Britain gripped by rush for Nazi gold

Underwater treasures can charm the hearts and capture the minds of even the most practical people in the world. A team of British businessmen seems, too, to have fallen under the spell of hidden Nazi gold.

The businessmen managed to find the directions to the treasures in a secret SS letter stored in the Nazi archives in Koblenz, British media report. The document says the gold was sunk in Berlin’s Stolpsee Lake by the end of World War II as ordered by Luftwaffe Commander Hermann Göring. Whom the 18 boxes belonged to is unknown.The British treasure-hunters have found a witness to the sinking.“There were 20 to 30 men wearing death camp uniforms; they stored the heavy boxes on boats,” Eckard Litz told The Sun. “The boats took to the middle of the lake where the boxes were thrown into the water. Then the boats were refilled – about six times. After all the boxes were sunk, the Nazi’s shot all the men.” Back in 1981, East Germany’s Defense Minister Erich Mielke ordered to search for the gold in the lake, but nothing was found. Local residents say the lake is filled with garbage, which could seriously complicate the search operation. "I am not surprised they have not found anything as the lake is 1,040 acres in size. They didn't have the technology to properly examine the lake,” priest Erich Koehler told the Sun. “But there are enough local people still around to know that the gold is there – and the bodies of the poor souls forced to dump it into the water."The British businessmen, however, are will not give up that easy: they are planning to rent a submarine.