Until a safe means is found to excavate the train found in Poland, interest in the legend that lingered in the decades following World War II has been invigorated by the discovery. Questions are being generated at a fever pitch, even before the train’s recovery, over whether the treasures, if there are treasures, contained within are the property of Russia, Poland or Jewish victims of the Holocaust and their families–and the news has stimulated the Polish tourist trade. There is intense fascination in Project Riese and the tunnels the Nazis built (or rather, had built for them by slave labor). The Ksiaz website says, “Discover Walbryzych, and along with it, mysterious underground (sic), unexplained histories and hidden treasures. It was here that the Nazis dug a network of tunnels underneath the city whose purpose to this day remains one of Europe’s biggest enigmas.” The guide to the Riese projects says, “On entering the tunnels, the whole scope of this wholly unrealistic construction project becomes obvious. It is only one example of Nazi megalomania.”
Still, megalomania is good for tourism, and has even attracted delusional looters and landlubber pirates hoping to get a piece of the train’s stolen treasures. The Polish government has warned them to stay away, but some speculate that the Polish government already has recovered the treasure and is keeping mum about it. In that case, the intrigue over the Nazi gold train contents has just begun.