Nazi time capsule containing a picture of Adolf Hitler, brass knuckles and revolver is discovered hidden in a wall in a German house after they were stashed away from American soldiers in 1945
Brass knuckles, old letters and a portrait of Adolf Hitler are among the trove of WWII Nazi artifacts found hiding behind a wall of a home in Hagen, Germany.
The ‘Nazi time capsule’ was discovered during renovations following a severe flood that hit the region in July, which killed 190 people and cost billions of dollars in damages.
Sebastian Yurtseven was conducting renovations at his aunt’s home that suffered damages when he pulled a rotted piece of plasterboard away and came across a newspaper dated 1945.
‘I got goosebumps,’ Sebastian Yurtseven told local media. ‘I didn’t think it would turn into such a huge discovery.’
One-by-one, Yurtseven pulled out a revolver, gas masks, National Socialist German Worker’s Party eagles and hundreds of letters and documents from the National Socialist People’s Welfare (NSV) – among other items.
NSV, which was started in 1938, was structed on the Nazi Party model and provided childcare, healthcare and medical services to those who followed Hitler’s values and ideologies.
The group also operated its own kindergartens and several relief organizations, and organized its Kinderland Dispatch in 1940 – a camp for Nazi youth.
Researchers say there is evidence of all these aspects in the Hagen find.
NSV was funded through assets and money taken from Jews, and researchers believe the home was once one of its headquarters.
The artifacts are said to have been quickly tossed inside the foot-wide wall cavity in April 1945, when Nazi members heard American forces were marching into Hagan.
Archive manager Ralf Blank of the FAZ told the Frankfurter Allgemeine: ‘That must have happened very hectically.
‘Such hasty disposal operations are known from countless diary campaigns, but to actually be able to secure such a find once, that alone is a very exciting thing.’
The discovery is being hailed as ‘a time capsule from the Nazi era’ and experts hope it will reveal the inner workings of the NSV, as most of the documents were destroyed or loss following the arrival of allied forces.
‘We hope, for example, to come across files on the distribution of so-called Jewish furniture,’ said Blank.
Along with the documents, experts found dozens of WWII gas masks for men, women and children stashed inside the wall, along with several air canisters.
Staff excavating the home have collected 12 boxes of artifacts that have been taken to another facility for further examination.
Yurtseven and his aunt were amazed at the discovery and said they had no idea of the Nazi legacy behind the wall of their family house that was purchased in the 1960s.
A separate WWII era discovery was made last month, when a construction crew working in Lublin, Poland discovered a bunker built by Nazi Germany.
The wooden structure included a staircase that led to three underground corridors surrounded by concrete walls and ceilings – all of which were encased in wooden beams.
The bunker may have been the site of an intense battle between the Germans, during their occupation of the country, and the Soviet Red Army in 1944, experts believe.
Dariusz Kopciowski, the Lublin Conservator of Monument, told TheFirstNews: ‘We don’t yet know what else could be there. At the moment we have to check if there are not some unexploded bombs.’
‘In the discovered bunker, we found ammunition which could suggest that battles were fought inside.’
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Nazi time capsule/Nazi time capsule