By Tim Binnall
A group of treasure hunters who have doggedly pursued a purported cache of lost Nazi gold said to be buried in Poland have been granted permission to unearth a mysterious canister that was detected underground at the spot where the riches are believed to be hidden. The tantalizing quest began a few years ago when the organization known as the Silesian Bridge Foundation was given a diary allegedly written by a former Nazi SS officer wherein he revealed 11 different locations in which sizeable amounts of pilfered loot had been hidden at the close of World War II. The group decided to put the proverbial treasure map to the test with a search at a site in Poland last May and now they may soon find out whether the journal's claims are genuine or not.
Earlier this year, the Silesian Bridge Foundation revealed that ground penetrating radar used to explore the land around an 18th century palace in the Polish village of Minkowskie, where the diary claims 11 tons of gold are buried, had detected a curious metal canister buried at a depth of approximately 10 feet. The peculiar container, they say, measures around five feet in length and one-and-a-half feet in diameter. At the time of the announcement, the group indicated that they had hit something of a bureaucratic barrier in that they could not remove the canister without permission from the Polish government.
Fortunately, it would appear the wait to see what is contained in the odd box should soon be over as the group posted a video update on Sunday (seen above) wherein they reported that the Polish government had granted them a permit carry out an excavation at the site with the express purpose of determining if the apocryphal gold is, indeed, buried on the palace grounds. As such, the organization says that they intend to commence with the operation on September 1st. Should the canister contain the stolen Nazi gold, the group intends to return it to its rightful owners and, armed with the knowledge that the account found in the diary is apparently legitimate, set about scouring the remaining 10 locations for additional treasures.