The Golden Train’s Tunnel - PART 2

Golden Train

The Nazi soldiers were all set in a tunnel on the rail track in a forest in Walbrzych. Arrangements were done to accommodate the entire train in the tunnel. Hence, nobody would have had the faintest idea where the train actually was hidden. But, a family that lived at a stone’s throw from this spot witnessed the preparations. This family consisted of a father and his two children. Their home was right near the Nazis’ secret tunnel and so, they had to pay heavily for it. The Nazis slayed them and destroyed their house so that not a speck of hint was left behind. After this incident, the ‘Red army’ captured all the routes between Wroclaw and Walbrzych.

Golden Train

The brutal killing of that family was witnessed by a German resident, Schulz. He was petrified on seeing that. He spent the rest of his life fearing for his own safety, thinking that even he will be killed like the family. He hadn’t mentioned anything to anyone about this dreadful incident. Did not know how, but the Nazi soldiers knew well that Schulz was aware of this tunnel. But during the 1950s, Schulz, a miner, was unexpectedly attacked one night. During this attack, a 15-year old youth from Poland named Tedeusz Slowikowski interrupted bravely and saved Schulz’s life. After realizing that someone had come to help Schulz, the attackers took to their heels.

Terrorized by the attacks, Schulz narrated the reason behind the assaults to Slowikowski. This is how Slowikowski came to know about the tunnel and the Nazi’s train. But Schulz did not disclose to Slowikowski about the contents in the train. But Slowikowski kept wondering why a family got killed and another attacked just because they knew about the train’s existence. What was exactly in that train? Thus, to satisfy his own curiosity, Slowikowski began researching on rail tracks, tunnels and trains. But the Nazis had made the train to disappear. Not only the train, but also the railway tracks and the tunnels seemed to have had disappeared. Hence the inquisitiveness about the train had further increased.

Golden-Train

Now with an increase in his curiosity, Slowikowski did not stop his investigations. Slowikowski was completely obsessed about finding out the secret tunnel and the railway which Schulz had informed him. Accordingly, from the past four decades, Slowikowski had gathered quite an amount of information regarding this tunnel and the train. As he had confirmed, two tracks had side-lined towards the forest before the train reached Walbrzych from Wroclaw. But no one could track the railway line further. There was a huge heap of mud piled up where it ended. Slowikowski captured photographs and started investigating further. For this purpose, he fetched a 1928 map of Walbrzych city when under construction. In this map, he observed that two tracks leading to Walbrzych were side-lined and ended up in a tunnel.

But there was a noticeable difference between the map and the topography. Instead of illustrating the ‘siding’ in the map, the forested area was increased. The railway track had disappeared. The pile of mud extended vastly in the place which was shown on the map and as well as stated by Schulz. There was no trace left of the tunnel. Now, Slowikowski was caught in deep confusion. In 2003, he collected all the necessary information and evidences and put it before the Poland government. Eventually, the Polish government gave Slowikowski the permission to hunt for further details at the required location. It has been many years now, since the Russian Red Army captured Walbrzych. But the astonishing element here is that nobody had used the area for residential purpose.

Now that he had the permission from the Government, Slowikowski thought that he could work peacefully from now on. But within 3 days, Slowikowski was threatened by three gunmen. They warned him to stop his surveys. Slowikowski did not understand the depth of these intimidations then. So, he continued with his task.

To be continued...

PART 1     PART 3     PART 4     PART 5    

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