Hitler’s last treasure belongs to Russia

A sunken aircraft-carrier Graf Zeppelin is Russia ’s property, the Defense Ministry of Germany states. Berlin will not claim any rights in connection with the decommissioned WWII vessel.

Photo: Hitler’s last treasure belongs to Russia

The sunken Nazi Germany’s aircraft-carrier Graf Zeppelin was found in the Baltic Sea near the Polish shores. Germany’s news agency DDP reports with reference to the military that Germany will not claim its right for the vessel’s hull.

According to the above arguments, the German warship never went into battle before the war broke out and later belonged to the Soviet Union as a war trophy. Russia as a legal successor to the Soviet Union can enjoy its absolute right in ownership of the sunken vessel.

Sources of the news agency add that legally Germany has no right to claim restitution of the aircraft-carrier that went down right after the war ended even though there was a German crew on board at the moment of sinking. If Germany still reveals any interest in the sunken vessel, it may have “consultations with Russia ”, sources conclude.

In any case, it is the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance not the Defense Ministry to look into the issue.

The Defense Ministry of Germany has neither confirmed nor denied the report yet. Spiegel Online reports that for the time being Germany is studying the legal aspect of the problem.

July 12, 2006 a research crew Santa Barbara of the Petrobaltic oil company came across the hull of a sunken aircraft-carrier Graf Zeppelin at a depth of 86 meters near the Polish shores in the Baltic Sea . The vessel was built at a shipyard in Kiel in 1938 but was never completed. It was supposed that the aircraft-carrier could carry up to 43 airplanes, a crew of 1,720 seamen and 342 men to operate the aircrafts.

For about sixty years nothing was heard about Hitler’s first and last aircraft-carrier that had been lost in the Baltic Sea after WWII. According to an official version, the colossus of 260 meters was torpedoed by Soviet seamen to find out how American aircraft-carriers would act in a similar situation. But the vessel did not sink after numerous bombs exploded on its board, and it was decided to liquidate it with two torpedoes.

Pravda.ru

Translated by Maria Kapitanova

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