Selects: The Legends of Lost Nazi Gold | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hey everybody it's me joshh and for this. week's select I've chosen our episode on. Legends of Nazi gold from April of 2020. uh this is the one where we learned that. Nazis were even worse than we thought. not only were they murder a swine. obviously they were also scumbag thieves. too who didn't have enough money to fund. the war they started in the first place. so they went around looting and robbing. from neighboring countries and by the. end of the war the writing on the wall. they hid a lot of that gold that they. stole in strange unmarked places around.

Europe some people believe it's still. hidden just waiting to be found hence. this episode hope you. [Music]. enjoy welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh Clark and there's Charles W Chuck. Brian over there and Jerry somewhere we.

lost her I think she wandered off yeah. but this is stuff you should know. regardless the Lost Nazi gold Edition. the legend of Curley's gold if Curley. was a white. nationalist well who's to say he wasn't. I don't I I don't know he jack Palin. seems like the kind who would have beat. up white nationalists for fun as like a. hobby you know what I mean yeah you know. uh we we can't get into the Super End. and announced but as you know my brother.

worked on the legend of Curly's gold and. Jack Jack Valance was a tough SOB yeah I. hear he used to do shots of nails yeah I. mean he wasn't a jerk I wouldn't say but. it just sounded like he was just sort of. a a very cantankerous old fella to work. with that's so funny man because I mean. if you at the end of the day he's an. actor I know on the earth it's not like. you you weld machine guns or something. like that give me a break you're an.

actor yeah like Clint Eastwood's not. really tough well actually that's not. true is he oh sure probably he's got. he's got to be at the very least he's. been acting like it's so long he's. developed yeah yeah it's probably like a. callous you know what I mean where it. just kind of forms and. stays a callous it's the callousness of. toughness that an actor Will form I. don't think Clint Ewood whines about a. hang nail let's to say that no like like.

we do that'd be pretty disappointing I. actually was whining about a hang nail. to myself the other day of course but. I'm not an actor I'm a podcaster chck no. we have a TV show that proves that and. I'm speaking for both of us ouch I. thought I did some good work I thought. you did a better job than I did actually. I think we both did a much better job. than you remember all right so um if you. hate Nazis and you're like it's been a. while since I was given a a a reason to.

hate Nazis a new. one uh Rejoice cuz we're about to give. you another one at least I didn't really. realize this to this extent did you you. know I knew about Nazi gold and that. they took things but I didn't know that. it was almost one big people killing and. World robbing operation yeah that's the. thing that's the new thing to hate them. for not only were they murderers they. were also just common thieves as well I.

mean thieves on one of the greatest. scales anyone's ever seen but thieves. nonetheless um because I'm an. exceptional Thief be uh who was that. Michael Kane no die hard they called him. a common thief and he goes I'm an. exceptional Thief right. Rodney can you imagine oh I can't wait. till technology gets like Advanced. enough that you can just insert whoever. into whatever character and they'll say.

the same lines and everything uhhuh. that'd be great that's the first one I'm. doing is Rodney Dangerfield is Hans. grber he would have been wonderful that. scene where he uh he's fooling him into. thinking he he was one of the party. goers and he goes what's your name oh. it's Bill clay yeah that's what it is. don't shoot. me come on nobody shoots me I got no. respect that's pretty good pretty good. oh boy okay so um the Nazi.

were thieves not just because they they. looted and plundered like the countries. that they occupied but that they did it. because they were broke to start off. with that's what truly makes them. thieving sobs is that their whole Jam. this whole War World War that they. started they didn't have the resources. financially or uh industrially to. actually carry out this war they had to. go steal to fund their role in World War.

II which they started that's right they. uh you point out here you put this. together good stuff thanks uh that in. 1923 they had hyperinflation such that. in November of that year it cost 80. billion marks to buy a loaf of bread is. that right yeah which sounds like a lot. on its own but if you consider that. earlier that year in January a loaf of. bread cost 250 marks yeah so the price. of bread went from 250 marks to 80. billion marks s in less than a year but.

isn't that just a way of saying that. nobody bought bread no it meant it's a. way of saying that their money was. totally worthless remember it happened. in Zimbabwe oh yeah I can't remember. what episode it was maybe how much money. is there in the world we talked about. hyperinflation I think so that was. staggering it was staggering and the. same thing happened in 1923 in the Yar. Republic and this is the the state of. the German economy that the Nazis Rose. to power in because you know that's one. of the reason reasons they were able to.

rise to power and fascism was able to. take over because the country and the. economy was in such Dire Straits that. this idea of like hey everybody get in. line behind this guy because he's going. to lead us out of it that's how that's. essentially one way that Hitler and the. Nazis were able to rise to power but. that also means that he inherited a. terrible economy and he had to figure. out what to do not only a terrible. economy took but they Germany lacks. natural resources that you would need to. to to start a war machine too yeah they.

they have uh no oil they don't have. mineral deposits that you can make. really fine Metals out of Y they've got. sourkraut they have sauerkraut they have. a lot of beer too in their to their. credit but you know if that's all you. got you need more to fight a war with. yeah so what happened was they um they. had what was called The reiches Mark. which was the the monetary unit of the. Third Reich and there were five neutral.

countries that declared during World War. II like we're not going to trade in. reichs marks so Hitler and Germany said. well you know what's always valuable. anywhere is gold and let's start taking. it from anywhere and everywhere we can. get it yeah and gold in particular it's. what's called um a very fungible. commodity like you can you can trade. just about anything for gold right if. you have gold people will give you. whatever you want you can use it to buy.

oil you can use it to buy guns you can. use it to fund terrorism you can use it. to back your own currency there's a lot. of stuff you can do with gold but in. particular in World War II if you were. the the Third Reich the Nazi regime you. needed to use gold because these neutral. countries couldn't accept Reich marks by. agreement but also the Reich reiches. marks were were worthless anyway so if. you wanted to buy a bunch of guns you. needed some gold.

and because Germany at the time only had. about 25 tons of gold in its reserves. which sounds like a lot but as we'll see. is a poultry amount of gold compared to. what they looted and pillaged and took. um they they needed some gold and so. yeah they started looting it and the. first place they turned Chuck was. Austria yeah how much gold did you say. they had they had 25 met from what I. understand 25 metric tons of gold in the. reserve Germany did at the outset of um.

World War II all right well this will. drive home how much that is they looted. 15 Tons just 10 tons less from the. citizens Jewish citizens of Vienna. Austria from from the capital city Only. They looted 15 Tons of gold from Jewish. citizens just citizens like you said oh. yeah and that's um those are just people. so the the Central Bank of Austria they. got a hundred tons of gold so right.

there four times what they had in. reserve and then they said hey you know. that six tons of gold that you're trying. to send away to England to keep safe. from us we're bring that back here too. we want that yeah they did so just from. Austria alone they. got uh what 21 tons yes to add to their. existing 25 tons it was a huge deal that. kickstarted the Nazi war machine into. high gear it was a big coup Austria.

wasn't expecting it no one was expecting. it and so other countries in Europe. suddenly like gulped and they were like. we need to we need to take this as. advaned warning basically we don't want. to become like Austria and they. triggered Chuck the largest physical. transfer of wealth that the the world. the planet has ever seen yeah cuz I. didn't know this and it's kind of cool. that um you know countries that are are. friendly to one another we'll help each.

other out like this yeah uh you can say. hey us you've got Fort Knox there I've. heard that's a pretty safe place to keep. gold um we're England so can we send you. a bunch of that to keep for us and just. you know uh we'll make a receipt out so. we know how much there is and I you and. you promise not to spend any of it and. the the US and Canada um early on at. least did things like this they accepted. huge gold shipments there was a. operation in 1940 called project fish M.

where the UK was sending or Britain was. sending 1500 met metric tons of gold uh. to the US to store in Fort Knox yeah and. in$ 2019 the amount that they sent on. slow boats through the Atlantic which by. the way were infested with OTS uh by. 1940 was worth 166 billion dollars in. today's dollars and it got there somehow. yeah not one of those ships was sunk. astoundingly is that nuts crazy well.

they didn't know clearly so um they they. sent so Britain sent that 1500 metric. tons Russia they were like we're just. going to take care of ourselves they. evacuated a bunch of stuff from um their. stock piles they sent. 2800 tons of gold from its banks to a. location in the eural mountains for. safekeeping they also sent two other. National Treasures too the imol corpse.

of Nikolai. Lenin and um artwork from the Heritage. Museum those three those were the three. things they prized the most to to um. transfer by train to the eural mountains. to stash until the war was. over so all told if you want to add it. up during the course of World War II uh. the Nazis stole at least that we know of. 400 million American dollars in gold. from countries they occupied and another. $140 million in gold from people largely.

um Jewish people from their homes uh. people that were imprisoned in. concentration camps yeah they stole it. was a very meticulous thing that they. did they would raid their homes they. wouldn't just round people up they would. go to their safety deposit boxes they. would rip their uh Dental fillings out. of their teeth such that it even got the. name tooth gold s gold um and not that. didn't you know that covered everything. that they stole from people not just the. gold from teeth that covered people's.

wedding rings and their jewelry and. their uh parts of eyeglasses and other. things like that it's just unbelievable. how much gold they looted from. concentration camp victims yeah. especially when you step back and look. at it like that Germany really needed. the money the Third Reich needed the. money they were just robbing robbing and. murdering that's what they were doing. you know it really kind of puts it into. perspective more oh yeah I mean the. Nazis were the worst dude and still are. Nazis are the wor.

worst so most of that gold that was. stolen um from occupied countries um I I. didn't see how many tons it was but. what' you say generally the figure I've. seen is about 500 to$ 600 million in. 1940s yeah um stolen and most of it was. put into the reiches bank which is. Germany's Central Bank um kind of like. its Federal Reserve and there are. different branches throughout the. country and you know the gold was kind. of distributed here there but um as as.

the war kind of moved on it was moved. more and more into the Central reiches. Bank in Berlin until 1945 and there was. a bombing raid on Berlin on Germany and. they said we need to get this gold out. of here and into Secret locations and so. the gold from the re Bank um hundreds of. millions today billions and billions. worth of dollars worth of gold. was moved to places where no one had any.

idea Secret locations that weren't banks. in. Germany yeah so this would set off um I. mean people are still looking for Nazi. gold today yeah and and not just walking. around with a metal detector but people. are some people are putting a lot of. money into looking for Nazi gold and one. of the big reasons is a like you just. said they we know that they moved it at. some point right and B uh in April of. 1945 there were some military police uh.

patrolling around the town of merkers. they questioned a couple of French women. who had been displaced and they said in. French I would imagine that they saw. gold being stored in a potassium mine. near the town and the the MP said Sakura. blue I mean holy. cow and the Army investigates this and. they found the uh it's it's famous now. the merkers Mind treasure mhm which was. a horde of gold that was a room room.

covered in 7,000 marked bags of gold. coins gold bars gold jewelry valued at. about 238 million. 1945 so this was a signal to everyone. like wow the legend of Curly's gold is. real yeah CU this is only about half the. money so uh let's let's get our metal. detectors out yeah I mean this idea that. the Nazis hid gold in M shafts or all. sorts of different places was proven by.

that merkers mind treasure that they did. this and there were substantial amounts. to be found that was $ 238 Million worth. but they stole $500 to $600 Million. worth which means that there is a. substantial amount of gold unaccounted. for and that is what has fueled treasure. Hunters to look for what today would be. billions of dollars worth of gold that. was lost and Scattered and spread after. World War II and I say Chuck I have a. proposal for you I bet I know what it is.

pie oh what kind what's your favorite. kind of. pie oh I really love a key lime yeah. it's hard not to go with key lime okay. but what about just like a standard. traditional fruit pie they're really. tough to beat like a good cherry. pie if I'm going fruit pie it's going to. be an apple crumble for sure okay I used. to be in that same uh group with you. until you had the sweetest cherry pie.

yeah Warren Warren talked me into trying. it and I loved it cherry pie is actually. as good as the song makes it. sound wow all right we'll be right back. okay want to learn about a ter sword and. call aoda how to take a perfect all. about the H the LI Mur and the explain. everything your brain. exp you should. know know up.

[Music]. Jerry cheese my cherry pie yeah I've. tried it with cheese like they say but. it's not very good I think that's. typically apple pie that's supposed to. have cheese on it so I I just like. straight cherry pie cherry pie uh cool. drink of water it's a sweet surprise yep. I've tried it with the cool drink of. water too it's good it's better with. just water than say like Coke because.

Coke's sweet taste competes with the. sweetness of the cherry pie so they're. they're pretty much right on except for. the cheese they say it'll make a grown. man. cry I'm here to to tell you that's the. truth oh boy that song and that video so. dumb but also very titillating for a. very young Chuck you know um have you. seen the rush documentary oh sure did. you know that Sebastian Bach from skid. row it was skid right he was well Warren.

saying cherry pie but yeah Sebastian was. skidrow I okay but like it's just a huge. leap from skid to Warrant give me a. break but Sebastian Bach was from. warrant right uh no no no he was skido. oh that's what I mean yeah warrant was. Janie Lane if I'm not mistaken yeah. you're right man you got it the poor. man's Brett. Michaels yeah in a way so and sorry. Janie I I really didn't mean that but I. couldn't leave it um the the but. Sebastian Bach from Skid Row is one of.

the greatest and longest standing Rush. fans of all time that's right he was all. over that yeah I think he was he joined. their fan club in like seventh or eighth. grade he said and I love that right now. somewhere Brett Michaels is walking. around playing that on repeat to his. family did you hear that did you hear. what Josh said he thinks I'm better than. the skid R guy no you mean warrant it. doesn't. matter all right so um we're talking. about gold and we were saying before we.

started talking about warrant and. everything that um that there is gold. that is unaccounted for that was stolen. by the Nazis that just kind of vaporized. after the war Gold's not supposed to do. that it's one of the things that people. love about gold is it doesn't just. vaporize Into Thin Air it's really easy. to keep track of if you want to and so. people started looking for gold or. looking for Clues and one of the big. clues that people started following was. local rumors and legends like in merkers.

there were plenty of rumors and and. legends that there was gold hidden in a. mine nearby diar Hills exactly and they. so that people people hearing local. Legends has really kind of fueled hunt. for hunts for Nazi Treasures for almost. a century now yeah so um we're going to. go through a bunch of these there's one. called Lake toppets yeah uh like it's a. very lovely place I'm sure you looked up. pictures mhm um but people and treasure.

Hunters have been looking for this. golden Lake toplet ever since uh and. this is very much fact a bunch of Nazis. retreated there in the Austrian Alps in. the final months of the War uh US troops. were closing in Fast and Germany was. about to collapse and so they. transported a bunch of boxes to this. Lake a military uh military vehicles and. then horsedrawn wagons even and they. dumped them in the lake so I think that. part is definitely true right there's.

yes from what I could tell it was. reported on like that is. fact what was in the boxes was what's up. for for um debate exactly some people. say that's the Nazi gold about5 half. billion dollars worth uh other people. said um no I think some of this stuff. are documents um where they uh they were. basically confiscated from jewi je. victims about where their assets were.

hidden and what Swiss bank accounts they. could loot maybe yep I saw I saw also. artwork um sure they think that was. sealed artwork um also there's a rumor. that there's 300 lb of. morphine in oh wow in those boxes that. was contributed by I think Albania's. president um because he didn't wanted to. fall into the hands of the. Allies well one thing they know is down. there because uh they actually found.

some of these yeah a lot in in 1983 was. Hitler had the idea at one point hey. let's sabotage various countries by. creating counterfeit money of those. countries yeah it's a pretty smart plan. for a dirty Nazi I know so they created. um just hundreds of million dollars. worth of British pound notes and in 1983. a German biologist by accident. discovered a lot of these British pounds. and in the lake what did we talk about.

that and like how counterfeiting Works. maybe maybe it does sound familiar. though for sure we definitely talked. about that plan and remember there was. like a um a uh a Jewish printer who was. a a holocaust um prisoner a prisoner of. a concentration camp I can't remember. which one who turned out to be like this. master counterfeit yeah like because the. Nazis trained him to or forced him to it. was if I remember correctly it was our. counterfeiting episode yeah and in 1959. I talked about the 1983 find but in 59.

uh they recovered 700 million pounds of. these counterfeit notes uh from that. lake so some people say that's all that. was down there um other people say there. may still be gold down there and Austria. actually still to this day has a problem. about 10 divers a year illegally dive in. that Lake looking for that treasure yeah. and what's interesting about this Lake. aside from the fact that there might be. Nazi treasure in it which is interesting. enough to make the lake remarkable and.

noteworthy but in addition to that this. lake has a kind of a strange um. hydrology in that the top half of it is. freshwater the bottom half is saltwater. and they're separated by density and in. the middle of these two layers is a like. a layer a floating layer of ancient logs. that have fallen into the lake and been. preserved over time and so you can only. dive so far before you hit this layer of. logs and some divers I think five divers.

have at least have died in this Lake. looking for Nazi gold and at least one. of them got tangled up in this layer of. logs it's a really dangerous place to. dive but the fact that you can't really. see past this layer of. logs is one of the things that keeps. people coming back and keeps this Legend. alive because they can't thoroughly. search this Lake and show conclusively. no there's no gold here leave this place. alone stay away way amazing it is pretty.

amazing and then the other thing about. it too is this is a really remote. location that was used by Nazi officers. high ranking Nazi officers and for. missile testing it seems like a really. odd place just to dump counterfeit pound. notes yeah like you could dump those. just about anywhere so I don't know. maybe there is something to. it you going to get your scuba gear. ready I got my flippers on already can't. see but I've got them on all right uh.

we're going to move now to um an Eastern. German Town along the cheze border uh. called deuts kather anenberg nice it's. it sort of looks like the alphabet when. it's on a on a page it's a lot of. letters in a row yeah but uh there are. people there that think not only is. there gold here but uh possibly the. Amber Room which was. this you just look up pictures of the. Amber Room room it's pretty amazing this. chamber of um honey and linseed and KAC.

infused Amber panels gold frame mosaics. U marble precious stones and it was a. gift of Prussian King Frederick vilhelm. I to Russia's Peter the Great once. called The Eighth Wonder of the world. and it disappeared during World War II. yeah the Nazis plundered it from Russia. from the. USSR and they took it back to Germany. back to uh Kingsburg or Kun iburg which. was I think now a time or part of um of.

Russia again but at the time during. World War II it was part of Germany or. Prussia and they had it on public. exhibit for like four or five years and. then at the end of the war it just. vanished and no one's seen it since and. there's a lot of people who say well it. was destroyed in Air Raids other people. say it was sunk on the you know on a. ship that was secretly carrying it um. it's just lost but there's a pair of. treasure Hunters at deut kather inberg.

um who searched in that area because. they were sure that among other things. the Amber Room panels were were buried. there in that town yeah and this is um. this is probably the worst ending to a. potentially cool story ever but there. was there was a pair of Searchers um. searching for this stuff one of them's. father was a German Air Force officer in. World War II MH and in his personal. notes this son thought that he'd found. the exact coordinates of this treasure.

so he got together with another treasure. hunter who was uh another German he was. a mayor in fact of a nearby town and. they thought that they had discovered. through radar this big rectangular. underground space about 60 feet down and. when I was reading this dude it was so. juicy I was like oh boy what. happened they didn't never tell anyone. no one knows if they found any treasure. they didn't say anything about it. apparently they had an acrimonious is. split in 2008 and that's just sort of.

the end of the story yeah I guess the. other treasure hunter was staying in the. mayor's town and the mayor kicked him. out of town it was that acrimonious wow. so that's it the last I heard was that. they they didn't find anything in 2008. or they didn't ever search for it right. so yeah it was a little lame but worth. putting in there I think oh no it's. worth putting in there it's just uh has. no good resolution no it's yeah no but. you read a lot of fiction so you can. deal with that right. that's right okay so in Poland uh South.

uh Southeastern Southwestern Poland in a. little corner down there there's. something uh there's a range of. mountains called Owl. mountains and there's a longstanding and. widespread rumor that's that's been. there for a very long time I would say. roughly since around the end of the. world the second world war that would be. my guess that there is a ghost train a. Nazi ghost train loaded. with jewels gold weapons art basically.

everything you can think of that the. Nazis would have plundered or pillaged. loaded onto this train driven into a. tunnel in the mountain and left there. hidden and that it's still there and um. people have been looking for it for a. very long time again since probably. about the end of World War II but the. thing that's kept this treasure hunt. alive Chuck is there really is a vast. unmapped network of tunnels in the owl. mountains that the Nazis dug there in.

World War II yeah so again some of this. is based in fact so that's what'll keep. any sort of urban legend alive if if. part of it is true and they did they. they dug these tunnels of M shafts. between 43 and 45 it was called the Risa. project which means Giant in German and. no one knows why some people say it. might have been um one of their weird. secret weapons. programs uh some people say it may have. been. potentially where Hitler was going to.

hold up for his last stand sure but it. was very very secretive even among the. SS because if you worked on this tunnel. you had to sign a confid a. confidentiality agreement which just. sounds funny for some reason I thought. everything about the SS was so secretive. it would just be implicit but right and. what are they going to do like take you. to court that you violated your NDA or. something I it's it is odd isn't it you. know what they would do yeah they just. shoot you I wouldn't. a signed agreement for that these are.

the Nazis were talking about you know. yeah so they were not allowed to have. their family members within uh 40. kilometers uh radius of this area and. these tunnels were dug uh by force labor. from concentration camps nearby yeah and. it might have been a place for gold it. may still be but the Soviets ruined all. that in. 1945 when they came knocking at the door. and the Nazis fled and basically blew up. their own uh tunnels behind them yeah.

and I want to say there's a really good. New Yorker article about the hunt I. think it's even called The Hunt for Nazi. gold about this particular Legend and. people looking for it and they they take. a second I think it's really worth um. pointing out here too is um you know. people who get Who start looking for. Treasure no matter what the Providence. of the treasure is um just get so. wrapped up in the Treasure and the. Legends and the myths and everything. that it's easy to forget things like. well you're running around a tunnel.

Network that was dug by people who were. literally worked to death over the. course of weeks they were worked that. hard they died digging these tunnels. that hold maybe this legendary treasure. that is the only thing you can focus on. when you're talking about that and. that's definitely like a a a part of the. a problem that comes along with the job. is you know forgetting like look having. blinders on that you forget the reality. of the situation it's definitely it's. important to remember this that you know. some of this gold we're talking about.

was pulled from the teeth of dead. Holocaust victims you know got to. remember that too it's like Bill Paxton. and Titanic he needed that reminder from. the old lady like you're all pumped up. looking for this Jewel yeah people di. people died here man yeah let's get it. together. Paxton. rip yeah that was so jarring when you. told me that that first time few few. months back did I break you that that. news you did you broke it hard oh so uh.

according to this Legend as far as the. AL Mountains go there was this ghost. train like you said and it was a freight. train loaded with all kinds of valuables. artwork uh Jewels gold bullan bars of. gold and that they drove that thing in. this thing and it never came out in. those tunnels and uh the other part of. this um story that is rooted in fact is. there were Nazi trains that carried tons. and tons of gold and valuables and.

jewelry and paintings uh there was one. in particular called the Hungarian gold. train that was intercepted by Allied. Forces in 1945 so you got a real train. that happened right you've got these. real tunnels that were dug right and all. of a sudden this rumor of the ghost. train takes root yeah the idea that. those two things are have come together. in the owl mountains though that's the. thing that's never been shown to be true. that's right and not from a lack of. looking no not at all no there's a lot. of people looking for that there um the.

uh this one's actually my favorite. weirdly probably because it's a. shipwreck I'm just so fascinated by. shipwrecks so the the ship I'm talking. about is called the SS Minden and it was. a German Merchant vessel and uh back in. I think. 1939 it was disabled by the the British. royal Navy off of the coast of Iceland. right and what what's so mysterious. about this is that the the the minden's. ship register shows that it was just.

carrying um resin from Brazil I didn't. see what kind of resin but you can do. all sorts of industrial stuff with resin. from making adhesives to Plastics to. whatever um and then that was it right. but the thing that makes the sinking of. the Minden so mysterious is that the. ship's Captain rather than let it fall. into British hands sunk it himself and. he sunk it in 7700 feet of water off the. Icelandic Coast and that's where it lay. undiscovered until I believe 2017 when a.

mysterious ship showed up and started um. looking around the Icelandic coast and. and it believes that it found it yeah I. mean it's definitely a little odd to. sink a ship full of resin only right uh. it raises a little bit of Suspicion like. you said even though you can do some. things with it it kind of stuck out to. me as like what else is on that boat uh. but yeah in 2017 the Coast Guard and. Iceland uh bordered a vessel. uh of the seabed.

Constructor that's like a unnervingly. bland name it's so boring yeah it's not. like the uh well now I can't all boat. names are kind of dumb the Hercules of. the. sea that's what I would name my boat. yeah sure um so they intercepted it they. said hey what are you guys doing here. and they said oh well um this boat has. been leased by a group of British folks. who are searching for the wreck of the. SS menden and they were like.

what they're like haven't you heard that. that was just full of resin and they. said clearly not because we're spending. $100,000 a day to lease this boat which. frankly is not that great of a deal but. we couldn't talk him down any yeah so. that I mean if someone is spending. $100,000 a day that means that makes me. think they know something that we don't. know yeah and so the Icelandic press. actually reported that they think that. the they know something we don't know so.

much so that they they interviewed the. crew and the crew said the official. story is that they're looking for uh a. couple hundred million dollars worth of. gold that they believe was hidden in the. safe on that ship but that the real. story the real prize for what they're. looking for is only known to a handful. of people high- ranking people on the. boat left at that which man the. Icelandic press knows how to how to spin. a if you ask me yeah I mean that really.

added this extra air of mystery on top. of everything else which is oh sure we. think there's $100 million plus in Gold. but we're really there for another. secret reason yeah if if a100 million. wor of gold is your decoy cover story. man you're on to something impressive I. can't wait until they raise that thing. because from what I could tell uh. everything everything pointed to the. fact that they did successfully find the. Minden that that is the mind they found. but as far as I know they have not gone.

down and salvaged it at all get James. Cameron on it who knows maybe I mean the. Amber Room was sunk and maybe it. happened to be on the SS Minden so maybe. we'll have the Amber Room back in the. next 10. years Um well hey man you said today's. magic second ad break word James Cameron. which means we're now obligated to take. our second message break do you want to. take it now or shall we have taken it 3. minutes go no let's take it now okay. we'll be right back everybody to learn.

about a terrod how to take a. about the the Liz Mur and the can. explain everything to your. brain word up. [Music]. Jerry all right Chuck so. there's places where you can physically.

go to search for legendary gold you can. also just enter the international gold. trade and you can turn up alarmingly. Nazi gold that was kind of lost you. could put it after the. war yeah this is really interesting uh. in 1946 as part of reconstruction and. restoration all over Europe there was a. committee for him called the uh. tripartite. gold commission so great or the.

tripartite commission for the. restitution of monetary gold and this is. formed in uh by the US by the French and. by the Brits and basically the whole Jam. here was let's find all this gold let's. account for all this gold that we. discovered as allies and then let's. redistribute it back to where we if we. can trace it such to where it was. looted um to the banks and central banks. and even if we can find out human.

individuals that would be even better. that and the it was strictly to I. believe strictly to the European central. banks that had a claim to have it having. been looted from after the war and then. in the late 90s there was a real push to. try to um compensate the the survivors. and The Heirs of the Holocaust who also. had been robbed too so a lot of gold. that some countries still had claimed on. as part of this um uh London conference.

on Nazi gold that was held in 1997 uh. some of some of the countries that said. well actually we're still owed a lot of. this gold they said okay well we'll take. a portion of this gold and divert it to. humanitarian groups who will um use it. to to um uh for reparations to Holocaust. victims which is pretty cool the big. outlier in this was a little tiny. country that remained neutral during. World War II at least on on paper um. Switzerland who not only it turns out.

was secretly assisting the Nazis and. laundering their gold in exchange for. money that the Nazis could go use to. fund its War Machine they hung on to. this Nazi gold and from what I can tell. still have all of the Nazi gold that. they had after uh World War II including. gold that was made from that Zan gold. melted down personal effects and gold. teeth um that Switzerland apparently. still has in its gold reserves and is.

not willing to give up yeah that was. really surprising uh this all came out. because of a historical paper that was. part of that conference um it showed. that the US had a lot of this gold uh. that they melted down after the war and. did return to the central banks in. Europe um as part of an effort to. stabilize their economy there right um. but finding out that Switzerland did. this and that Switzerland was neutral. and that the Geneva convention which. explicitly bars this kind of thing comes.

from Geneva Switzerland right is like. the ultimate irony here and it's I just. want to know if there's more to this. there's got to be something else right. they're they're good. people sure but I. mean countries do bad things for sure. you know even if there are good people. that live there there's I mean from. everything I could tell it came out in. the 90s that it it was pretty clear. Switzerland had served as money. launderers for the Nazis without anybody.

realizing it for decades wow yeah it's. it is pretty shocking for sure um I. think the thing that gets me though is. the idea that there's a lot of gold in. the international gold trade today that. can be traced back to missing Nazi gold. that is not necessarily buried in the. the side of a mountain in Poland or. under a small town along the German Che. that it's it's out and about it's being.

used as currency or as a a commodity. today in the in the international gold. trade that to me is the most astounding. part of all of this yeah how do you. trace gold they have a a very strict. system for it but it's only as strict as. um how it's observed oh okay so like for. example in 2019 the Simon wethal Center. which um spent a lot of time hunting. down Nazi war criminals um in the I. think starting in the 60s 70s and 80s um.

they accused uh Venezuela and. specifically the uh administration of. Nicholas Maduro of trafficking in Nazi. gold that he sold over the course of his. administration so far something like 77. tons of gold and they're like you know. what we're pretty sure that that was. Nazi gold that was transferred late in. the war to Spain and and then onto South. America to help fund a fourth Reich a.

rebuilding of the Nazi regime among the. war criminals living there and they. think that this was some of that gold. and that maduro's been selling it to. kind of bankroll his his country and his. his um his regime wow isn't that nuts it. is nuts they also this whole thing is. nuts yeah it is absolutely the the like. I I can't remember how I came across. this I think it was how stuff works. article there's a couple on them and I. just started digging further and further.

and it's just one of those things where. it's it just takes such a great left. turn great meaning like just surprising. and unexpected where it's like you know. you're going from Treasure Hunters. arguing and kicking one another out of. little towns and and and kicking around. mountains in Poland to the international. gold trade trafficking in Nazi gold. still it's it's just just a crazy story. yeah it's it's pretty mind-blowing and. disappointing in a lot of ways yeah for. sure because again remember a lot of.

that gold those gold bars are melted. down gold teeth taken from Holocaust. victims or gold wedding rings taken from. Holocaust victims and now they're used. to um as as part of an international. form of currency yeah boo boo um well. that's it you got anything else I got. nothing else if you want to know more. about um Nazi gold there's a lot you can. read it's quite a rabbit hole you can go. down if you want to um so you could. start by going to house stuff works.com.

and checking out their articles on it. and since I said house stuff works it's. been a while that means it's time for. listener. mail that's right uh I was thinking that. would be a a good movie about World War. II era Nazi gold Hunters but um it's. sort of like three kings already did. that but that was a Gulf War yeah um and. then also there was that one Museum men. I think they were brought to kind of. make sure that the paintings that were.

looted were not or whatever I didn't see. that what was it called it wasn't called. Museum in what was it almost positive it. was Museum then was it will you look. that up while I read listener mail all. right cuz that's a terrible name I agree. uh I'm going to call this uh we cited. someone that we probably shouldn't have. cited and this is from Anonymous uh Hey. guys really enjoyed this show this week. on universal basic income just a heads. up you cited the conservative Economist. Charles Murray and his justifications. for introducing Ubi to the American.

economy uh I'm sure you didn't realize. this but Murray is a particular favorite. of white supremacist oh boy for his. views on genetics and their contribution. to social inequality between whites and. people of color yeah he has a book. called the bell curve that is often. cited as data proven evidence for white. supremacy uh it's also largely been. debunked as pseudo science yeah uh wow. he links to a southern uh Poverty Law. Center write up for our own reference. and he says I will no doubt keep on. listening guys I'm sure it was.

unintentional please take more care. though in curating your sources. especially if it might throw your. narrative for a loop and that is from uh. Anonymous and boy Anonymous you are. right we had no idea um should have done. a little bit more digging there so. please everyone uh realize and anyone. that listens to the show probably. realizes we certainly did not uh mean. for that to be the case when we cited Mr. Murray now we kind of biffed that one. big time uh no offense in ended. hopefully you didn't take it and thank. you for a very measured and level and.

evenhanded uh correction that's right it. was very kind and by the way Chuck it's. Monuments Man yeah I knew there. something about it that didn't sound. right but there is a show called Museum. men that's been on since. 2014 but they actually about sexy dosent. they kind of they make um displays for. museums oh they're Craftsmen. people okay okay so Museum men Monuments.

Men two different things that's right. and uh if you want to get in touch with. us you can join us on the internet send. us an email wrap it up spank it on the. bottom and send it off to stuff podcast. at iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts my heart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite favorite shows. [Music].