Deciphering the Last Nazi Code

**Deciphering the Last Nazi Code** is the 2nd episode in Season 6 of Expedition Unknown.

## Plot Synopsis

Josh Gates ventures into the former Third Reich in search of an elusive Nazi fortune hidden with a code allegedly created by Adolf Hitler's private secretary and embedded into a piece of sheet music.

## Historical Context

"In the closing days of World War II, a cache of plundered Nazi gold and diamonds worth tens of millions is hidden away deep in the Alps, and the only clue to its whereabouts are encoded onto a piece of sheet music ... The year is 1945. The Nazis, on the brink of defeat, rush to hide gold and silver from the looted banks of Europe, as well as Hitler's personal stash of diamonds in a secret location in the German countryside. The location of the treasure is known only to Hilter's closest ally, the keeper of all of his secrets, his secretary - Martin Bormann. After Hitler commits suicide, Bormann flees Hitler's bunker in Berlin and is killed trying to escape the city. As for the looted treasure, it seems to have vanished without a trace until now"

~ Josh Gates

## Summary

Josh goes to Amsterdam, the Netherlands and to the Doopsgezinde Kerk Church where he meets Karl Hammer, an investigative journalist. Karl tells Josh the history of the sheet music and Karl invites two Dutch pianists to play the normal music, the March Impromptu. They find strange symbols that aren't part of the normal music on the original sheet sent from Martin Bormann to a group called the Werwolf. It was encoded so that the Werwolf would be able to find the treasure from the war.

Josh visits Berlin, Germany and heads by train to the town of Eisenach where he meets Jean Christophe Boulet, a treasure hunter. They go ATVing and Jean shows him that the lyrics on the sheet music point to four cities and in the middle of them is Eisenach. They hike to a cave that is associated with the goddess Venus from Roman mythology. They only find a mineral placed in the cave, probably an offering to Venus at one point.

Josh then goes to Mittenwald where he meets Jurgen Proske and Sebastian Eberle, treasure hunters, who have a different interpretation of the lyrics. By connecting the clues to places near Mittenwald, Hitler's signature appears on the map. They go hiking through the woods and find a war-era bunker with nothing inside. They zipline across a gorge and metal detect and find four bullets, leather, an ammunition case, a belt, a magazine, a rifle, and part of a gas mask.

## Final Words

"As for me, I leave Mittenwald both shaken and stirred. It may be exciting to look for buried riches, but hovering over each step of my journey - the darkness of the Third Reich that cannot be dispelled. So are the symbols on this music sheet Bormann's secret code, or merely an elaborate conspiracy theory? I've gone exploring in the remote corners of Germany's caves and forests in search of the answer and found not gold but the scars of a past more recent than we may be comfortable considering. One thing is indisputable. Even if Bormann's loot is never found, there are billions in Nazi plunder that remain unaccounted for. The property of their victims still unrecovered, reparations still unmade. Though this expedition may be over, the mission goes on."

~ Josh Gates

## Notes & Trivia

* *This is where you can put notes and trivia, anything that is interesting or strange can be included here*

## Quotes

* "My most memorable trip was a layover in college where some guy gave me a weird mushroom and told me to check out the Van Gogh museum."
* "I've actually deleted all of the German names out of this phone because by law it needs to be Hans-free."
* "When Jurgen shows me something jaw-dropping and possibly Josh-dropping."

## References

1. ↑ https://api.discovery.com/v1/images/5cae48bad1b3ee408a3c2c91?aspectRatio=16x9&width=1200&key=3020a40c2356a645b4b4