A concentration camp in Germany is begging treasure hunters to stay away after a documentary claimed Nazi gold was buried there
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Bill Bostock
Dec 19, 2020, 19:49 IST
A barbed wire fence encloses the memorial site of Buchenwald near Wiemar, Germany, on January 27, 2020.JENS SCHLUETER/AFP via Getty Images
A concentration camp memorial is urging looters to stay away after a documentary claimed Nazi gold could be hidden beneath it.
Aired in November, "The Secret Depots of Buchenwald" claimed a handwritten map revealed two sealed chambers under Buchenwald concentration camp.
After liberating the camp in 1945, US soldiers found 21-tonnes of gold jewelry and effects at the camp, stolen from prisoners, sparking theories there could be more.
Jens-Christian Wagner, the director of the Buchenwald memorial, said all the chambers had been opened.
"For many years we had considerable problems there with illegal visits to the tunnel. Sometimes we also find people with metal detectors," he told The Times of London.
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A concentration camp memorial in Germany is begging treasure hunters to stay away, after a new documentary claimed Nazi gold could be buried there.
Buchenwald was the largest camp built inside what is now modern-day Germany and at least 56,000 people died there between 1937 and 1945, according to the memorial foundation.
Jews, Poles and other Slavs, the mentally ill and physically disabled, political prisoners, Romani people, Freemasons, and prisoners of war were all imprisoned at the camp.
Rumors of hidden treasure have followed the camp ever since US soldiers who liberated it on April 11, 1945, found a 21-tonne trove of gold fillings, teeth, rings, watches, and clocks, stolen from inmates, The Times of London reported.
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The camp was subsequently handed over to Soviet forces who, according to the documentary, blasted shut the entrance to the underground chambers.
But Jens-Christian Wagner, the director of the Buchenwald memorial, has denied the existence of unopened chambers and said people are still scavenging at the site.
"All the chambers have been opened," he told The Times. "For many years we had considerable problems there with illegal visits to the tunnel. Sometimes we also find people with metal detectors."
"Our security guards are vigilant," he said.
As well as treasure hunters, Buchenwald is also dealing with a rise in anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi graffiti.
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"Messages glorifying Nazism or demanding the camps be reopened for foreigners have become more common," Volkhard Knigge, director of the museum at Buchenwald, told Agence France-Presse in April.
"There have always been incidents at memorial sites, but we have noticed an escalation due to the far right's breaching of language taboos."
Concentration camps have long struggled to police the behavior of visitors.
Last month, Wagner was told by German prosecutors that he was under investigation for allegedly defaming the Wehrmacht, the Nazi army, in his book, claiming they committed war crimes, The Times said.
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"It is worrying that it has recently become socially acceptable in Germany to cast doubt on historical facts about the Third Reich such as the crimes of the Wehrmacht," Wagner said.
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