Polish divers have disco whereabouts of the vered a sunken Nazi ship that they say may end the decades-old mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the Amber Room. Members of the Baltictech group said they believe they have found the wreck of the Karlsruher, a steamer that Nazi commanders sent at the end of the Second World War in order to evacuate troops and civilians from East Prussia ahead of an attack by Soviet forces.
"It is practically intact. In its holds we discovered military vehicles, porcelain and many crates with contents still unknown", said Tomasz Stachura, one of the divers that discovered the ship.
Documents say that the Karlsruher left Königsberg in a hurry with a large cargo and more than a thousand people on board. The Amber Room, which was located in the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg, was looted by Nazis during the siege of the city and was last seen in Königsberg.
"All this, put together, stimulates the human imagination. Finding the German steamer and the crates with contents as yet unknown resting on the bottom of the Baltic Sea may be significant for the whole story", said Tomasz Zwara, another one of the divers.
For its beauty and unique features, the Amber Room was dubbed the eighth wonder of the world. In 1967, Soviet authorities created a commission tasked with finding it, but after 17 years of searching that yielded no results and no leads, the commission was abolished. Many historians believe that the room was destroyed during the bombings of German cities.
In 1979, German and Soviet craftsmen started creating a replica of the room using photographs, drawings, and historical documents. The process was completed in 2003.
