Poland's central bank governor calls story of Nazi train find a hoax

"I think nobody (at the central bank) even thought to devote a second to this issue."

By REUTERS
Updated: SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 18:13
A TRAIN TRAVELS where a Nazi train rumored to have gone missing at the end of World War II is believed to be in southwestern Poland (photo credit: REUTERS)
A TRAIN TRAVELS where a Nazi train rumored to have gone missing at the end of World War II is believed to be in southwestern Poland
(photo credit: REUTERS)
WARSAW - Poland's central bank governor Marek Belka said on Wednesday that the story of an alleged finding of a Nazi train in Poland that could contain jewels was in his opinion a hoax.
Asked if potentially the gold found in the train could add to the bank's reserves, Belka said: "I think nobody (at the central bank) even thought to devote a second to this issue. This is some hoax."
Poland's Deputy Culture Minister said last week he was almost certain Poland had located a Nazi train rumored to have gone missing near the close of World War Two loaded with guns and jewels.
Photographs taken using ground-penetrating radar equipment showed a train more than 100 meters (330 feet) long, the first official confirmation of its existence, Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said.
The vehicle was armored, suggesting it was carrying a special cargo, "probably military equipment but also possibly jewelry, works of art and archive documents," he told journalists in Warsaw.
"I am over 99 percent sure that such a train exists," though experts would only be certain once they managed to uncover the vehicle, Zuchowski added.
Authorities started looking for the train this month, tipped off by a German and a Pole who said through lawyers that they had found it in the southwestern district of Walbrzych and expected 10 percent of the value of the findings as a reward.