All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S03E01.720p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.chr00t

[dramatic music]

Fishburne: Tonight,

one of World War II's
most enduring mysteries.

A stunning treasure
worth half a billion dollars

lost without a trace.

- It might be the most
expensive and beautiful

work of art ever made.

It's like it's just vanished.

Fishburne: Now,
we uncover the top theories

surrounding the disappearance
of a work of art so remarkable

that it's known as
the eighth wonder of the world.

♪ ♪

- The castle suffers
tremendous damage.

♪ ♪

You have to wonder,

was the Amber Room
destroyed as well?

- Stenz and Mederer
are convinced

that the Amber Room
is hidden

behind the castle's walls
just waiting to be explored

and waiting
to produce discoveries.

Fishburne: Can a new expedition
finally reveal its location?

- It's a treasure trove
of material.

Fishburne:
Will we ever be able to find

and incomparable Amber Room?

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

Fishburne:
It's September, 1941.

Leningrad, USSR.

♪ ♪

Nazi forces invade Russia,
moving relentlessly east

in a vicious sweep
of destruction.

As his troops advance,

Hitler gives
one important order:

preserve the priceless
works of art

in Leningrad's
Catherine Palace at all costs.

[soft dramatic music]

- Hitler wants
to gut Russia,

and he wants to steal
every work of art he can

en route to conquering
the entire country.

The Catherine Palace
supposedly houses

the most valuable work of art
in the world.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
The artwork in question

is known as the Amber Room.

- It's exactly
what it sounds like.

It's a room covered
in beautiful amber panels.

Some people estimate it

to be worth
over half a billion dollars,

making it one of
the most expensive

and beautiful rooms
ever created.

- During World War II,
the German military stole

over 600,000 pieces of art
from across Europe,

ransacking billions of dollars

worth of priceless
cultural artifacts.

Fishburne: And some say

Hitler wants the Amber Room
above all else.

- Not only does Hitler
love art,

but he's also a nationalist,

and it infuriates him

that there are works
of German art

outside of German territory,

and the Amber Room
is a German work of art

that he
desperately wants back.

Work began on the room
in 1701 in Berlin,

which then was part of Prussia.

Fishburne: Frederic I,
who rules over

the powerful empire
in what's now Germany

originally commissions
the Amber Room.

- Designed by a sculptor
named Andreas Schluter,

and it's lavish
and it's resplendent

and it's expensive
and it's valuable.

♪ ♪

- Andreas Schluter starts
by melting the amber

to the point where it is
a thick kind of liquid.

At the time, Amber wasn't
really used like this,

so in addition to being
a beautiful work of art,

it's also
enormously innovative.

♪ ♪

As if that isn't
impressive enough,

then these
18th-century craftspeople

encrust them with jewels

and then cover it
with gold and silver leaf.

It's also adorned with
these four Italian mosaics,

making them works of art
within a work of art.

King Frederic wants a palace

that will outshine
France's Versailles,

and he decides that this is
going to be the centerpiece.

Fishburne: In 1701,
the Amber Room is installed

in the Berlin City Palace,

but it won't be there
for long.

♪ ♪

- The Amber Room
unsurprisingly

attracts the attention
of another European royal,

Russia's famous tsar,
Peter the Great.

Peter the Great visits
the Berlin City Palace in 1716,

and he gets a tour
of the Amber Room.

King Frederic is trying
to forge an alliance

with Russia at the time,
and he basically says,

"You want the Amber Room?
You can have it."

♪ ♪

Around the time of
Empress Catherine the Great,

it's installed
in the Catherine Palace

and that's where it stays

undisturbed and unmoved
for about two centuries,

and even after Russia
becomes the USSR

and St. Petersburg
becomes Leningrad,

the Amber Room is just there
pretty peacefully

until the Nazis arrive.

[bombs whistling]

♪ ♪

- And here's
where the mystery starts,

because after the Nazi siege
of Leningrad,

the Amber Room goes missing.

We know that it was
in the Catherine Palace.

- We know that Hitler sends
Nazi troops to go recover it,

but that's
the last thing we know.

Everything else
is just theories.

♪ ♪

- We think that the Nazis
do in fact

steal the Amber Room
from Leningrad.

- The most valuable cultural
institutions at the time

are the old palaces
of the tsars,

and so Hitler
sets his sights on those.

He's gonna tear 'em apart.

He's gonna loot,
he's gonna pillage,

he's gonna burn 'em,
he's gonna destroy 'em.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Hitler gives
specific instructions

not to destroy
the Catherine Palace,

at least not until
the Amber Room is found.

- But apparently,

finding the Amber Room
is easier said than done

because when the Nazis arrive,
they don't see it.

♪ ♪

- So there's this one room,
pretty nondescript,

and the soldiers notice

a little bit of plaster
on the floor,

and they also notice a little
bubbling in the wallpaper

right near the seam.

♪ ♪

One of the soldiers
just slides a fingernail

right under the wallpaper,

and there's a little bit
of sheepskin

or some other covering
right behind that,

but just beyond that,
there's the glow.

♪ ♪

So he starts shouting
"Ist hier! Ist hier!"

And his comrades
come charging down the hall.

♪ ♪

- They rip off the wallpaper,

and there it is,
the Amber Room.

Fishburne:
The room had been hidden

by head Soviet art curator
Anatoly Kuchumov.

♪ ♪

- The original plan
is for Kuchumov to pack up

as many works of art
as possible for safekeeping,

and bring them deeper
into Russia

and away from Nazi hands.

Kuchumov does an analysis
of the Amber Room

and he realizes that these
panels are very delicate

and they've become brittle
over time,

so there's really only
one move left to make.

Fishburne: Kuchumov
covers the Amber Room

from floor to ceiling
in thick wallpaper,

hoping the Nazis
won't look too closely.

♪ ♪

- But in
this last-ditch effort,

the Germans uncover the ruse.

And unlike Kuchumov,

they have all the hands
and time that they need

to pack this thing up
very carefully and slowly.

They spend about two days
dismantling the Amber Room

and packing it into crates.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: But where does
the Amber Room go from here?

♪ ♪

- The Germans
take the Amber Room

along with a number
of other important

Russian cultural artifacts,

and transport them
to Konigsberg Castle.

♪ ♪

- Hitler's ultimate plan
is to build a museum,

the greatest museum
in the entire world,

and it was going to be
in his hometown

of Linz, Austria.

Eventually,
the Amber Room would go there,

but while the museum
was being built,

the Amber Room would wait
in Konigsberg Castle.

Fishburne:
On November 13th, 1941,

a local newspaper announces
an exhibition

featuring the Amber Room
at the castle.

- So that's the best evidence
we have that the Amber Room

ever actually
went to Konigsberg,

but we don't have any
photographic evidence of that,

and so we're not really even
sure if that ever happened.

- Now here's
the really unfortunate part.

While we don't know
what happened

to the Amber Room,

we do know what happened
to Konigsberg Castle,

and it's not good.

[bomber engines droning]

Fishburne: In August of 1944,

Britain's Royal Air Force
heavily firebombs Konigsberg.

[explosions thundering]

♪ ♪

- After that, the Soviets
march in and take Konigsberg,

but as part of the operation,
they bring in a large quantity

of heavy artillery
and they shell the city.

By the time of their
final occupation of Konigsberg

on April 9th, 1945,

90% of the city
lies in ruin.

- The castle suffers
tremendous damage,

so we have to wonder,

was the Amber Room
destroyed as well?

♪ ♪

This would be so embarrassing

if the Soviets had actually
destroyed the Amber Room.

So they send a team
to Konigsberg Castle

led by professor
Alexander Brusov

'cause they have to be sure.

- He's able to make it
into the castle cellar

where he discovers
the charred remains

of three out of the four
Italian mosaics

that were part
of the Amber Room.

- Brusov thinks
the room is toast,

and he says as much
in a report.

He writes,
"Summarizing all the facts,

"we can say that
the Amber Room was destroyed

between the 9th
and the 11th of April, 1945."

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Brusov's report
won't be the last word

on this mystery.

Fishburne: When the Nazis
steal the famed Amber Room

from Russia,
where do they take it?

[dramatic music]

According to some, it's moved
to the Konigsberg Castle

where it's
ultimately destroyed.

♪ ♪

- But there at the castle
among the wreckage,

there's only a small percentage
of the Amber Room that's found.

This leaves some to wonder,
"Really?"

"A whole room,
and this is all that's left?

A room that took crates
and crates to pack away?"

This has
many theorists thinking,

"There's gotta be
another explanation."

- What if the Germans
moved the Amber Room

before the Soviet invasion
of 1945?

- [speaking German]

- We have orders given
by Adolf Hitler himself

on January 21st
and January 24th, 1945.

[machine gun fire]

♪ ♪

The tide of war has changed.

He knows that Allied forces
are moving in,

so he issues orders

that all looted material
in Konigsberg Castle be moved.

Fishburne: Some speculate that
a high-ranking Nazi commander

named Erich Koch

follows these orders.

- He was in charge
of all civil administration,

including police
and Gestapo operations

in East Prussia, Ukraine,
and Belarus.

This is a territory
that includes Konigsberg,

so anything that happens
at Konigsberg Castle

is happening
under his authority.

Fishburne: Then,
in January 1945, Koch flees.

[soft dramatic music]

- Koch manages to stay
on the run for four years

until he's captured
by the British.

In 1950,
he's returned to Poland

where he's forced
to stand trial for war crimes,

at the end of which,
he is sentenced to death.

- But here's
the strange thing.

His death sentence
is pretty quickly commuted

to life imprisonment.

Plenty of Nazis are executed
for their war crimes.

There's no real reason
for Koch to be spared.

His crimes are just as bad
as any other Nazi,

and he's unrepentant about it.

He's truly a vile person.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Is Koch spared

because he has
valuable information?

- Koch's sentence
is commuted

after a long period
of interrogation

by Soviet authorities,

and we think that
during this interrogation,

Koch reveals that
the Amber Room has survived...

and he knows where it is.

♪ ♪

- According to Erich Koch,
Adolf Hitler ordered

that the Amber Room
be packed up and moved

in January 1945.

He reveals
that they packed it up

into 24 wooden crates

and trucked it 60 miles
from Konigsberg

to a more fortified
Nazi stronghold

at Mamerki, Poland.

Keep in mind that throughout
this interrogation,

he continues to badmouth
the Jews and the Soviets,

and he's also singing
the praises

of Hitler and the Nazis.

It's not like he was trying
to tell the Soviets

what they wanted to hear.

That lends a credibility,

that makes this more
of a believable possibility.

♪ ♪

- This is also a testament
to just how important

the Amber Room
is to the Soviets,

that they're gonna spare
a top Nazi

in exchange for a tip,
basically,

just to keep the hope alive
of recovering the Amber Room.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
But when the Red Army

arrives in Mamerki
in the 1950s,

they meet
an incredible challenge.

♪ ♪

- Mamerki was the center
of the German command

on the Eastern Front
and it was a massive complex,

and Mamerki
hides a few secrets itself.

- Above ground,

the Germans build
about 200 buildings,

and the entire fort
covers about 600 acres.

But guess what?

Underneath the ground
is even more impressive.

There are miles and miles

of underground bunkers
and tunnels.

♪ ♪

- It's a hidden maze

and that's
because of the fact that

during the course of the war,
the Nazis backfill,

they fill in some
of the tunnels

that they had built earlier
in the conflict.

Then with the passage of time,
Mother Nature works her magic,

making this
underground complex

an extraordinarily difficult
place to search.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
The Russians spend years

searching Mamerki
with no results.

♪ ♪

- So after two decades
of searching,

the Soviets are so desperate,

they take Koch out of prison
in 1970

and bring him to Mamerki
to try to find the Amber Room.

He points
at a particular bunker

where he thinks
the Amber Room was taken,

but it's not there.

- To that, you could say

that maybe
Erich Koch's memory had lapsed,

or he's just trying
to survive.

Because after all,

if the Soviets
do find the Amber Room,

they have no more reason
to keep Erich Koch alive.

Playing the Soviets
the way that he did,

Erich Koch manages
to stay alive

for almost another 20 years

until he dies of natural causes
in 1986 at age 90.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Even so, the search
for the Amber Room continues.

- These days, Mamerki is
overgrown and falling apart,

but parts of it
are run as a museum

by a Polish man
named Bartek Plebanczyk,

and he fully believes

that the Amber Room
is still there.

- They even have a replica
of the Amber Room

inside of the museum,
and every year,

Bartek excavates
a different bunker in Mamerki.

That's all he could afford
to do, one a year,

but he's gonna keep going
until he finds the Amber Room.

- So far, they have found tons

of Nazi and Soviet artifacts,
but it's estimated

that only 1% of the entire
compound has been searched,

and that means
that there could be

tunnels and bunkers
still in that complex

just waiting to be explored

and waiting
to produce discoveries.

These tunnels and chambers

have been unexplored
in over 70 years,

so each dig could be the one
that turns up the Amber Room.

[soft dramatic music]

Fishburne: For decades
after World War II,

a global army
of treasure hunters

search for
the lost Amber Room.

♪ ♪

- It's become the obsession
of thousands of people

across Europe,
across the Americas.

People have even gone looking
for the Amber Room in Japan.

Fishburne: While some believe
it could be in Poland,

Two German historians
think they know the truth.

♪ ♪

- Erich Stenz
and Georg Mederer

see this news story coming out
of the Czech Republic in 2007.

A former cook who used to work

in Czechoslovakia's
Frydlant Castle

when it was under Nazi rule
tells a fascinating tale.

♪ ♪

- Back near
the end of the war,

the cook says that she sees
hundreds of SS soldiers

arriving at the castle
bringing in crates.

Every night for two weeks,
they carry these crates

into the cellar of the castle,
and then they're gone.

♪ ♪

- Stenz and Mederer
immediately think

that these are the crates
that could hold the Amber Room.

- When Adolf Hitler orders
the Amber Room's evacuation

from Konigsberg,
if it was moved to Mamerki,

it's still dangerously close
to the front lines.

It would make sense
for it to be moved

to Frydlant Castle,

which is much deeper
in German territory.

♪ ♪

- So they go to Frydlant Castle
down into the cellar.

They see these two large areas
that have been walled off

with modern bricks and cement.

♪ ♪

They think
this seems suspicious,

so they go
to the Czech authorities.

- Who tell them initially

that the cellar in the castle
doesn't even exist,

but of course
they were just there,

so this feels like
a ridiculous bluff.

At this point,
Stenz and Mederer feel like

they're getting the runaround
from the Czech authorities.

- But they press on, and they
have photographs of the cellar

and the walled-off areas,

so they go back
to the Czech authorities

who basically have to say,

"Oh, you mean that cellar?
Nothing to see there.

There's just some books from
a Berlin library behind there."

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Unsatisfied
with this response,

Stenz and Mederer
ask permission

to keep searching
Frydlant Castle.

♪ ♪

- Surprisingly,
the authorities say yes,

and they allow them to
continue their investigation.

However, they forbid them
from bringing in

any kind of special equipment

that would allow them to see
past these modern walls

in this old cellar.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Is it possible

the Czech authorities
have something to hide?

- There is one incident
that suggests that the Czechs

are trying to keep a secret
from the rest of Europe,

and it dates back
to before the war.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: In 1938,

as part of a notorious treaty
called the Munich Agreement,

this region of Czechoslovakia
was ceded to Hitler

by Britain, France, and Italy
to avoid war.

- It's considered one of the
greatest betrayals in history.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Six months later,
Hitler violates the pact

and invades
the rest of Czechoslovakia.

♪ ♪

- The Nazis
and the Munich Agreement

are still a sore subject
in all of the Czech Republic,

but particularly in the region

where Frydlant Castle
is located.

♪ ♪

- Stenz and Mederer
are convinced

that the Amber Room is hidden
behind the castle's walls,

and their theory is that
the Czechs are hiding it

because of the Munich Agreement
back in 1938.

♪ ♪

The Germans betrayed them,

and all of Europe
was in on it.

After the Nazis are kicked out,

the Czechs decide
not to give the loot back.

They wall it up and hide it,

sitting on
these national treasures

as an act of revenge.

♪ ♪

- Stenz and Mederer continue

to pressure
the Czech authorities

to reveal
what's behind those walls,

and the Czech authorities
continue to resist.

♪ ♪

While they still
haven't revealed

what's behind those walls,

they insist
it is not the Amber Room,

and they say Stenz and Mederer

are just a couple
of deluded treasure hunters

trying to spin fantasies.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: But what if
the Amber Room

is not behind any walls?

- Once again,
let's assume that the Nazis

did pack up the Amber Room
into 24 crates

and remove it
from Konigsberg Castle

under Adolf Hitler's orders.

The thing is that
at this point in the war

in January 1945
when Hitler gives that order,

the Nazis are expecting

to lose a lot of territory
in East Prussia,

so they're not gonna
just move back a few miles.

They need to trigger
an overall broader evacuation,

and that becomes
Operation Hannibal.

♪ ♪

- So Operation Hannibal
is an attempt

to evacuate all of
East Prussia via the Baltic.

We're talking the German army,
civilians,

anything they can evacuate.

Fishburne:
And some eyewitnesses think

they also attempt
to rescue the Amber Room.

- Thousands of people descend
on the harbor of Gotenhafen

where the converted
luxury liner

"Wilhelm Gustloff"
is standing by

to provide an evacuation.

♪ ♪

- People are just
cramming into this area.

They're desperate.
There's no turning them back.

They eventually get
on the "Wilhelm Gustloff."

I'm talking
about 10,000 people,

and they think
this is Noah's Ark,

this is their salvation,

this is gonna
get them to safety.

[ship's horn blowing]

Fishburne: The boat departs
on January 30th, 1945.

♪ ♪

- But the Soviet Navy
is waiting for any transports

moving back and forth
on the Baltic,

and within hours of departure,

the "Wilhelm Gustloff"
is torpedoed and sunk.

So we wonder...

was the Amber Room
inside of it?

♪ ♪

With a death toll
of more than 9,000 killed,

the sinking of
the "Wilhelm Gustloff"

is the greatest
maritime disaster in history.

Greater than the "Titanic"
and the "Lusitania" combined.

Fishburne: But was the
Amber Room actually on board?

♪ ♪

- Evacuees there
report seeing the 24 crates

containing the Amber Room
being loaded aboard the ship.

- The Russians believe
any number

of valuable stolen goods
are on the "Wilhelm Gustloff,"

including the most
valuable one of all,

the Amber Room.

♪ ♪

So several months later,
the Russians conduct a dive.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: They find bodies,
equipment, and crates,

but no Amber Room.

- But they find
something suspicious.

It looks like someone
has gotten there first

because there's
this large panel

that's been removed
from the hull of the ship,

and behind that is
this big cargo hold

that could have held
the two dozen or so crates

holding the Amber Room,
and it's been emptied out.

They think a theft
has taken place

because most of the wreckage
is pretty much undisturbed.

So it really looks like

someone who knew what
they were doing

went in and looted
this specific area.

For the dive team,
this discovery is bittersweet

because on the one hand,

it means that the torpedo
didn't destroy the Amber Room.

But where is it?

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
The "Wilhelm Gustloff"

is now classified
as a war grave,

making future
expeditions illegal.

♪ ♪

If the shipwreck
contains more clues

to the Amber Room's
whereabouts,

they will remain hidden
forever.

Fishburne: For over 50 years,

the search for the Amber Room
started with one question:

Where did it go
after the Nazis stole it?

There was no reason
to challenge the belief

that Hitler's army
took the artwork

to Konigsberg Castle
for display

until a radical,
new theory emerged

with a shocking twist.

What if the Nazis
stole the wrong Amber Room?

[soft dramatic music]

- In 1995,

a Russian historian
named Vladimir Lepskiy

reveals this new, extensive
research that he's done

and potentially a new finding.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Lepskiy claims
to have uncovered proof

that Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin

created a ruse
to trick the Germans.

- According to Lepskiy,

it starts out
not as a trick at all.

It starts out
as an act of goodwill

because in 1939,

the Germans and the Russians
aren't enemies yet.

They're close neighbors,

and they actually
have really good reason

to try to keep the peace after
the devastation of World War I.

♪ ♪

- They sign
the Molotov-Ribbentrop

Non-Aggression Pact,

which has also been called
the Hitler-Stalin Pact.

It's technically
a partition of Poland

by the two counties,
but it serves to try

and slow Germany's
rapid progression toward war.

Fishburne: To commemorate
signing the pact,

Stalin orders a copy
of the Amber Room

to be made for Hitler.

- Stalin intends
to give it to Hitler

when he finally visits
the Soviet Union.

It'll be a nice version.

It just won't have
all of the precious metals

and gems as the original.

It won't be worth
a half a billion dollars.

It'll be worth more like
10 to 12 million.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Stalin commissions
Anatoly Baranowsky,

Russia's most famous
amber craftsman,

to make the copy.

- So Baranowsky
actually makes a copy,

and in addition to that,

his apprentices
make another copy.

Fishburne: But Hitler
never receives the gift.

Instead, he breaks
the non-aggression pact

and invades Russia.

- Of course, Stalin knew
the reputation that Hitler had,

a reputation for stealing art
and treasures

and taking them back
to Germany,

and he knows that
Hitler wants the Amber Room.

- So according to this theory,

Stalin plays a brilliant trick
on his former ally.

♪ ♪

The theory goes like this.

Before the Nazis were able
to get to the Catherine Palace,

the Russians were able to swap
the original Amber Room

for the reproduction,

and that's what
the Nazis steal--

the wrong room.

The copies of the Amber Room
are made in May 1941,

but the Germans don't get
to Leningrad until September,

and it was during that time
that the switch is made.

- Vladimir Lepskiy
says that the Soviets

do actually pack up
the Amber Room panels

and hide them away,

and they leave the
apprentice copy in its place.

So it's a bait and switch of
the eighth wonder of the world.

♪ ♪

- So the Nazis were duped.

The Amber Room they
took back to Konigsberg

is the fake Amber Room.

So all of these people who are
chasing theories from there,

they are chasing the copy,
not the original Amber Room.

- From the Russian
perspective,

this story is
a phenomenal bombshell

because it would provide relief
for Russian authorities

because it would be proof

that they did not lose
or destroy the Amber Room.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
But if this is true,

where's the real Amber Room?

- So some believe
that in November of 1941,

the original Amber Room
was packed up

and sent to
a pro-Soviet billionaire

in the United States
named Armand Hammer.

♪ ♪

Armand Hammer was
a pharmaceutical

and oil magnate,

and he was the son
of Russian immigrants

who were big supporters
of Lenin.

So Hammer's strong Soviet ties
lead to this nickname,

"Lenin's chosen capitalist."

♪ ♪

Hammer has this
world-famous art collection,

and it's alleged
that the Amber Room

became part of it

maybe as some sort
of collateral

in his business deals
with Russia.

Fishburne: Others think
it ended up

back where it started.

- In 1979,
the Soviet government

orders yet another copy
of the room.

24 years later,

this new copy of
the Amber Room is completed,

partly paid for by the Germans

for a total cost
of $11 million.

It is ultimately installed
in the Catherine Palace,

and that's where it is
on display to this day.

But there are some
who believe

that this is actually

the real,
original Amber Room,

that it was
pulled out of storage

and reinstalled
by the Russian government

decades later.

♪ ♪

- That would be
an incredible story

if it were true,

but unless
there was a confession

by somebody who truly knows,
we will never know.

Fishburne: For 75 years,

some experts believed
the Amber Room was lost at sea

when a German ship
called the "Wilhelm Gustloff"

was torpedoed.

- But early searches
of that turned up nothing.

And there's another ship

that the Nazis used
during the evacuation,

and that ship was thought
to be lost until now.

Fishburne:
Could the Amber Room

actually be on
that long-lost vessel,

the SS "Karlsruhe"?

[dramatic music]

- The "Karlsruhe"
was made in 1905.

That's a ship with
a 218-foot overall length

and a beam of 33 feet.

It was a part of
Operation Hannibal in 1945,

which was
the seaborne evacuation

of German military personnel
and civilians

as the Soviet military
approached.

- And here's the thing.

The "Karlsruhe"
departed from Konigsberg.

A lot of people have focused
on the "Wilhelm Gustloff,"

which was a much larger ship,
and that left from Gotenhafen,

which was
about 100 miles away.

The "Karlsruhe"
was practically

within walking distance
of Konigsberg Castle.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: The ship departs
at nearly the same time

the allies destroy Konigsberg
Castle in air raids.

- The wreckage
of the "Karlsruhe"

has never been found.

So in 2020,

this Polish diving team decides
they're gonna go for it

because there could be
the most interesting story

sitting at the bottom
of the Baltic Sea.

Fishburne: The team is led by
salvage diver Tomasz Stachura.

- SS "Karlsruhe"
was one of the 247 ships

which sank during
the Hannibal Operation in 1945.

♪ ♪

We was looking
for this wrecks a few months

when we realized that maybe
on the deck of this wreck

is something important.

We didn't want
to be too excited,

but we have to admit
that maybe

it's Amber Room over there

because if the Germans
want to send something valuable

or something important to them
to the West,

"Karlsruhe" was
last chance for them.

♪ ♪

- So the ship departs
Konigsberg on April 11th, 1945.

It was part
of a convoy that was headed

to the German port
of Swinemunde,

which is now part
of modern-day Poland.

Fishburne: According to
Nazi navy reports,

the ship is carrying
1,083 people,

mostly German civilians.

- The "Karlsruhe" also appears
to be carrying

about 360 tons of other goods
on crates,

so the diving team thinks
there's a good chance

that the Amber Room
is among those crates.

♪ ♪

- So the reports say
that the ship was overloaded,

which means it probably fell
behind the rest of the convoy,

making it a perfect target
for the Soviet Navy.

♪ ♪

It's gonna meet the same fate
as the "Wilhelm Gustloff."

It's gonna be torpedoed,
it's gonna go underwater.

Everyone on board,
everything inside of it

goes down with it.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
Now Stachura's job

is to figure out
where that happened.

- The Baltic is an incredibly
challenging place

to conduct any kind
of an underwater expedition.

It's because of the fact
that you have

very difficult temperatures
during the winter months,

howling winds,

and the howling winds
churn up extremely heavy surf.

And these are all things
that are enemies of conducting

any kind of
an underwater search.

♪ ♪

- We had access
to the Russian archives

which said that 13th of April,
1945,

Russian aircraft
sank the SS "Karlsruhe."

But the problem was that

they show
five different position,

and the distance
between each other

was between 10 to 50 miles.

♪ ♪

- The problem here
is this ship may have

actually engaged
in evasive maneuvers,

so it could basically
turn up anywhere.

♪ ♪

But the search team
has some original documents,

and that's because
when the ship sank,

the Germans were able to rescue
113 survivors from the wreck.

- [speaks German]

- In addition to that,
the British intercepted

and decoded transmissions
relating to the sinking.

And the British intercepted
a German telegram

about the rescue as well.

Fishburne: All of the evidence
points to an area

a few dozen miles north
of the polish town of Ustka.

- The ship is
about 300 feet down,

so this is
a dangerous mission.

It's an expensive
and resource intense mission,

and it's gonna take
perfect weather

and a whole lot of luck.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: In June 2020,

the Baltic team finally
launches their expedition

from Gdansk.

♪ ♪

- We have 300 feet of water.
Cold, dark water.

This dive is very demanding,

and we don't need only to dive,
we have to work underwater.

We have a lot
of good equipment,

we have underwater drone,
we have multibeam.

we have sonars, and we have
ten very well-trained divers.

♪ ♪

This is, like,
amazing moment in the history.

- You know, this is the kind
of expedition that truly

just lights up the imagination
because there's so much history

down at the bottom
of the Baltic Sea,

and potentially
the Amber Room.

♪ ♪

And it could all resurface
for the first time in 75 years.

♪ ♪

Fishburne: It's June 2020,

and an expedition
led by Tomasz Stachura

is heading into the Baltic Sea
on a treasure hunt.

[soft dramatic music]

Its mission?

Locate the wreck
of the torpedoed Nazi steamer

SS "Karlsruhe" and see
if the Amber Room's on board.

♪ ♪

- We don't know exactly what
we can expect on the bottom.

Maybe the current
will be huge,

maybe the visibility
will be close to zero,

or the wreck
would be covered by nets.

All of them
are very dangerous,

so we must be prepared
for all condition.

♪ ♪

- For 75 years,
no one has seen this ship.

It's just been lost,
but we know that it carried

hundreds of tons of Nazi goods.

So could the Amber Room
be among them?

Fishburne: As the divers
descend to 288 feet,

the search conditions
grow more challenging.

♪ ♪

- In a safe way, we have to use
a lot of equipment.

We have to use
very high-quality dry suit.

Special underwater
heating system.

We have to survive more like
three hours underwater.

We have 300 feets of cold,
dark water.

It's not easy dive,

and we have to do it
in a very, very safe way.

♪ ♪

After a careful
20-minute descent...

[suspenseful music]

The divers pinpoint
the SS "Karlsruhe."

♪ ♪

- [indistinct exclamation]

Fishburne: This is the first
time the ship has been seen

since 1945.

- So this is the moment
after 75 years

we salvage "Karlsruhe"
from the dark.

♪ ♪

We saw that
the beautiful wreck,

if you can say
about the wreck beautiful.

I have never seen
so many artifacts,

so many crates, so many things
on the wreck on the bottom.

This is amazing.

♪ ♪

- It's a treasure trove
of material.

They find china plates
that are in great shape,

they find military vehicles
still intact

with the rubber
still on the tires.

[scuba equipment hissing]

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
But what about the Amber Room?

Beneath a large pile
of debris,

the divers make out what
appear to be

dozens of sealed crates.

♪ ♪

- Now that's the most
interesting thing, of course.

Here we have crates

that match the description
of the Amber Room.

Of course, they might
just contain ammunition

or silverware, sundries.

But what if?

♪ ♪

Fishburne: Unfortunately,

the team is unable to safely
transport the crates.

They'll have to return
with additional equipment.

♪ ♪

- So unfortunately,
they can't search the crates

on this trip.

At those depths,

you only have about 30 minutes
max down there.

The last thing they want to do

is potentially damage
the Amber Room in the process.

♪ ♪

- This expedition
is step number one:

to identify the wreck,
to check what is this,

but definitely we need
expedition number two

when we can check
exactly what cargo contain.

♪ ♪

Fishburne:
Plans are moving forward

for a salvage
and recovery mission

in the next few months.

♪ ♪

- To check cargo
on the "Karlsruhe,"

we need to do it
on the proper way.

On the proper way that means
that we have to spend days

or even weeks on the position,

that we have
to anchor permanently the boat

with special equipment
for the divers.

♪ ♪

- This time, they'll be
bringing many more resources

to the effort.

They'll have divers that
can work on a rotating basis,

they'll have equipment
that can float large objects.

♪ ♪

If they find a crate,

they'll need
to leave it sealed

until they get it
to the surface.

- The dive team is also gonna
be bringing a representative

from the National Maritime
Museum in Gdansk, Poland

as an advisor.

♪ ♪

- It's a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity

to bring something
as rare and as valuable

a cultural resource as
the Amber Room to the surface.

♪ ♪

This is a mystery on par
with the Dead Sea Scrolls

and the discovery
of King Tut's tomb.

Is it down there?
I don't know.

But I certainly hope it is,

because I would love to see
this thing finally revealed.

I would love to see
this mystery solved.

♪ ♪

- I couldn't imagine
how would we feel

when we find hard proof
on the "Karlsruhe" ship

that we find Amber Room.

This is absolutely
out of my imagination,

but perhaps it will be
something special and unique

and maybe I remember
this moment

till to end of my life.

♪ ♪

- Could the Amber Room
lie in crates

at the bottom
of the Baltic Sea?

If the dive team is successful

and can salvage what's aboard
the SS "Karlsruhe,"

we may soon know the answer
to this enduring mystery.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries."

♪ ♪