In the spring of 1945, a couple of weeks before the liberation of the Netherlands from its Nazi occupiers, five German soldiers buried four ammunition boxes filled with gold, jewels and watches in a woodsy part of a sleepy Dutch village.
Nazi soldiers had snatched the valuables, which could be worth millions, off the street after they were blown out of a bank vault during an explosion in the city of Arnhem in the late summer of 1944, documents show.
What the men who buried the loot probably did not know was that one of their fellow soldiers, a man named Helmut Sonder, was lying in the bushes with a war injury, observing the scene and committing it to memory. Afterward, Mr. Sonder drew a meticulous map that showed exactly where (by three poplar trees) and how deep (about 1.7 to 2.3 feet) the treasure had been buried.
The map is above; the Dutch national archives released it to the public last month, as part of an annual release of previously classified material.
Of course not everyone in the tiny town of Ommeren is happy that outsiders have descended on them with metal detectors and shovels. That nobody has found it yet makes me wonder if the whole thing could be a hoax, or perhaps a misdirection on Sonder's part, because four ammunition boxes full of metal would set a metal detector screaming from five feet away. One possibility is that the spot has been built over or maybe there is a utility pole standing right next to it, something that would interfere with the signal.
More at the NY Times.
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