Nazi Archives - Com Namibia

At first glance, Wolin Island, along the Polish Baltic coast, seems like a peaceful holiday destination. Its white-sand beaches, dunes, and beech and pine forests draw numerous visitors each summer who come to enjoy the coastline.

But beneath this preserved nature lies a vast military complex built during the Nazi era, later transformed during the Cold War into a command center for the Polish Army. Today open to the public, it reveals itself through an underground tour that lets visitors enter an old military town almost frozen in time.

Bunkers Secretly Built by the Nazis

To reach Wolin Underground City, you must penetrate the forest on Wolin Island. A few military vehicles and missile components displayed among the trees announce the site’s singular character. But the essence lies underground. The complex was built between 1936 and 1939, at a time when Nazi Germany was strengthening its military defenses. It was part of two coastal batteries named Goeben and Vineta. The latter consisted of four bunkers equipped with rotating cannons, to which were added command facilities, ammunition storage, and support installations.

Construction proceeded secretly, at a time when the Treaty of Versailles prohibited Germany from rearming after World War I. Despite the resources devoted to its construction, the fortress did not witness the battles for which it had been designed. “As the front of World War II advanced rapidly, this region remained very calm during the war, and the Nazis transformed the entire complex into a naval school”, explains Kacper Stachula, the site’s guide, to CNN.

In 1945, German troops tried to destroy the installations before retreating. They blew up the munitions, but a large part of the bunkers remained intact. After the war, the Soviets recovered some of the equipment and metal components, while locals subsequently looted the abandoned facilities. “No one knew what to do with this place after the war”, says Kacper Stachula.

The Cold War changed the situation. After the Warsaw Pact’s formation in 1955, Poland prepared, among other things, a scenario for invading Denmark in case of conflict with NATO. The former German bunkers, isolated in the forest and protected by their subterranean position, made an ideal site for a command center. The Polish army modernized them in 1955, then again in 1965, linking the five bunkers with new tunnels.

A Dive into the Cold War Beneath the Forest

The result is today particularly spectacular to visit. The complex comprises nearly 1.6 kilometers of tunnels and was divided into five security zones. It could function as a fully autonomous base, with dormitories, a kitchen, a canteen, an infirmary, water reserves, and technical rooms. The guided tour allows visitors to traverse these largely preserved spaces. Inside, it stays around 10 °C year-round. The old telephone standards, radios, communication networks, typewriters, and military equipment are all still in place.

In some rooms, mannequins placed in front of the equipment recreate the atmosphere of the command center. The itinerary notably leads to the war room, one of the most impressive areas of the complex. Tactical maps and computer equipment remain visible there, as well as a red telephone. This setting mainly helps to understand the strategic importance the site held during the Cold War, pitting the United States against the USSR.

Since these bunkers were contemplated for plans that could have radically altered the conflict in Europe, “The idea was to deploy tactical nuclear warheads in Danish ports and in western Germany to breach NATO defenses, then to proceed with a larger-scale offensive”, explains Kacper Stachula. The scenario thus envisaged the use of tactical nuclear weapons against NATO forces before a broader offensive into Western Europe.

The red telephone was never used to signal such an attack. The complex nonetheless holds another part of its mystery: when the Germans left in 1945, some tunnels were sealed behind thick concrete walls. Some underground sections remain unexplored.

With around 3,000 visitors per month according to the Polish Tourism Organization, Wolin Underground City has become a genuine tourist curiosity. Its proximity to the island’s beaches makes the outing particularly unusual: after enjoying the Baltic shoreline, one simply steps into the forest to discover, beneath your feet, a military site where Nazi Germany, the Polish Army, and Cold War nuclear strategies have followed one another.

The Danube apparently has not yet given up all of its secrets. This summer, the exceptional drop in its level revealed remnants that the waters usually conceal, offering locals as well as travelers a spectacle that is as fascinating as it is unsettling. On the Serbian banks, silhouettes of ships evoke, in particular, a particularly dark episode of World War II. But the wrecks are not the only vestiges that the river reveals today.

German ships scuttled since 1944

Near Prahovo, in eastern Serbia, at least 20 wrecks of German ships are currently visible from the banks. Some still bear rusted hulls and broken masts. They belonged to the German Black Sea fleet, part of which was deliberately scuttled at the end of World War II.

In the summer of 1944, as the Red Army advanced westward, around 200 German vessels became trapped in this region. The Danube then represented a possible route of retreat, but the Iron Gates sector, a narrow and difficult-to-navigate passage, formed a major obstacle. In September 1944, Rear Admiral Paul-Willy Zieb ordered the scuttling of more than 200 ships to prevent their capture and slow the Soviet advance.

Most have remained underwater for more than eight decades. And their presence poses a danger. Some wrecks may still contain weapons or explosives, which further complicates navigation. Serbia has thus initiated a program valued at 30 million euros to remove some of these remnants, but operations are complex due to munitions hazards.

For Kenneth Reece, who recently navigated the Danube, these wrecks add a new dimension to a journey already marked by the footprints of 20th-century conflicts. “History isn’t just in museums or monuments. A part of it is literally beneath our feet,” he explains to the BBC.

The drop in the river’s level, however, does not merely resurrect memories of the war.

Ancient remains and unexpected objects also appear

In Bulgaria, the retreat of the waters has allowed the exposure of the remains of an ancient bridge dating from the time of Emperor Constantine, near Gigen. Farther away, near Ryahovo, specialists recovered bones and mammoth tusks dating back several thousand years. The remains must be studied and could eventually join the collections of the Ruse Regional History Museum, located about 30 kilometers from where they were found.

Other discoveries are much more recent. In Budapest, a Wehrmacht motorcycle was revealed by the ebbing waters. In Slovakia, near Virt, a British bomb weighing about 700 kg was discovered before being neutralized by a controlled explosion.

For archaeologists, these periods of low water provide a rare opportunity to observe vestiges normally inaccessible. “This gives us a rare chance to observe them, document them and study them in their real environment,” says Pavel Popov, from the Pleven Regional History Museum, cited by Reuters.

A phenomenon increasingly frequent?

These discoveries, however, have another consequence, more immediate for travelers. The low flow has forced some cruise lines to alter their itineraries, move passengers between several ships, or even end certain trips by bus when the river was no longer deep enough.

The phenomenon could also become more frequent. According to the European Copernicus service on climate change, Europe is warming at a rate more than twice the global average. The rise in temperatures and the alteration of precipitation patterns particularly foster episodes of very low water levels.

For passengers navigating the Danube, the spectacle is thus as striking as it is unexpected. Suzanna Fulton, who recently traveled aboard the Viking Honir, sums up her experience as: “It was a humbling and, to be honest, pretty awesome,” she told the BBC. A tourist river can thus become, when its waters recede, a true window opened onto the buried traces of European history.

Polish Seaside Island: Secrets of a Former Nazi Base

Bunkers Secretly Built by the Nazis

A Dive into the Cold War Beneath the Forest

Nazi Shipwrecks Resurface Across Europe as the Danube Recedes

German ships scuttled since 1944

Ancient remains and unexpected objects also appear

A phenomenon increasingly frequent?