Hitler's secret bases: what the Nazis were looking for in the Arctic

2023 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 22:42

Seventy-six years have passed since the end of World War II. It would seem that for more than one decade all archives should have been declassified, all criminals should be arrested and punished. But the Nazis left behind many questions, to which historians are still looking for answers.

Hitler in an attempt to find evidence of the "chosenness" of the Aryan race

There are various conspiracy theories and outright speculation about a Nazi base in Antarctica. The most famous is that the Nazis built a secret military base 211 here called "New Berlin", where they allegedly hid the sacred relics of the Third Reich. Supporters of this hypothesis are confident that after the defeat of Nazi Germany, "New Berlin" became the basis for the formation of the Fourth Reich and was even equipped with a fortress.

Research and historical evidence suggests that the theories presented have nothing to do with reality. Despite the fact that Germany did indeed participate in the exploration of Antarctica. However, this was long before the start of World War II, and there is no direct or indirect evidence of the construction of an alternate airfield in Antarctica for the revival of the Third Reich.

It is known that the Nazi authorities sent expeditions to various parts of the world to conduct scientific research. For the most part, the data of the expedition is of a purely archaeological nature, and the purpose of the Germans was the search for occult artifacts and evidence of the "chosenness" of the Aryan race.

However, Germany's goals in the Arctic soon became more pragmatic. With the coming to power of Hitler in 1933, the German military command began to plan the creation of the Northern Sea Route, which ensured the unhindered passage of wars and merchant ships.

Construction of secret bases in the Arctic

One of Adolf Hitler's ambitious but realistic and feasible plans was the construction of the Atlantic Wall, a long-term system of fortifications erected along the European Atlantic coast between 1940 and 1944. This line stretched from Norway and Denmark to the Spanish border and was intended to prevent the penetration of enemy allied forces into the continent. Many, but far from all, fortifications on this "wall" have been discovered, surveyed, mothballed and plundered over the years.

In 2008, a storm on the Danish coast destroyed a coastal dune, revealing three intact Nazi bunkers beneath it. Built more than half a century ago, they have survived intact, and the scientists who went to research did not want to destroy the structures. They found furniture, military personal belongings, communications equipment, as well as half-smoked pipes and bottles of schnapps that looked like the soldiers left the base just a couple of minutes before the scientists arrived. Archaeologists have called this find "an Egyptian pyramid full of mummies."

Exposing the activities of the Nazis by Soviet pilots

In March 1941, Soviet polar aviation recorded a German Do-215 aircraft over the island of Alexandra Land. In the summer of 1942, military pilots from the USSR managed to find an unknown radio station in this area. Significant signals from the island were detected by rockets, as well as structures covered with wire mesh.

The Soviet military did not have sufficient resources to investigate what was happening in this uninhabited area, since at that time they had more important military tasks. It was only with the end of the war that true information appeared about the activities of the Nazis in the Arctic. On September 12, 1951, the Soviet research icebreaker Semyon Dezhnev discovered the remains of a German military base near Alexandra Land at Cape Nimrod.

There was a meteorological station with a radio tower, warehouses, household and residential buildings. Researchers have identified a variety of documents, food, clothing and information related to the operation of the radio station and weather station. It was established that a secret Nazi base number 24 "Kriegsmarine" operated on this island during the war. Five kilometers away there was another base, on which, according to the documents found, the Schatzgraber meteorological station was located in 1943-1944.