Skeletons with hands and feet missing are discovered buried at ‘Wolf’s Lair’ home of Hermann Goring: Horrifying find of three adults, a teenager and a baby by amateur archeologists sparks murder probe
Skeletons without hands or feet have been discovered beneath the home of Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering in the sprawling bunker complex that Adolf Hitler used as his headquarters during World War II.
Reichsmarschall Göring is part of Hitler’s inner circle and later became the highest-ranking Nazi official to be tried at Nuremberg. He is responsible for some of history’s most heinous crimes against humanity.
It was believed that his house in northeastern Poland had been thoroughly investigated, until a team of local researchers and amateur archaeologists set out to uncover a wooden floor in the concrete building.
The German-Polish excavators went to the haunted site hoping to find some nails or other building materials, but instead discovered something much darker.
The exhumation uncovered the remains of three adults, a teenager and a baby, all of whom appeared to have been buried naked and had no hands or feet. A murder investigation has now been launched into their gruesome deaths.
Hermann Goring’s house in Wolf’s Lair. Former wartime headquarters of Adolf Hitler in Poland
Hermann Göring was the highest-ranking Nazi official tried for war crimes in World War II at tribunals in Nuremberg
Wolfsschanze, where Hitler’s bunker stood, is located in northeastern Poland
Göring (right) was part of Hitler’s inner circle, who would later become the highest-ranking Nazi official to be tried at Nuremberg
Located in the Masurian forests of northern Poland, the Wolf’s Lair was used as a base for Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union
âWe were completely shocked,â says Oktavian Bartoszewski, who has been working with the research association at the site for several years. The mirror reports.
It is unclear whether Göring’s residence in the building predated the death, with Bartoszewski claiming the bodies may have been dumped before the house was built in 1940.
He said the workers laying the pipes could not have missed the bodies if they had been there at the time, meaning Goering himself might have been aware of the deaths.
However, there are also theories that they could have been victims of a mass murder that took place after the Nazi hideout was abandoned.
It is also unknown whether the victims’ hands and feet were amputated or whether their bones were broken down over decades.
Piotrek Banaszkiewicz of the Latebra Foundation, who was involved in the discovery, said: ‘While uncovering the first skeleton, as they moved from the ribs through the pelvis to the tibias, another skull unexpectedly appeared, taking them by surprise.
The Wolf’s Lair: From this secret complex in northern Poland, Hitler orchestrated some of his most terrorizing campaigns on the Eastern Front
Chilling images show the fortified bunker overrun by leaves and moss, but the looming structure still stands in place
The site already attracts 300,000 tourists every year for a fee of 15 zloty (ÂŁ3.18), but organizers say they want to attract more visitors
‘This prompted police to carry out a series of exploratory excavations to determine whether there were any further human remains beneath the floor.’
‘When the second skeleton was uncovered, under the shin bones, child remains appeared.
‘The sight shocked us. At first we thought they were animal bones, and weren’t sure what we were dealing with, until at some point a delicate skull emerged.
‘During the third exploratory excavation, even more remains were uncovered. This time we came across the remains of an adult. All this took place at night.
‘After a moment’s reflection the sentence was uttered: ‘there is another.’ More teenage remains appeared to the left of the last discovered remains.
‘The first set of remains was unnaturally arranged; the spine was severely curved, and the malformed skull with no visible eye sockets and a displaced jaw suggests that the individual may have faced significant health problems during his lifetime, although this could mean that the remains had been displaced.
‘The jawbone of the skull had worn teeth, which indicated an older individual.
‘During the subsequent stages of uncovering human remains, police conducted ongoing documentation activities, recording what was observed and creating photographic documentation.
‘After some time a hearse arrived to collect the remains and transport them for examination.’
He added: ‘None of the skeletons had clothes on â the bodies were buried without clothes.
The public prosecutor’s investigation is still ongoing and the findings will be published in due course.
Located in the Masurian forests of northern Poland, tThe Wolf’s Lair was formerly a sprawling complex of 618 hectares.
It was used as a part-time base for Hitler between 1941 and 1943 and was from here that he launched a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union known as Operation Barbarossa.
The fortified bunkers on the site are now overrun by foliage and moss, but the looming structures are still in place after their density made them difficult to demolish.
The complex called Wolf’s Lair – Wolfsschanze in German – was named as such because Hitler often referred to himself as ‘the Wolf’
The discovery of the bones in Göring’s house may be the most chilling ever made since the site was turned into a morbid tourist attraction in 1959.
Göring, one of Hitler’s right-hand men, held many positions of power and influence in the Nazi state.
He was commander-in-chief of the German air force, director of the Four Year Plan for the German economy and a key force behind the Holocaust.
It was Göring who, in 1941, ordered Security Police Chief Reinhard Heydrich to organize and coordinate a ‘total solution’ to the ‘Jewish question’.
He was sentenced to death in Nuremberg before committing suicide the night before he was to be executed.