The Nazi Bunker sitting under a Paris Train Station

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception 

Unknow to thousands of passengers who pass through the station daily, beneath their feet, between platforms 2 and 3, at the Gare de l’Est, lies an old concrete World War II bomb shelter. One of the busiest stations in the heart of Paris, the 19th century terminal is hiding a 120m² wartime bunker that was half-built by the French as an air raid shelter, taken over by the Germans during the four-year Nazi occupation, evidenced by inscriptions on the walls.

A French urban explorer and photographer known as Diane of Neverends.net gained permission to the underground bunker, ‘only seen by a few’ and privately owned by SNCF, the French national rail company.

The sign above on the wall in German, ‘Notausgang’, means “emergency exit”.

The old bunker is intact and well-maintained by the SNCF, although shared with the general public - the space can inhabit up to 70 people in an emergency and includes a machinery room, telephone control station, the old furniture and objects still remain, including a folding bed and oxygen cylinders in case of a gas attack.

In a dimly-lit office, wiring and fuse boxes decorate the walls, on the desks were old sheets with graphs of the rail network. “One can almost imagine that traffic control officers are going to burst into the office at any moment to ensure the trains are running properly,” says Diane on her French urban exploration website.

Diane found this pedal generator, used for providing electricity in case of a failure and it still works.

This secret time capsule under lock and key under the Gare de l’Est in the heart of Paris.

See more photographs on Diane’s urban exploration website Neverends.net and her latest discoveries on her Facebook page HERE.