the carts to go in different directions.
Can we look at the map here for a second again?
Let's kinda get our bearings here.
So, we are here, at this intersection here.
This is supposed to go a big straight tunnel to the left.
-[oliver] turn, right. -[josh] it turns, yeah.
Why do you think it does that?
[josh chuckles]
[josh] for the first time, sebastian's map,
Which has guided him unerringly to this moment,
Now proves to be inaccurate
The tunnels don't seem to g where they should be going.
Deciding where to explore next,
Sebastian nixes the offshoot to the right,
Since it appears to be in even worse condition than our current path,
Which leaves us with a left-hand turn.
So, let's see why this changes direction, yeah?
There's just no protection above us here at all...
...And a billion pounds of rock.
We could see what's around this corner.
Whoa.
Okay, we got a dead end here.
Looks unfinished.
Look at these drill bits, wow.
And then a few more against the wall.
And then literally, a drill bit, wow, right at the end.
The big question is, where's the drill?
I think it was more expensive.
-[josh] you think they took it with them? -Yes.
It's amazing, though. It's like they literally just were here,
And then just, like, said, "okay, that's it. We're leaving."
-They were working till the end. -Right, they really were.
You can even see in the wall, it looks like where they started to drill here.
You can see that the tunnel's gonna continue here.
The drill bit, they just took out of the end of the drill,
Dropped it on the ground, and that's it.
In fact, just workers are missing from this place.
I mean, that's it, right.
But, you know, other than that ceramic piece,
It's like there's no other personal effects of any kind.
There's no remnants of a cigarette or a table,
A deck of cards, like, nothing.
-There's no other personal... -[speaking polish]
-yes, it speaks to prisoners.
Yes, it really does.
It makes it seem like this was probably forced labor, right? Because...
If there's no personal items, maybe there's people here who have no personal items.
We're here for only a moment but it becomes clear that this dead end
Has a potential to be our end, as well.
Hey, josh, look at that.
-Oh, the crack. -[oliver] it's really dangerous.
And here, as well.
The way that the rock fractures in these clean lines,
It can just fall out of the ceiling.
Yeah, for sure.
We make our way out of these tunnels.
My jaw is still dragging on the ground as we leave.
Being a part of this discove has been nothing short
Of an awe-inducing experienc
Yet, it seems clear that this system
Is but one piece in a larger puzzle here in luban.
The radar station is another
And the weapons factory, as well.
The full picture is not yet complete.
Who knows what the team will find when the whole complex is excavated?
Eventually, sebastian hopes to turn this site into a museum,
So that the people of luban will have a tangible connection
To a dark chapter of their past.
A light at the end of this tunnel, so to speak
While the construction in luban was never completed
We know that there are othe underground installations in poland that were,
And that they were used to hide stolen nazi plunder
To meet one of the world's leading experts on the subject,
I drive 250 miles east to the polish capital of warsaw.
[man singing in polish]
It is impossible not to feel swept up by the past in this part of town.
But in reality, most of the buildings here are only a few decades old,
The result of a remarkable restoration project.
And that's because by the end of world war ii,
Everything here, in fact, most of warsaw, was gone.
[singing in polish]
[josh] the city was already battered by 1943,
When 1,000 residents of the jewish ghetto here
Attempted to fight back against the nazi regime
In a valiant uprising that lasted four months.
In response, the germans utterly leveled warsaw,
Burning it to its very foundations.
Old warsaw was rebuilt brick by brick,
And perhaps the crown jewel is the royal castle,
Built originally in 1619 and then rebuilt in 1984.
Today, it is a museum,
Home to hundreds of works of art
Once looted by the third reich.
And the key to finding more nazi plunder and secrets awaits inside.
[josh] among its innumerable war crimes,
The nazi occupation of polan resulted in the plunder of cultural treasures
From museums and private collections.
In warsaw's royal castle,
I go to meet the chairman of the monuments men foundation,
Historian and best-selling author, robert edsel.
-[josh exclaims] -[robert edsel] how about this?
Welcome to one of the wonders of the art world,
The canaletto room in the royal palace in warsaw.
[josh] this is a showstopper
[edsel] it is. It's an incredible thing.
[josh] and these are scenes from warsaw.
They are scenes of warsaw, and you have to imagine in, uh, September 1, 1939
When the nazis begin their blitzkrieg,
An invasion of poland,
The war really has started months before then,
Because german museum directors and curators had been visiting poland
For a great, long period, making list of works of art
-They intended to confiscate and steal. -Wow.
So in other words, this wasn't theft incidental to war.
-This was premeditated looting on an industrial scale. -[josh] mmm.
[edsel] the works of art ar moved out of the city
As the city goes through these various stages of destruction,
Ultimately leveling warsaw, and I mean leveling,
Just looked like a moonscape.
Um, they were taken and ultimately are hidden at a castle in germany,
Where they're found in may 1945.
[josh] the paintings in thi room are actually the reaso
That old warsaw could be reconstructed
After the nazis were driven out by the soviets in 1945.
These vivid portraits of the destroyed buildings were repurposed as blueprint
For the once and future warsaw,
And they were recovered by a unique division of the us military,
The monuments men.
So, let's talk about the monuments men.
You literally wrote the book on the monuments men,
Which was later adapted into the film
With george clooney.
For those who don't know, still,
Who were the monuments men?
The monuments men were a group of men and women,
Museum directors, curators, art historians, architects,
Archivists, librarians.
In fact, some of them were artists themselves
Who volunteered for service to be a new kind of soldier
Charged with saving rather than destroying.
When the monuments men arrived in europe,
The initial effort was to try and steer allied bombing
And artillery away from cultural targets.
But very quickly on, it became apparent
As they arrive in these museums
And the works of art are missing,
And they realize they're involved
In what was the greatest theft in history.
And that, of course, led to the greatest treasure hunt in history,
A treasure hunt that continues to this day
Because of the vast numbers of works of art that are still missing.
So, let's talk numbers.
Is there even a calculated number of how many pieces of art the nazis stole?
Oh, I think we're well north of 10 million.
I mean, what we do know is that the monuments men and women found and returned
Four million objects.
War allowed for them to accomplish things
That otherwise, today, would've been slowed down by red tape.
But imagine, no computers, no cell phones, I mean, you're typing documents
And having to use mimeograph paper,
Things you couldn't even find in a store today.
-[chuckles] right. -But they somehow kept track of all this.
3.2 million books,
And we're not talking about five and dime novels.
Rare books, documents, butterfly collections, uh, trolley cars from amsterdam,
Tens of thousands of church bells
From the cathedrals throughout europe
That were used to be melted down for war materials.
So, the list of things...
If it had value, the nazis stole it.
They returned four million objects.
How much more is still out there, do you think?
[edsel] you know, it's into the tens of thousands, certainly.
In poland alone, they have 63,000 objects
On a database that they're looking for,
And they trickle in one by one.
One of the things about the monuments men story
And about the work of this foundation
That is so remarkable is that it's all real.
Right now, as we stand here talking,
In someone's attic, somewhere,
Is a masterpiece.
Yeah, in fact, in many people's attics,
There are masterpieces.
There's so many mysteries that you could dig into in poland.
I mean, it's a treasure hunter's dream.
Take a look at this document.
It's a, uh, chart of a storage facility, military installation,
And in this particular area, they've allocated four rooms
To the museum in poznan,
And the museum there has stored art treasures.
This is about five hours west of warsaw
On the german border.
And I understand there's a team there now that's investigating this,
Trying to see, "are there any of the works of art that were left behind?
Are they still there?"
Do we know if these four chambers of art were all discovered after the war?
Don't know, but, you know, at the end of the day,
[chuckles] I don't need to tell you this, you gotta go kick the tires.
-Right. -You have to track down every lead,
You have to talk to people,
And that's the, that's the journey we're on
As we continue what still is the greatest treasure hunt in history.
All right, well, hopefully I'll come back
-With something exciting for you. -Hope so. Let me know.
-[josh] all the best. Great talking to you. -Yeah, you too.
[josh] I thank robert for his information
And his service to a crucial cause.
If there's even a chance
That there's stolen art yet to be discovered in this installation,
I've got to go find out for myself.
I drive 250 miles west of warsaw
Towards a city called miedzyrzecz.
On a remote hillside outside of town,
I meet investigators pawel piatkiewicz and robert kubiszewski.
-Hello. -[both] hello.
-Pawel? Hey, I'm josh. -Yep.
Nice to meet you.
-Hi, I'm robert. -Robert, great to meet you.
Pawel and robert have made it their mission to locate the stolen art
That the nazis may have hidd right in their own backyard
This is imposing looking. This is a gun emplacement?
[speaking polish]
It's a german heavy machine gun position.
It's a german position. So, this was built when?
Uh, built between 1934 and 1938,
When this originally belonged to germany.
So before world war ii, this part of poland was germany.
[robert kubiszewski] yes, it was germany.
The polish-german border was 24 kilometers from here.
-And today, the german border is... -It's 80 kilometers that way.
Yes. They lost some ground after world war ii.
-Yeah. -And I've been told this story that during the war,
Artwork was hidden somewhere in this area.
Is that connected to these bunkers?
Yes, but the bunkers are only the tip of the iceberg.
[josh] the tip of the iceberg?
-There's more down there? -[kubiszewski] yeah, sure.
Something incredible, and the story begins there.
[speaking polish]
If you wanna see, we will go.
-Okay. -[josh] what's underneath us?
We walk off past the machin gun nests into the woods.
The weather turns an appropriate shade of gloo
As we approach the back doo to one of history's less pleasant chapters.
[pawel piatkiewicz] josh... [speaking polish]
Oh, my word. Look at this.
Are you kidding me?
Is it a, is it a bunker?
[kubiszewski] yeah, it used to be.
[josh] and why is it all blown open?
-After the war, the russians blew it up. -They blew it up.
So, this gives us access into the tunnels?
-[piatkiewicz] yeah. -Yeah.
Okay, so...
[piatkiewicz speaking polish]
[josh] you guys ever seen the goonies?
Don't worry about it. Here we go.
[whistles] oh, boy.
Sure, the soviets may have detonated the entrance
And tried to bury this place forever,
But to these guys, that's an invitation.
[men grunting]
Okay, we're in.
Bit of a tight squeeze, watch the steps.
[kubiszewski] josh, give me your backpack.
-Give me your backpack. -[josh] okay.
Okay.
Okay. Here we go.
[grunts]
Okay.
[kubiszewski] watch out for water.
[josh grunts]
[pawel piatkiewicz] josh.
[speaking polish]
What is it?
[speaking polish]
[josh] holy [bleep] ! Are you kidding me?
What is this?
It was a cargo elevator room.
-[josh] how deep is that drop? -Um...
About 90 feet.
Sure, a 90-foot vertical shaft. Okay.
We're not going down this, right?
[kubiszewski] uh, we are going.
But not this way.
[kubiszewski] uh, no. Definitely not.
Okay.
Whoa. We're going down here?
[kubiszewski] yeah.
There is a staircase alongside the elevator shaft.
[josh] okay, great.
[grunts]
Okay. Into the darkness.
[grunts]
-Wow. -[kubiszewski] wow.
[josh] the quality of the air changes
As we move deeper undergroun
It actually begins to feel older.
Down, down, down.
This is insane.
I've never seen anything like this.
Finally, we reach the bottom
And emerge into a maze of massive chambers.
This is so crazy.
I just can't believe how big this place is!
Whoa.
Okay, hold up.
Are you kidding me?
This is like a city down here.
[josh] artfully crammed
Between pre- and post-war buildings
In downtown warsaw,
The keret house is
The narrowest home in the world.
[grunts]
Good lord.
Okay.
Ow!
[grunts]
Okay.
Come to think of it,
"crammed" might just be my word of the day here,
As I try to make a cup of coffee
In four feet of space, wall-to-wall.
[grunts]
You might be wondering
How an apartment like this is even legal.
Because this place basically doesn't meet
A single building code,
It is classified as an art installation,
Though it would make one hell of an airbnb.
Fun fact. At 44 square feet
This apartment would only be worth
About $800,000 in los angele
I'm gonna check on the east wing of the house.
It's fine.
One downside. It only has a half-bathroom
Well, slightly less than hal
[whistles]
Coolest apartment ever!
Whoa.
Okay, hold up.
Are you kidding me?
-I mean, this is like a city down here. -Yeah.
Underground city with railway stations,
Charging stations
For the batteries for the trains.
Wait, there was a train system here?
Yeah, that's right.
[josh] this is a huge tunnel complex,
Built by the nazis
On what is now the western edge of poland.
I'm only a few steps inside
And already, overwhelmed.
What is the name of this complex?
Mru tunnels.
I'm sort of embarrassed to say this.
I've never heard of this place.
How big is this place, pawel?
[speaking polish]
[kubiszewski] this is the whole map of the mru system.
[josh] are you kidding me?
We are where?
-[kubiszewski] here. -[josh] here?
Yes, and we are going along the access tunnel 400 meters,
And then we turn left into the main traffic road.
The full extent of the tunnels is what?
More than 25 miles of tunnels.
-I'm sorry, more than 25 miles of tunnels? -[kubiszewski] that's right.
Yes. It's the second-largest underground facility
In the world.
[josh] twenty-five miles of tunnels.
All told, they connect a hundred concrete bunkers
And defensive positions at the surface,
Through an underground labyrinth of passages
That's longer than all the subways in los angeles.
But this incredible feat of military engineering
Was actually designed as a defensive measure.
It was supposed to protect germany
Against a potential invasio from poland,
And in case alanis morissette is watchin
That's ironic.
There's this history here that art
-Was stored in these tunnels. -[speaking polish]
[speaking polish]
[kubiszewskiin english] many artifacts
From the national museum in poznan
Were hidden here, in the place.
-Okay. -Proper humidity, temperature, and such things.
So, we know for sure that art was hidden in this complex.
[kubiszewski] that's for sure. Yes?
This document... [continues in polish]
[josh] pawel shows me a scan of documents
Seized from the nazis.
It's an order to transfer looted painting
From the national museum in the city of poznan
To a chamber at the southern end of this complex.
The room was specially outfitted
With heaters to protect the art,
Which, thankfully, it did.
So, when the soviet union eventually broke through here,
Did they find the art?
Yeah, 440 chests, wooden chests of artifacts
And works of art were found in here.
Wow.
Okay.
The german government said that there were four chambers
Set aside for the artifacts from the museum,
But the russians only found two of them.
So somewhere in this maze of tunnels
Are two chambers that the russians never found?
-[piatkiewicz] yeah. -That's right.
Have all of the tunnels and chambers down here
Been explored now, today?
We try to explore everything, but it's impossible to do,
Because parts of the tunnels are flooded.
So it's been flooded since the war?
Yeah, but the water level has been going down,
Because of the construction on the surface.
[josh] the construction of a nearby dam
Seems to have shifted the course
Of the underground aquifer here, and for the last month
Many of the tunnels have been draining.
So, it would be possible to explore the parts that
Were not accessible in the past.
Nobody has reached the end of the tunnels.
All right, so, I got it.
Which way?
-[speaking polish] -that way.
I'm right behind you.
We begin our trek into the darkness.
I mean, it's endless.
Look at it!
It goes on forever!
Each tunnel opens to a larger passage,
Until we reach the main underground thoroughfare.
Subways would have run through here,
And we pass through various stations,
That were once brimming
With soldiers and military personnel.
[piatkiewicz speaking polish]
Josh, welcome to railway station otto.
[josh] oh, my god!
Get out of here!
-[kubiszewski] amazing! -[piatkiewicz] yeah.
[josh] it's even bigger!
So this was literally a rail station here?
-Yeah. -Yes.
A train running through here?
Yeah.
Wow!
Okay. Are we headed this way?
[kubiszewski] that's right.
[josh] please, go ahead.
Here we go.
Walking through this tunnel
Among the creepier experienc of my recent life,
But all unsettling things must come to an end.
In this case, after two hour of trekking in the dark,
A dead end.
[piatkiewicz speaking polish] ...Josh.
This is the end, and these are the flooded tunnels.
This tunnel on the left goes where? Do we know?
-The one on the left is a dead end. -[josh] uh-huh.
[kubiszewski] the one that goes straight ahead
Is more of a mystery.
So, we don't really know where that goes.
-It looks like it branches off on here. -No.
In fact, we don't.
Okay, so, pawel, normally, like when you've been here...
-[speaking in polish] -...How high is the water level...
[speaking in polish]
-[josh] ...Here? -[speaking in polish]
[speaking in polish]
[in english] imagine the two, both tunnels,
Were completely flooded.
All the way to the roof?
Up to the roof.
So, robert, have you ever seen the levels like this?
It's never been like this.
So, can we just walk down this tunnel?
No.
Why not?
The tunnel slopes down.
So it gets deeper.
Yes.
So how are we exploring this?
[speaking polish]
By what?
Next time, on expedition unknown,
The epic conclusion of my dark journey
In search of the buried secrets
Of world war ii...
You got a lot of land mines left in this country?
Um, plenty.
[josh] ...As I prepare
To set sail into a nazi tunnel system
Flooded since 1945.
Guys, I got something here!
What the hell is that?
Then, a mysterious diary may hold the key
To finding billions in plundered gold.
Anywhere between 100 to 300 tons of gold.
I'm sorry, did you say 100 to 300 tons of gold?
Finally, a town once wiped off the map by the red army
Is shedding light on the final days of the war
-Oh. -Oh.
-Oh, my god. -[both chuckle]
[josh] oh, my word!
And what we find in the ashes of this fortres
Takes my breath away.
-These were used with enigma machines? -Mmm-hmm.
[josh] wow.
Stop, stop, stop!
There is something glinting in here. Come here.
-Back up! Back up! -Look out!