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Open Legend · Unsolved

Rommel's Gold

Lost 1943 · WWII, Off Bastia, Corsica (looted from Djerba, Tunisia)
COLD TRAIL
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Rommel's Gold: still unexplained.

~£20M in Nazi-looted gold & valuables

The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
~£20M in Nazi-looted gold & valuables
The account

Gold and valuables seized from the Jewish community of Djerba, Tunisia in 1943 were reportedly crated, shipped toward Corsica, and lost, supposedly sunk in an underwater cave about a mile off Bastia. Divers have searched the waters for decades without success.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • The story places six chests of Afrika Korps loot sunk off Corsica near Bastia in 1943; the search zone is the seabed there.
  • The lead traces to the unreliable postwar claims of SS diver Peter Fleig; no chest has ever been recovered despite many dives.
  • Treat it as a likely myth built on real wartime looting; the documentary test is whether the gold ever existed and reached Corsica at all.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • The story places six chests of Afrika Korps loot sunk off Corsica near Bastia in 1943; the search zone is the seabed there.
  • The lead traces to the unreliable postwar claims of SS diver Peter Fleig; no chest has ever been recovered despite many dives.
  • Treat it as a likely myth built on real wartime looting; the documentary test is whether the gold ever existed and reached Corsica at all.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 42.780°, 9.550° (approx.) View on the Map