Crossed out: Newly released treasure map ignites £15m Nazi treasure hunt | World War II

When the Nazis fled occupied Europe at the end of World War II, four German soldiers buried a pile of gold coins and jewels in the middle of nowhere in the Dutch countryside. Some 80 years later, hopes of finding the buried loot were heightened after the Dutch National Archives released a ton of documents and a map to the treasure where X marked its location.

The treasure – four ammunition cases laden with coins, watches, jewellery, diamonds and other gems – is believed to have been worth at least two or three million Dutch guilders in 1945, and in today’s money, about Equivalent to £15.85 million.

“There is a lot of interest and excitement among researchers, journalists and amateur archaeologists,” said Annette Walkens, an adviser to the National Archives, which released more than 1,300 historical documents last week. Whether an aspiring treasure hunter can find a case is another matter. Among the caches of World War II documents was a 7 cm thick file detailing the futile efforts of the Dutch government to find Nazi treasure looted after the war.

Researchers believe the treasure was buried in April 1945, when the Allies were attempting to liberate Arnhem in the eastern Netherlands. German soldiers were fleeing. “They decided to bury the treasure because they were afraid it would get a little too hot under their feet,” Walkens said. Observer.

The precious cargo was buried in the roots of poplar trees 70-80 cm deep just outside the village of Omeren, about 25 miles from Arnhem. Were it not for Helmut S., a chatty German soldier who attended the burial rather than one of the original looters, the wealth might have disappeared from the records of history forever.

The National Archives withholds his full name because Helmut S., born in 1925, may still be alive, but no one has been able to trace him. Two of them did not survive the war, and the other simply disappeared.

But Helmut S stayed on the radar. “He was a little loose-lipped back in Berlin,” said Waalkens, who quickly attracted the attention of Dutch authorities in the occupied German city. They are the Dutch Institute of Property and Property Management, responsible for managing the wealth of people missing in World War II, including deported Jews, Dutch spies, and German citizens who lived in the Netherlands. I passed the information on to his Beheersinstituut. .

According to Helmut S., the storage was discovered in August 1944 when the Arnhem branch of the Rotterdam Bank was blown up. His companions pocketed what they saw and later hid the loot in zinc ammo boxes.

In 1946-47 the Beheersinstitut conducted three searches. At first it failed because the ground was frozen. The second was done with the help of a primitive metal detector of the time, but nothing was detected. In a third attempt, they summoned Helmut S. from Germany for help, but despite his sightings and the map he provided, the excavation was fruitless.

It is unknown who made this map, but it is believed to have been made by one of the German soldiers. After Helmut S. handed over the map, it entered the files of his Beheersinstituut, but with the condition that it would not be made public for many years to protect the financial interests of the owner.

Dutch officials toyed with several theories. Perhaps the treasure was unearthed by locals who witnessed the burial or by a mysterious surviving German soldier. Others suspected the Americans. During the third excavation, Beheersinstituut staff found that he encountered two American officers and that the soil in the area had been disturbed. And they actually go to them and say: “Well, we don’t know what you’re doing, but watch out for your business. This is our problem.

Joost Rosendaal, assistant professor of history at Radboud University in Nijmegen, said: Observer That looting was common on both sides. In October 1944 at least five of his banks in Arnhem were looted by German soldiers. After liberation in April 1945, British uniformed troops plundered another of his groups, including one Dutchman attached to the South Wales Border Guard.

Historians believe that Helmut S got some facts wrong. Helmut’s version that his companions stumbled upon a street gem after a bank robbery in August 1944 was “untrue”, Rosendahl said, because Arnhem had not been bombed that month.

It was not until September that the Allies attempted to capture Arnhem in Operation Market Garden. This reckless gamble by Field Marshal Bernard his Montgomery cost many lives to break through to Germany and was later dramatized in his 1977 film A Bridge Too Far.

Rosendahl believes that other soldiers likely stole the jewels when the Germans set fire to the Rotterdam Bank in Arnhem in November 1944.

Historians doubt that the treasure will ever be found. The area around Omeren was heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force on the night of 24 April 1945. He suspects that the treasure may have been found by locals, Allied forces, or taken to another location by the Germans, as the stash was “destroyed by this shelling.”

The Dutch archive team is more hopeful now that the map is online and can be viewed directly in The Hague alongside other documents from the 142 km long collection. “I really hope it’s still there,” Walkens said. “If it’s unearthed, we may be able to track down some of the rightful owners.”