Secrets of the Riese complex – what were the underground hiding?

The "Riese" (German for "Giant") complex in the Owl Mountains itself is fertile ground for various legends, a fact Kwiecień diligently exploits. He suggests that the true purpose of the underground tunnels was entirely different than historians believe – mentioning secret laboratories , human experiments , wonder weapons (Wunderwaffe), and even the storage of mythical artifacts. In reality, the tunnels built during the war remained unfinished , and their exact purpose has not been definitively confirmed by documents – the most common theory is that they were intended to house another underground quarters for Hitler or armaments factories to protect them from Allied air raids.

The known historical facts about Riese seem both prosaic and tragic: the complex was built through the slave labor of prisoners from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Approximately 13,000 prisoners (mostly Jews deported from Hungary and Poland) passed through the network of AL Riese camp branches , of whom approximately 5,000 died from exhaustion, disease, and abuse .

These findings—including those from research at the Gross-Rosen Museum—unequivocally demonstrate that Riese was a site of immense prisoner tragedy , not a monster factory. No miraculous weapons or science-fiction laboratories were found there, but the archives contain lists of victims and reports of catastrophic working conditions in the tunnels.

The speculations sparked by Kwiecień about "secrets that remain shrouded in mystery to this day" are based primarily on gaps in documentation and imagination , rather than on hard, verifiable evidence. Numerous exploration teams have scoured the Owl Mountains for years (both professional research by the Institute of National Remembrance and geologists, as well as treasure hunters), but they have failed to confirm the existence of any sensational hidden installations beyond the known underground areas. The rumor of a supposed "gold train" in Wałbrzych, popular several years ago , also ended in failure – despite the media frenzy, no hidden treasure cache was discovered.

This example illustrates a broader pattern: fascinating legends often dissolve when confronted with reality , and underground, instead of treasures and secret weapons, one finds… emptiness or the remains of famous buildings.