Lake Toplitz

The account

High in the Austrian Alps, Lake Toplitz is a black, log choked lake the Nazis used as a naval weapons testing site in 1943 and 1944. In the final days of the war, trucks are said to have backed up to its shore and dumped crates into the deep water. For decades rumor held that gold, looted valuables, and secrets went in with them.

In 1959 a dive team funded by the magazine Stern brought up the truth, or part of it: chests of expertly forged British banknotes, still bundled, along with the printing plates from Operation Bernhard, the Nazi scheme that counterfeited over a hundred million pounds using concentration camp prisoners. Around nine million pounds in face value came up. No gold ever has. The lake is deadly to dive, its depths tangled with sunken logs that have killed searchers, and what else it holds, if anything, is still argued.

Known intelligence

• The lake was a Nazi naval test station in 1943 to 1944; crates were sunk in its deep, log-choked water at war's end.
• 1959 dives coordinated by Stern magazine raised chests of counterfeit British pounds, still bundled, plus printing plates from Operation Bernhard.
• Operation Bernhard forged an estimated 132 million pounds using prisoners at Sachsenhausen; about 9 million pounds face value was pulled from the lake.
• No cache of Nazi gold has ever been found there, only the forgery operation's leftovers; the depth and sunken logs make diving deadly, and several divers have died.

Theories of the hunt

• Optimists believe gold, platinum, or looted valuables still lie below the logjam layer that defeats most dives.
• Most historians think the lake only held the counterfeiting evidence the SS dumped, and the gold story is myth.

Leads, where the trail points now

• Where the trail goes cold: Divers in 1959 raised crates of counterfeit British pounds from Operation Bernhard, the lake's deeper logs and false floors have killed divers since, and rumors of gold persist. That is where any serious search begins.
• What you are chasing is Crates the SS sank in the war's last weeks. Work the documented record of Lake Toplitz back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore before you commit time or money.
• The ground: Diving is restricted by the Austrian authorities.

The trail, in order

• 1943 to 1944: Lake Toplitz serves as a Nazi naval test station
• 1945: crates are dumped into the lake as the war ends
• 1959: Stern divers recover counterfeit pounds and Operation Bernhard plates

Sources and the record

• Lake Toplitz (Wikipedia)
• War History Online: the mystery of Lake Toplitz