10 Strangest World War II Unsolved Mysteries

3. The Russian Amber Room

Once considered as the "Eight Wonder of the World", the Amber Room is a legendary chamber that existed in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo, near Saint Petersburg. Built in Prussia in the 18th Century, the room was decorated in amber panels backed with gold leads and mirrors. Following Operation Barbarossa and the German invasion of the USSR during World War II, the Wehrmacht asked curators to remove the art treasures from St Petersburg (then Leningrad) and to disassemble the Amber Room.

Due to the fact the relics in the room had dried out, they started to crumble when they were pulled down - yet it was still transported to Königsberg in East Prussia and displayed at the castle. In January 1945, Hitler then ordered all relics be moved from the city - although Erich Koch, who was in charge at Königsberg, fled before the Amber Room could be disassembled. Furthermore, Königsberg endured heavy bombing by the RAF during August 1945, as well as being almost completely destroyed by the Red Army in April 1945, and it is believed the Amber Room could have been damaged as a result.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, various reports of people owning pieces of the Amber Room came to light - while many witnesses claim to have seen the entire room loaded on to the German passenger ship Wilhelm Gustloff in January 1945. Despite this, two British investigative journalists determined in 2004 that the Amber Room was likely destroyed during the bombing raids on Königsberg Castle - although this has not been proven. Interestingly, however, the Soviet government commissioned a replica of the Amber Room to be built in 1979 at Tsarskoye Selo. Taking 24 years to complete, it is now available to be viewed - while a miniature Amber Room also exists in Kleinmachnow near Berlin.