T HE E NIGMA OF THE

N AZIS ’ R EGENWURMLAGER
Secret Tunnels and Bunkers

A
few of the unsolved mysteries of World War II literally lie under our
feet. Some below-ground structures, bunkers and fortifications
built by Nazi Germany contain secrets which have not been revealed
A vast underground until recently, at least in the public arena. One such underground
system of fortifications, built by the Germans, was discovered in Poland after
complex built the Nazis were crushed by Soviet troops in the area. So many years have
by the Nazis in passed since the discovery, and we still know very little about the site.
Lubuskie (or Lubusz) Province (województwo or voivodeship, meaning an
western Poland was administrative province) is located in western Poland. The province borders

under Prussian control and formed part of the province of Posen (Poznań in
the German state of Brandenburg. For centuries, this part of Poland had been
a surprise discovery
for invading Soviet Polish). After Poland was liberated following the defeat of Nazi troops by the
Soviet Army, the area was returned to it. Those Germans who lived in the
Red Army troops in province were forced out, and Poles from those eastern parts of Poland who
had been transferred to Ukraine were later resettled in Lubuskie Province.
late January 1945, The main rivers of the region are the Odra (Oder in German), running along
but the Russians, the Polish–German corridor, and its tributaries, the Bóbr (Bober) and the

forests are full of lakes. Międzyrzecz (Meseritz in German) is a small town on

Warta (Warthe). The voivodeship is the most forested area of Poland; its deep
who administered
the region until 1993, the River Warta's tributary, the Obra. The town dates back to the 10th century.

kilometres west of Poznań and 220 kilometres east of Berlin, along the
To the west of the town, in the Lubuskie Lake District, approximately 100
never properly
Odra–Warta area stretches an enormous underground system of fortifications

Eastern Front and defend the Third Reich. This area is called the Międzyrzecki
explored the tunnels. built by Nazi Germany as part of the Ostwall (East Wall) to strengthen the

Fortified Region (or Międzyrzecki Rejon Umocniony in Polish). The Germans

What secrets are still
to be found within? called it Regenwurmlager ("Earthworm Camp") and codenamed it "RL".
A very elaborate system of bunkers was built there from the late 1920s,
through the 1930s and during the war. The bunkers are sometimes compared
with the famous Maginot Line. There are reinforced-concrete underground
corridors some 50 or more kilometres long, located 30–50 metres below

Kaława (Kalau in German), near Pniewo (Pinnow), about 12 kilometres

ground. Today it is possible to visit a part of the corridors near the village of

southwest of Międzyrzecz, and to see the Scharnhorst armoured turrets, but

by Paul Stonehill © 2014 only with an experienced and trained guide (there are multilingual guides at
the site). There are exhibitions of military equipment from World War II…and
Email: bats.
rurcla@hotmail.com There is actually a bat reserve near Nietoperek (Nipter in German), located
in the underground bunkers. More than 30,000 bats of 12 species in the
reserve during the winter make it one of the largest winter camps of bats in
Europe. The communist government of Poland wanted to designate the

APRIL – MAY 2014 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 53

underground passages as a dumping site for nuclear engine rooms as well as lighting, sewage and
waste, but changed its plan after Polish scientists were communications systems. The structures were
able to alarm their western colleagues. connected through the use of an electric train.
Few people realise that the tunnels are largely The multi-storeyed concrete corridors may still hide
unexplored and contain traps designed long ago to kill secrets of Nazi Germany's nuclear weapons research and
those who wander into the secret Nazi fortifications. development efforts undertaken during World War II.
There have been deaths of careless tourists who The Soviet Red Army liberated the "impenetrable"

The Międzyrzecki Fortified Region (MFR) consists of

perished in the elaborate traps built by Nazi engineers. fortifications from the Nazis between 30 January and 2
February 1945, and the last vestige of German resistance
reinforced-concrete bunkers and large steel turrets. in the immediate area was crushed on 28 February 1945.
There are kilometres of anti-tank barriers—square- The area was in Soviet/Russian hands from then until 12

Russians, the Międzyrzecki

pyramidal reinforced-concrete May 1993. According to the
blocks, each about 90 to 120
centimetres high. These are Fortified Region still contains
The multi-storeyed
Drachenzähne in German or Zęby
called "dragon's teeth"— mysteries.

in Międzyrzecz, too. A cemetery

concrete corridors may There was a Jewish presence
smoka in Polish. About 21 of the
bunkers are joined by a subway still hide secrets of was established there in the
system at a depth of 30 to 50 Nazi Germany’s nuclear mid-17th century. It was
metres. There is a labyrinth vandalised during World War II,
below the MFR which has been weapons research and and there are no gravestones or
left largely undisturbed, save for development efforts… structures remaining. One

removed to the Międzyrzecz

the bats. The main tunnel, the matseva (sepulchral stone) was
main traffic road, extends along
the north–south line. It is Museum, and others were taken

the area during the war. Some Jews of Międzyrzecz were

basically an axis of tunnels. to the forest near the cemetery. There was a ghetto in
There are side tunnels which branch from the main
tunnel and connect with the so-called "structures". transported to the Baranovichi ghetto in the Novogrudok

September 1942, remaining Jews from the Biała Podlaska

Concrete stairs lead from the side tunnels to the surface district of Belarus to be murdered there. On 26
part of the structure. This type of bunker is called a

deported to the ghetto in Międzyrzecz, and from there to

Panzerwerk. The bunkers on the surface were equipped ghetto in Poland's Lublin Province in the southeast were
with armoured turrets, their steel walls 25 centimetres
thick. They contained machine guns, flame-throwers and the Treblinka death camp in November 1942…
grenade-launchers. Of course, much has changed on the surface, especially
The underground portion of the MRF contained after the fall of the Soviet Union when Poland became a
storerooms, barracks, ambulances, ventilation systems, free nation. Where once one could find scars of the Nazi
occupation and the presence of
Soviet troops, today there are tourist
hotels and museums; instead of
ammunition and mines, people find
mushrooms and berries. However,
there have been deaths and injuries:
local people who were less than
careful have fallen into hidden cargo
elevator shafts as deep as 20 metres.
There are old mines in the forests
around the Regenwurmlager, according
to Latvian researchers (see the
Nectonlab web page
http://tinyurl.com/khc7cmz for maps,
photographs and illustrations; the
text is in Russian).
Here, though, we are concerned
with the mysteries that have
remained locked in the underground
One of the Regenwurmlager tunnels, featuring railway tracks and sealed-off structures built by the nefarious
side tunnels. (Source: survincity.com, http://tinyurl.com/m9yfnsa) German Third Reich.

54 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com APRIL – MAY 2014

 Unfortunately, we do not know what information about In October 1939, Hitler had set up the SS field

Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego, Poland's Internal

the Regenwurmlager is in the possession of the Agencja divisions which would later form the Waffen-SS. Among
them was the Totenkopf division. Its officers and soldiers
Security Agency. We do not know if any findings have perpetrated horrors which were typical of the epoch of
been shared with the Americans, NATO or the terror in Nazi-occupied Europe. One battalion was
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, the Federal Office for stationed in the Nazi-occupied Soviet Union with the
the Protection of the Constitution which is the Federal Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS (Command Staff, Reich
Republic of Germany's domestic intelligence service. An Leader of the SS), and was tasked with killing Jews. The
examination of the Soviet sources is in order, and here Totenkopf division also took part in atrocities, mostly
we find more success. against partisan units of guerrilla fighters and enemy
soldiers.
Information from Russian Sources The Nazi troops, according to local residents, did not
Basically, only the Soviet military administration was put up a stiff fight when the Red Army pushed into the
able to investigate the odd reinforced-concrete SS "city" MFR at the end of January 1945. However, to escape
discovered shortly after victory over surrendering to the Soviets, the SS
the Third Reich. Yet the Soviets failed forces in the MFR began a hasty
to undertake any systematic retreat. They disappeared without
exploration of the Regenwurmlager. The trace in a matter of hours—but to
Kremlin sent no instructions to do so, However, to escape where? The only road in the area was
and the local commanders saw no surrendering to already captured by tanks of the 44th
need to volunteer their efforts. Guards Tank Brigade of Soviet General
However, there was one Soviet the Soviets, Mikhail E. Katukov's 1st Guards Tank
military officer who wanted to uncover the SS forces in Army.
the secrets of the Nazi underground The tank battalion of the fearless
bunkers. the MFR began a Soviet commander Major Alexey
In the early 1960s, Colonel hasty retreat. Karabanov, posthumously awarded
Alexander Liskin, a military the Hero of the Soviet Union
prosecutor, descended into the They disappeared designation, pierced the minefields
tunnels of the Regenwurmlager and without trace in a surrounding the Regenwurmlager,
also collected information, but Karabanov was burned in his
testimonies and legends about matter of hours— tank there. The Red Army soldiers
the area. Later, he shared his under the command of Soviet
findings in articles published in
but to where? Colonel Iosif Gusakovsky broke
the Russian newspaper The only road through this Nazi Maginot Line,
Sovershenno Sekretno (issue 5, 1994) chasing Hitler's forces from the
and in Vokrug Sveta magazine in the area was Polish land which had been under
(issue 5, 1995). already captured… German domination for centuries.
The author of this NEXUS According to the Latvian
article researched Liskin's articles researchers' Nectonlab
as well as ones in other Russian (Laboratoriya Nectona) website,
publications, such as Nikolay http://nectonlab.org, the steel and
Cherkashin's article in Rossiyskaya concrete fortification
Gazeta (11 November 1999) and Alex Bure's article in (blockhouse) Panzerwerk 712, under the command of
Sekretniye Issledovaniya (Belarus, April 2002). The author Friedrich Helmigk, held on for two more weeks after the
also researched Soviet military publications and open area fell to the Red Army. Eight people defended
sources. Some current German sources were also Panzerwerk 712; they were cut off from the rest of the Nazi
helpful regarding names of towns and villages. forces and were not aware of the state of affairs. The
blockhouse defended the approach to the

Kęszyca (Kainscht in German) is a picturesque village,

The Red Army Defeats the Nazi Troops Neuhöfchen–Starpel [Nowy Dworek–Staropole] road.
After fierce drumfire by concrete bombs, the exhausted
bordered by forests full of berries and mushrooms as German soldiers of Panzerwerk 712 surrendered on 28

near Międzyrzecz, was also part of the Międzyrzecki

well as lakes. Under Nazi occupation, the village, located February 1945 and were released by Soviet soldiers for
their valour. The Germans were 18-year-olds; the Soviet
Fortified Region. The German garrison in the MFR soldiers tore off their epaulettes and basically chased
consisted of two regiments, security forces and the SS them away towards home. In the early 1990s, some of
school of the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf (Totenkopf the former German soldiers visited Panzerwerk 712 and
meaning "Skull"). thanked the Russians for their mercy.

APRIL – MAY 2014 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 55

Soviet Occupation of the MFR and full of the aroma of the nearby forest. However,
The Soviet military troops who were stationed in rumours about the lake aroused Liskin's curiosity. He
Poland formed the so-called Northern Group of Forces explored the area with the aid of local Soviet officers.
(NGF); it was established in June 1945. Until 1956, there When Liskin took a boat ride around the lake, he

of Lake Kęszyckie, he saw man-made hills overgrown

were no legal regulations which would formulate discovered even more mysteries. From the eastern side
principles for the Soviet troops to be stationed on Polish
territory. Soviet soldiers and the property utilised by with young trees. They contained artillery caponiers
them were beyond any control of the Polish authorities. (fortification structures). The hills contained secret
Later agreements between the two countries regulated passageways leading to galleries below. Not far away

Some NGF units were stationed in Kęszyca. There was a

their legal status and procedure of movement. there were two tiny "lakes", and nearby there were signs
stating "Danger! Mines!" in two languages.
signal brigade of five battalions, a fuel depot, a field radarLiskin reported that according to the Soviet field
station, barracks, warehouses, garages and other engineers, the "lakes" were actually entrances to the
buildings, occupying an area of nearly 120 hectares. The underground city; these entrances had been flooded.
brigade was an elite Soviet military There was a very strange "island" in the
force which assisted the General Staff in middle of one of the lakes. This island
controlling Soviet troops in the huge slowly drifted, as if held by an anchor.
territory of the European theatre of According to Liskin, The island was overgrown with pine
military activities. and willow trees. This island's area
in 1945 the Soviet was no more than 50 metres. The
Alexander Liskin’s Investigations commanders impression was that the "island"
Keszyca is located on a hill slowly and with difficulty rolled about
immediately
Kęszyckie (Jezioro Kęszyckie) nearby.
surrounded by pine forests, with Lake in the black waters of the reservoir.
undertook a The lake obviously had an artificial
Its beauty is breathtaking. When addition whose shape resembled a
Colonel Alexander Liskin visited the scrupulous field- human appendix. The water here was
area, the lake still had an air of mystery engineering clearer, and a measuring pole
about it. indicated a depth of up to three
An artillery regiment was located in reconnaissance metres. It was still hard to see
the vicinity, and a Polish security of the area. anything because the fern-like

the area for the Międzyrzecz

official, Telyutko, who supervised weeds completely covered the
They made bottom of the lake. There was a
authorities, represented the discoveries which grey concrete tower in the middle
Polish military forces in the region of this little "bay"; it had served
because the territory had been amazed even the some purpose before, but now it
transferred to the Soviet forces for battle-hardened contained water.
temporary use. Furthermore, Liskin learned
According to Liskin, in 1945 the Soviet military. that during the initial
Soviet commanders immediately reconnaissance, Soviet military
undertook a scrupulous field- engineers had discovered an
engineering reconnaissance of the entrance to the tunnels disguised
area. They made discoveries as a hill. They surmised that what
which amazed even the battle-hardened Soviet military. lay before and under was a complex structure full of
First, near the lake, the Soviet engineers found a traps, including mines. Once a slightly inebriated Soviet
reinforced-concrete box containing the isolated outlet of sergeant major made a bet and rode his motorcycle
a 380-volt underground power cable. Then they found a through one of the mysterious tunnels; he was never
concrete well which swallowed water falling down into it. heard from again.
At the same time, reconnaissance engineers discovered Liskin was more cautious, and he approached the

communication lines came from Międzyrzecz, but they

that the underground electrical supply and brigade's commanders. He found out that the brigade's
field engineers and communications technicians had not
also believed that there might be a concealed only descended below into the same tunnel where the
autonomous electrical power station, its turbines moved sergeant major disappeared, but also had walked it for
by water falling into the well. There were rumours that dozens of kilometres and had discovered previously
the lake was somehow connected to the numerous unknown entrances. Information about this expedition
nearby reservoirs, but the brigade lacked the resources was kept secret. Liskin discussed the expedition with a

Kęszyca was then, as it is now, a quiet place, peaceful,

to confirm this. staff officer, who told him that to preclude tragedies the
Soviets had installed a metal grating and armoured

56 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com APRIL – MAY 2014

panel at the entrance to the tunnel. Yet they were of the them had to get used to being a neighbour of the
opinion that there were other entrances to the tunnels. mysterious underground territory.
The officers shared with Liskin their assessment of
what may be below. It was an underground city Spiridonov’s Findings
containing everything necessary for autonomous One of the last commanders of the brigade, Colonel
existence for many long years. The expedition Vladimir I. Spiridonov, learned more about the
discovered a subway system, complete with rails. There Regenwurmlager. He was privy to reports of the field
was no soot on the ceiling of the tunnel. The walls engineers because most of the brigade's commanders
contained rows of cables, and it was thought that the considered it to be their duty to learn as much as
train was electrically powered. The expedition entered possible about the SS city.
the tunnel, but not where it began because the tunnel Spiridonov revealed that the area where the subway

between Kęszyca and Odra is 60 kilometres. The walls

entrance was somewhere under the lake. Its other end extended under the Odra was flooded. The distance
was probably near the Odra River, in the west. However,
Latvian researchers who have been to the site claim that and ceiling of the subway system are covered with
this is a mistake; that this was actually a branch railway concrete slabs and the floor with rectangular stone slabs.
line from east to west, mistakenly assumed to extend in Spiridonov drove 20 kilometres through the
the direction of Berlin. underground tunnel towards Germany in a Soviet
Soviet field engineers also discovered a concrete military vehicle.
vertical pipe. They assumed that this was from an As Spiridonov learned, the person who knew most

Międzyrzecz, who at the end of the 1980s was about 90

underground crematorium, and that those who built this about the city was a quiet Pole, Dr Podbelsky of
city were burned here. However, German researchers
who have studied the fortifications in recent years years old. He secretly explored the underground city in
believe that the pipe was part of the late 1940s and 1950s. Dr
the ventilation system of the Podbelsky told local inhabitants
never-completed underground that the Germans started
fifth armoured battery,
One summer, Soviet building the city in 1927, but
Panzerbatterie 5. officers were fishing in they embarked on intensive
As the expedition's engineers construction in 1933 after Adolf
slowly and cautiously walked the the lake and discerned Hitler came to power.
tunnel in the direction of West something in the murky In 1937, Hitler reportedly
Germany, they discovered visited the Regenwurmlager,
dozens of tunnels to the right bottom which looked arriving by the underground
and left of them. Most of the like a hatch. subway. (Again, Latvian
tunnels had been carefully researchers who have spent
sealed off. time in the area refute this
What lies behind the sealed legend.) It was then that the
entrances? What sites, what sections of the city was turned over to the army and the SS. There were
underground SS city, are hidden there? We still have no some secret passageways from the Regenwurmlager to
answers… strategic underground storage places and a power plant,
The area was dry for the most part. As they walked located in the area of Wysoka (Hochwalde in German)
through the tunnels, the Soviets began to lose and Pieski (Pieske) villages some five kilometres from

Lake Kęszyckie itself is a mystery waiting to be solved. It

perception of being in the real world. They concluded the lake to the north and the west.
that investigation of this huge underground city lying
under the fields, rivers and forests was for well-equipped is as deep as 20 metres at its eastern end. One summer,
experts with time and access to resources. The Soviet officers were fishing in the lake and discerned
expedition members estimated that the underground something in the murky bottom which looked like a hatch.
city of Regenwurmlager could extend for dozens of They nicknamed it "eye of the inferno", and this eye
kilometres and continue under the Odra. What the final seemed to be closed shut. What was the purpose of the
destination would be, they had no idea. hatch? Was it a Kingston valve to flood the underground
Some time later the Commander of the Northern city in case of an emergency? But if the city was not

in Kęszyca and descended into the underground SS city.

Group of Forces, Colonel-General P. S. Maryakhin, arrived flooded, then it may have been kept intact for some other
purpose and may contain unimaginable secrets.
The author of this NEXUS article was not able to find out Spiridonov found many intriguing sites around the
if the Soviet commander had discovered anything of lake and in the forest. Among them were pillboxes
importance during his mission. containing machine guns, surrounded by minefields,
Liskin determined that from 1958 to 1992 there had
been nine commanders of the brigade, and each one of Continued on page 84

APRIL – MAY 2014 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 57

 The Enigma of the Nazis’ Regenwurmlager
Continued from page 57 unlikely that the Poles have had the About the Author:
resources to explore the Paul Stonehill is a researcher, author and
barbed wire and deadly traps. He underground city. lecturer specialising in anomalous
found ruins of military structures and Has the city itself been "put on ice" phenomena, especially Soviet and Russian
remnants of the hospital for the SS for some future use? Did the Polish military research into the subject. He is the
elite forces. However, throughout the government know something sinister author of numerous articles for UFO-
about the site, and plan to dump related magazines, as well as of several
Soviet control of the territory there books including Paranormal Mysteries of
was no comprehensive and detailed nuclear waste into the Regenwurmlager
Eurasia (Galde Press, USA, 2011), UFO Case
exploration of the Regenwurmlager. tunnels to render the underground Files of Russia (with Philip Mantle; 11th
Obviously, the Soviets and the SS city forever inaccessible? Dimension Publishing/Healings of Atlantis,
Polish government at the time would What is hidden behind the sealed UK, 2010; see review in NEXUS 17/05) and
attempt to limit access to the tunnels in the underground SS city? The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal
Regenwurmlager to prevent It may be possible that the Encounters Behind the Iron Curtain
unauthorised movement to and from Regenwurmlager contains hidden (Quadrillion Publishing, UK, 1998). His
West Germany. To expect anything treasures, perhaps artworks looted articles “Mysterious Amazon Women of
less from them would be highly by Nazi invaders in occupied Europe, Eurasia”, “Haunted Railway Tracks: The
naïve, and yet there are no records but it could be that it holds a still Ghost Trains of Eurasia”, “UFO Sightings
undiscovered key to the Nazi German over Kazakhstan”, “UFOs over Russia’s
that I know of to provide pertinent
program to build an atomic bomb. Remote Arctic Regions”, “Investigating the
details about such Soviet security

the Międzyrzecki Fortified Region

‘Ghosts of the Ocean’” and “Soviet UFO
measures or actions. Did the fleeing SS Totenkopf forces in
Sightings in International Waters” were
published in NEXUS 21/02, 21/01, 20/05,
Unanswered Questions enter the Regenwurmlager to disappear 20/04, 18/06 and 18/04 respectively.
We do not know what the Polish into the bowels of the Earth? Paul Stonehill is fluent in Russian and
government discovered after the So far we have only questions, but Ukrainian, and can be contacted via email at
Soviets departed, but it is very no answers. ∞ rurcla@hotmail.com.

84 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com APRIL – MAY 2014