All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S03E01.The.Amber.Room.720p.WEB.h264-KOMPOST

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.

Now we uncover the top theories
surrounding the disappearance of a work

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

The castle suffered tremendous damage.

We have to wonder, was the Amber Room
destroyed as well?

Stens and Mederer are convinced that the
Amber Room is hidden behind the

castle's wall, just waiting to be
explored and waiting to produce

Can a new expedition finally reveal its
location?

It's a treasure trove of material.

Will we ever be able to find the
incomparable Amber Room?

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.

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.

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. 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.

Frederick I, who rules over the powerful
empire in what's now Germany,

originally commissioned 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

within a work of art.

King Frederick wants a palace that will
outshine France's Versailles, and he

decides that this is going to be the
centerpiece.

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 czar, Peter the
Great.

Peter the Great visits the Berlin City
Palace in 1716, and he gets a tour of

Amber Room. King Frederick is trying to
forge an alliance with Russia at the

time, and he basically says, if 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,

Amber Room is just there pretty
peacefully until the Nazis arrive.

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
theory.

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 going to tear them apart.

He's going to loot. He's going to
pillage. He's going to burn them. He's

to destroy them.

Hitler gives specific instructions not
to destroy the Catherine Palace, at

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.

There's this one room, pretty
nondescript, and the soldiers notice a

of plaster on the floor.

They also notice a little bubbling in
the wallpaper right near the seam.

One of the soldiers just slides the
fingernail right under the wallpaper,

there's a little bit of sheepskin or
some other covering right behind that.

just beyond that... There's the glow.

We start shouting, it's here, it's here.

And his comrades come charging down the
hall.

They rip off the wallpaper and there it
is, the Amber Room.

The room had been hidden by head Soviet
art curator Anatoly Kuchimov.

The original plan is for Kuchimov to
pack up as many works of art as possible

for safekeeping and bring them deeper
into Russia.

and away from Nazi hands.

Kuchimov 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

one move left to make.

Kuchimov covers the Amber Room from
floor to ceiling in thick wallpaper,

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.

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

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

the Amber Room would wait in Konigsberg
Castle.

On November 13, 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

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.

In August of 1944, Britain's Royal Air
Force heavily firebombs Konigsberg.

After that, the Soviets march in and
take Königsberg.

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
Königsberg on April 9, 1945, 90 % of

the city lies in ruin.

The castle suffers tremendous damage.

So we have to wonder, 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

because 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

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

Brusov's report won't be the last word
on this mystery.

When the Nazis steal the famed Amber
Room from Russia, where do they take it?

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

where it's ultimately this drawer.

But there at the castle, among the
wreckage, there's only a small

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

pack away?

This has many theorists thinking,
there's got to be another explanation.

What if the Germans moved the Amber Room
before the Soviet invasion of 1945?

We have orders given by Adolf Hitler
himself on January 21st and

January 24th, 1945.

The tide of war has changed.

He knows that Allied forces are moving
in, so he issues orders that all looted

material in Königsberg Castle be moved.

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

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.

Then, in January 1945, Koch flees.

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

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

it. He's truly a vile person.

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

Amber Room has survived.

And he knows where it is.

According to Eric 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 Königsberg to a more fortified Nazi
stronghold at Lomeriki, Poland.

Keep in mind that throughout this
interrogation, he continues to badmouth

Jews and the Soviets, and he's also
singing the praises of Hitler and the

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

that they're going to spare a top Nazi
in exchange for a tip, basically, just

keep the hope alive of recovering the
Amber Room.

But when the Red Army arrives in Murky
in the 1950s, they meet an incredible

challenge.

Mimerki was the center of the German
command on the eastern front, and it was

massive complex.

And Mimerki hides a few secrets itself.

Above ground, the Germans build about
200 buildings, and the entire fort

about 600 acres.

But guess what?

Underneath the ground, it's 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

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.

The Russians spend years searching
Mamurki 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 Murky 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 Eric
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 Eric
Koch alive.

Playing the Soviets the way that he did,
Eric Koch manages to stay alive for

almost another 20 years until he dies of
natural causes in 1986 at age 90.

Even so, the search for the Amber Room
continues.

These days, Mimerki is overgrown and
falling apart, but parts of it are run

museum by a Polish man named Bartek
Labanczyk, and he fully believes that

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 Mimerki.

It's all he can afford to do, one a
year, but he's going to keep going until

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. 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.

For decades after World War II, a global
army of treasure hunters searched 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.

While some believe it could be in
Poland, two German historians think they

the truth.

Eric Stenz and George Mederer see this
news story coming out of the Czech

Republic in 2007.

A former cook.

who used to work in Czechoslovakia's
Friedland 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.

Denzen Mederer immediately thinks that
these are the crates that could hold the

Amber Room.

When Adolf Hitler orders the Amber
Room's evacuation from Konigsberg, if it

moved to Mameriki, it's still
dangerously close to the front lines. It

make sense for it to be moved to
Friedland Castle, which is much deeper

German territory.

So they go to Friedland 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.

They go to the Czech authorities, who
tell them initially that the cellar in

castle doesn't even exist.

But of course, they were just there. So
this feels like a ridiculous bluff.

At this point, Denz and Mederer feel
like they're getting the runaround from

Czech authorities.

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

areas. So they go back to the Czech
authorities, who basically have to say,

you mean that cellar?

Nothing to see there. There's just books
from a Berlin library behind there.

Unsatisfied with this response, Stens
and Mederer ask permission to keep

searching Friedland 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.

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.

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.

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 Friedland Castle is located.

Stens 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.

Stens 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 Stens
and Mederer are just a couple of deluded

treasure hunters trying to spin
fantasies.

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

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.

And so they're not going to just move
back a few miles. They need to trigger

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

German army, civilians, anything they
can evacuate.

And some eyewitnesses think they also
attempt to rescue the Amber Room.

Thousands of people descend on the
harbor of Gottenhaben, where the

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

and they think this is Noah's Ark. This
is their salvation. This is going to get

them to safety.

The boat departs on January 30, 1945.

But the Soviet Navy is waiting for any
transport moving back and forth on the

Baltic. And within hours of departure,
the Wilhelm Gustloff is torpedoed and

sunk.

So we wonder, what's the amber room
inside of it?

With a death toll of more than 9 ,000
killed, the thinking of the Wilhelm

Gustloff is the greatest maritime
disaster in history, greater than the

and the Lusitania combined.

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

Fuslav, including the most valuable one
of all, the Amber Room.

Several months later, the Russians
conduct a dive.

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

undisturbed. So it really looks like
someone who knew what they were doing

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?

The Wilhelm Gustloff is now classified
as a war grave, making future

illegal.

If the shipwreck contains more clues to
the Amber Room's whereabouts...

They will remain hidden forever.

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?

In 1995, a Russian historian named
Vladimir Latsky reveals this new

research that he's done and potentially
a new finding.

Latsky claims to have uncovered proof
that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin created

ruse to trick the Germans.

According to Lapsky, 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 signed 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 countries.

but it serves to try and slow Germany's
rapid progression toward war.

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

like 10 to 12 million.

Stalin commissions Anatoly Baranovsky,
Russia's most famous amber craftsman, to

make the copy.

So Baranovsky actually makes a copy, and
in addition to that, his apprentices

make another copy.

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.

the reputation for stealing art and
treasures and taking them back to

And he knows that Hitler wants the Amber
Room.

So according to this theory, Stalin
plays a brilliant trick on his former

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 were made
in May 1941, but the Germans don't get

Leningrad until September, and it was
during that time that the switch is

Vladimir Latsky 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, the eighth
wonder of the world.

The Nazis were duped. The Amber Room
that they took back to Konigsberg.

is the fake Amber Room.

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

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

did not lose or destroy the Amber Room.

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

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

ties lead to this nickname, Lenin's
Chosen Capitalist.

Hammer has this world -famous art
collection, and it's alleged that the

Room became part of it.

Maybe it's some sort of collateral in
his business deals with Russia.

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

display to this day.

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.

For 75 years, some experts believe 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.

Could the Amber Room actually be on that
long -lost vessel, the SS

Karlsruhe?

The Karlsruhe was made in 1905 as 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

And here's the thing. The Karlsruhe
departed from Konigsberg.

A lot of people have focused on the
Wilhelm Gustloff, which was a much

ship, and that left from Gotenhofen,
which was about 100 miles away.

The Karlsruhe was practically within
walking distance of Konigsberg Castle.

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 going to go for it because there
could be the most interesting story

sitting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

The team is led by salvage diver Tomek
Stetura.

SS Karlsruhe was one of the 247 ships
which sank during the Hannibal operation

in 1945.

We were looking for this wreck.

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 had to admit that maybe

Amber Room over there. Because if the
Germans want to send something valuable

something important to them, to the
West, the cartouche was the last chance

them.

So the ship departs Konigsberg on April
11, 1945.

It was part of a convoy that was headed
to the German port of Swinemunde, which

is now part of modern -day Poland.

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

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 going to meet the same fate as the
Wilhelm Gustav.

It's going to be torpedoed. It's going
to go underwater.

Everyone on board, everything inside of
it goes down with it.

Now, Statura'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 surf.

We had access to the Russian archive,
which said that 13th of April 1945,

Russian aircraft tank SS Karlsruhe.

But the problem was that they show five
different positions, 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,

it could basically turn up anywhere.

But the search team had some original
documents, and that's because when the

ship sank, the Germans were able to
rescue 113 survivors from the wreck.

In addition to that, the British
intercepted and decoded transmissions

to the sinking, and the British
intercepted a German telegram about the

as well.

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 going to take perfect weather

and a whole lot of luck.

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 multi
-beam. We have sonar. And we have 10

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

the Baltic Sea and potentially the Amber
Room.

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

It's June 2020.

and an expedition led by Tomek Stetura
is heading into the Baltic Sea on a

treasure hunt.

Its mission?

Locate the wreck of the torpedoed Nazi
steamer SS Karlsruhe and see if the

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 will be

by net.

All of them are very dangerous, so we
must be prepared for all conditions.

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?

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 tools, special underwater
heating systems.

We have to survive more like three hours
underwater.

We have 300 feet 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, the
divers pinpoint

the SS Karlsruhe.

This is the first time the ship has been
seen since 1945 So

this is the moment after 75 years we
salvage cars away from the dark

We saw that the

beautiful wreck if you can say about the
break beautiful I have never seen so

many artifacts so many crates so many
things on the wreck on the bottom. This

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.

But what about the Amber Room?

Beneath a large pile of debris, the
divers make out what appears to be...

Dozens of field crates.

Now that's the most interesting thing,
of course. Here we have crates that

the description of the Amber Room.

Of course, they might just contain
ammunition or silverware or sundries.

But what if... 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 really 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 car contains.

Plans are moving forward for a salvage
and recovery mission in the next few

months.

To check cargo on the Karstruhe 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 going to
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

castaway ship that we find Ambaron. This
is absolutely out of my imagination,

but perhaps it will be something special
and unique, and maybe I remember this

moment until the 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 Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for
watching History's Greatest Mysteries.