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 A gigantic secret Nazi weapons factory where a NUCLEAR BOMB may have been developed has been discovered in Austria. 
 
 The 75-acre facility, located near the town of St Georgen an der Gusen, is believed to have been used to create and test weapons of mass destruction and was deemed so important to the Nazis that the head of the SS and Hitler's right hand man Heinrich Himmler, even oversaw its development. 
 
 The complex, which experts believe was the "biggest secret weapons production facility of the Third Reich", was discovered by Andreas Sulzer, an Austrian documentary maker who found reference to the bunkers in the diaries of an old Austrian physicist. 
 
 They were so well hidden though that bulldozing equipment was to needed to cut away massive granite plates the Nazis had used to hide the entrance shaft in 1945. Ground penetrating radar was also required to confirm reports of how large the facility was. 
 
 The facility is believed to be linked to the nearby B8 Bergkristall underground factory that produced the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter, that posed a brief threat to allied air forces in the war's closing stages. 
 
 (Image: German Federal Archives) 
 
 Mr Sulzer told The Times: "This was a gigantic industrial complex." 
 
 And similar to the Bergkristall factory, it relied on slave labour from the nearby Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. Up to 320,000 inmates are said to have died because of the brutal conditions in the subterranean labyrinth. 
 
 In order to fully discover the meaning behind the secret facility Mr Sulzer assembled a crack team of historians and found further evidence of scientists working on the secret project, which was managed by the feared SS General Hans Kammler. 
 
 Kammler, known to be a ruthless leader, was in charge of Hitler's missile programmes, including the V-2 rocket used against London in the latter stages of the war. He was also the man who signed off blueprints for the gas chambers that killed millions of Jews. 
 
 Rainer Karlsch, a historian who worked with Mr Sulzer, said: "The SS leadership aspired to create a combination of missiles and weapons of mass destruction. 
 
 "They wanted to equip the A4 [a variant of the V-2] missile, or more advanced rockets, with poison gas, radioactive material or nuclear warheads." 
 
 Later the Russian army plundered Bergkristall removed all the technology and then destroyed and filled in the bunkers. 
 
 The second part of the site, which Sulzer has discovered, seems to have remained unnoticed by both the Americans and the Russians. 
 
 Sulzer's excavation was stopped last Wednesday by local authorities, who demanded a permit for research on historic sites. But he is confident that digging can resume next month. 
 
 "Prisoners from concentration camps across Europe were handpicked for their special skills — physicists, chemists or other experts — to work on this monstrous project and we owe it to the victims to finally open the site and reveal the truth," said Sulzer. 
 
 Artwork by former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler: ||||| A secret underground weapons stronghold, built by the Nazis to test new advanced weaponry has been uncovered in Austria. 
 
 The surprise finding was discovered underground near the town of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, Austria, near the Bergkristall factory where the Messerschmitt Me 262 – the first operational jet-powered fighter – was invented. 
 
 The discovery of the site came after Andreas Sulzer, an Austrian documentary maker noticed a reference to the bunkers in the diary of Austrian physicist who was recruited by the Nazis. 
 
 Sulzer, alongside a team of historians, began to investigate the idea of the bunkers, receiving funding from several German broadcasters to document his discoveries. 
 
 Sulzer, one of the excavations' coordinators, spoke proudly of the discovery: "This was a gigantic industrial complex and most likely the biggest secret weapons production facility of the Third Reich." 
 
 He acquired aerial photographs from RAF plane that showed outlines of the complex's concrete structure. 
 
 Prior to their downfall, the Nazis went to great lengths to conceal the weapons facility, covering the entrances with thick layers of earth and slabs of granite. 
 
 The vast underground network of tunnels were built by inmates at the nearby Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. It is believed that an estimated 320,000 inmates died building the labyrinth of concrete tunnels and shafts. 
 
 It is believed to be the location of a secret weapons programme, led by SS General Hans Kammler. Kammler is thought to have lived on the site during the war. Rumours continue to surround his death, with some suggesting he was given a new identity by the US government in exchange for details on Nazi weapons research. 
 
 The deadly V-2 rocket which struck at London during the final months of the World War II was tested at the complex. It is also thought that scientists experimented with the use of radioactive material and chemical gas. 
 
 The new excavations have had a setback, after local authorities ordered them to be halted until Sulzer obtains a proper permit for the research of historical sites. ||||| Vast secret Nazi ‘terror weapons’ site uncovered 
 
 The newly found site may be connected to the B8 Bergkristall factory (RAHD) 
 
 A SECRET underground complex built by the Nazis towards the end of the Second World War that may have been used for the development of weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear bomb, has been uncovered in Austria. 
 
 The vast facility was discovered last week near the town of St Georgen an der Gusen. It is believed to be connected to the nearby B8 Bergkristall underground factory that produced the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter, that posed a brief threat to allied air forces in the war’s closing stages. 
 
 Although the Bergkristall factory was examined after the war, the Nazis went to much greater lengths to conceal the newly discovered bunkers apparently used for weapons research. Declassified intelligence documents as well as testimony from witnesses helped excavators identify the concealed entrance. 
 
 Heavy equipment was deployed to cut away thick layers of soil as well as large ||||| A huge, secret, underground Nazi weapons factory, believed to have been built for the development and planned manufacture of nuclear weapons and other WMDs, has been uncovered in Austria. 
 
 Now scholars want to know if the SS general who oversaw it was brought to America after the war to help the US with its weapons programs. 
 
 The vast weapons facility was uncovered last week near the town of St. Georgen an der Gusen by a team led by Austrian documentary- maker Andreas Sulzer, who said it was “likely the biggest secret weapons production facility of the Third Reich.” The 75-acre industrial complex is located close to a second subterranean factory, the B8 Bergkristall facility where the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter, was produced toward the end of World War II, London’s Sunday Times reported (paywall). 
 
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 The existence of the facility was mentioned in the diaries of an Austrian physicist who worked for the Nazis, and Sulzer used ground-penetrating radar technology to pinpoint its location. His team cut away layers of earth and granite slabs with which the Nazis had sealed the entrance shaft. 
 
 “Declassified intelligence documents as well as testimony from witnesses helped excavators identify the concealed entrance,” The Times said. Work on the excavation was halted last week by local authorities who required that he get new permits for the dig, but is set to resume next month. 
 
 “Previous research had found increased levels of radiation around the St Georgen site, apparently giving credibility to longstanding claims that Nazi scientists experimented with nuclear weapons in the area, which was under the exclusive command of the SS,” the Times reported. 
 
 It quoted Rainer Karlsch, a historian working with Sulzer, saying: 
 
 “The SS leadership . . . aspired to create a combination of missiles and weapons of mass destruction. They wanted to equip the A4 [a variant of the V-2] missile, or more advanced rockets, with poison gas, radioactive material or nuclear warheads.” 
 
 “The facility, like the Bergkristall factory, relied on slave labor from the nearby Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp,” the Sunday Times said. “Up to 320,000 inmates are said to have died because of the brutal conditions in the subterranean labyrinth.” 
 
 “Prisoners from concentration camps across Europe were handpicked for their special skills — physicists, chemists or other experts — to work on this monstrous project,” Sulzer told the British newspaper, “and we owe it to the victims to finally open the site and reveal the truth.” 
 
 Sulzer, whose work is being partly funded by German state TV network ZDF, is also seeking to establish what became of SS General Hans Kammler, who managed the project and reported to SS chief Heinrich Himmler. 
 
 “Kammler was in charge of Hitler’s missile programs, including the V-2 rocket used against London in the latter stages of the war. He was known as a brilliant but ruthless commander, who had signed off the blueprints for the gas chambers and crematoria at the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in southern Poland,” The Times reported. “Rumors persist that he was captured by the Americans and given a new identity after the war.” 
 
 In the post-war Operation Paperclip, some 1,500 scientists, technicians and engineers from Nazi Germany and other countries — who were believed capable of contributing to US weapons programs, and whose expertise the US did not want going to the Russians — were brought to America. Nazi party participants, activists and supporters were supposed to have been excluded from this program, but this restriction was circumvented, and recruits included rocket scientist Wernher von Braun — the central figure n Nazi rocket development. 
 
 Kammler is believed to have lived at the St. Georgen site, and was headquartered in an area captured by the US Army in May 1945. 
 
 “Kammler was officially said to have committed suicide after the war. But according to John Richardson, supported by declassified documents from the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), he was interrogated by Richardson’s father and then taken to America as part of Operation Paperclip,” the newspaper reported. Donald Richardson worked for the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA.
– Suspiciously high radiation levels around the Austrian town of St. Georgen an der Gusen had long fueled theories that there was a buried bunker nearby where Nazis had tested nuclear weapons during WWII. Those suspicions came one step closer to being confirmed last week after the opening of a 75-acre underground complex was dug out from below the earth and granite used to seal off the entrance, the Times of Israel reports. The excavation team was led by Austrian filmmaker Andreas Sulzer, who says the site was "likely the biggest secret weapons production facility of the Third Reich"—a facility that probably relied on forced labor from the nearby Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp and may have even been the testing location for a nuclear bomb, the Daily Mirror reports. The weapons facility was believed to have been manned by SS General Hans Kammler and situated near the B8 Bergkristall factory, where the first working jet-powered fighter was created, International Business Times reports; Sulzer first got wind of the site after seeing references to it in an Austrian physicist's diary. "Up to 320,000 inmates are said to have died because of the brutal conditions in the subterranean labyrinth," Sulzer tells the Sunday Times, per the Times of Israel. Those inmates were chosen for skills in physics, chemistry, or other sciences that would advance the Nazis' quest for WMD, Sulzer says. Digging at the site was halted by local officials who demanded a permit, but Sulzer says excavation will restart next month. "We owe it to the victims to finally open the site and reveal the truth," he says, per the Mirror. (The US is still keeping nuclear warheads around to fight … asteroids?)