Nazi Time Capsule Unearthed in Poland

Contents include more than one copy of Mein Kampf
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 21, 2016 7:03 AM CDT
Nazi Time Capsule Unearthed in Poland
In this photo taken Sept. 13, 2016 at the National Museum's laboratory in Szczecin, Poland, a historian shows the contents of the Nazi-era time capsule.   (AP Photo/Sebastian Kuropatnicki)

A time capsule buried during the construction of a Nazi training center in Poland has been unearthed—82 years after it was buried, and 71 years after Adolf Hitler's "Thousand-Year Reich" was eradicated. The copper cylinder recovered from the foundation of the Ordensburg Krossinsee building in Zlocieniec contains exactly what you would expect Nazis to put in a time capsule: Researchers found two copies of Mein Kampf and photos of Hitler, along with coins and newspapers, the Independent reports. High-ranking Nazi officials deposited the capsule when construction on the center for training future Nazi leaders began in 1934, History.com reports.

When the capsule was buried, Zlocieniec was called Falkenburg and it was part of Germany. The site is now home to a Polish military barracks. A spokesman for authorities in the city tells the AP that they unearthed the capsule in the hope that it would contain a film showing the town's 600th anniversary celebrations, which took place in 1933. The dig took weeks, with hazards including old German land mines. The film wasn't found, but the spokesman says the reminders of a "time of evil" will be put on display in a local museum. (Days before the end of the war, thousands died on the "Nazi Titanic.")

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