Twenty-Eight Tonnes of Nazi Gold Traced down in Poland

 Twenty-eight tonnes of Nazi gold worth more than £1billion may have been traced to the grounds of a palace in Poland after the location was mentioned in an SS diary.

The stash of gold bars, jewellery and coins is believed to be sitting 200ft down at the bottom of a destroyed well shaft in the grounds of the Hochberg Palace, near the city of Wroclaw.

Researchers from the Polish-German Silesian Bridge Foundation, who claim to have acquired the diary from a masonic lodge, say the treasure was buried in the final days of the Second World War along with the corpses of several witnesses.

The treasure is said to include deposits from the Reichsbank in what was then the German city of Breslau but is now Wroclaw.

It is also said to include valuables from wealthy locals who handed them over to SS soldiers in the region for safekeeping as the Red Army advanced in 1945.

If the claim is true, then the treasure could be worth as much as £1.25billion at today's prices.

Roman Furmaniak, head of the foundation which traced the location, said he is going public with the findings in an attempt to pressure the government into investigating.

He presented the diary - which he claims has been authenticated in Germany - to the Polish Ministry of Culture last year, but they have yet to verify it. 

Planning and financing the dig without first getting permission from the government is proving difficult.

However, the foundation says they have been given the go-head by the palace's current owners - who have set up a perimeter fence and CCTV security

The 75-year-old diary page, which starts by giving soldiers ID numbers 453 and 219, says: 'Many thanks to Mr Grundmann. We met in the palace of the Hochberg family.

'Dr...