The Nazis, during their marauding marches across Europe, took over the Nowy Sacz Royal Castle in Poland in 1941 and turned it into a barracks which also served as an ammunition depot.
But recent discoveries suggest that the castle was host to much more than that.
A Fox News report reveals that researches have discovered a treasure chest full of silver at the fortress. The 14th century castle lies in a town that was once turned into a ghetto housing 20,000 Polish Jews.
The discovery was made by the Nowy Sacz Historical and Exploratory Association’s Stanislaw Pustułka.
“After a while, we saw silver, a lot of silver,” Pustułka said.
The castle remains in dilapidated condition as Polish soldiers had blown it a few years after the Nazi occupation. Today, only the outer walls and a reconstructed keep are left of the building.
Pustułka and team found a total of 103 silver objects including goblets and cups.
“It is Judaica, probably from the turn of the 19th or 20th century, connected to Jewish ritual and was probably buried during World War Two,” local archaeologist Bartlomiej Urbański said.
“Is it connected with the buildings that used to be in this part of the city, or was it stolen by the Germans, who were then unable to take it away?” he wonders.
The 20,000 Jews that were trapped in the ghetto were sent to the Belzec concentration camp before Polish soldiers blew the castles in 1945.
PNN