A map in the national archive, which became available last week, prompted treasure hunters to hunt for long-sought Nazi treasure.
A map, which is among the national archive documents opened in the Netherlands last week, brought the lost Nazi treasure, which treasure hunters had been after for a long time, to the agenda again.
Every year, large numbers of treasure hunters flocked to the town of Ommen in the southeast of the Netherlands to find a treasure chest believed to have been hidden by Nazi soldiers during World War II.
The Dutch National Archives made a series of expired documents available to the public on January 3. The most interesting among these documents was an 80-year-old treasure map.
This map, belonging to the archives of the Dutch Institute of Management, which investigated German assets in the country after the Second World War, contains information about a treasure chest that was stated to be hidden by the Nazis.
According to Annet Waalkens of the National Archives; a treasure trove of several million euros, consisting of four ammo boxes filled with watches, diamonds and jewels.
Former Nazi soldier German Helmut Sonder, who was in Arnhem at the time, told that these valuables were stolen with his friends from the Rotterdamsche Bank branch in Arnhem in August 1944.
Sonder said that they put these looted valuables in ammo chests and buried them in Sommeren. The map of the area where the treasure was buried was handed over to the Dutch authorities by Helmut Sonder at that time.
The arrival of the map
In order to protect the financial interests of the owners of valuables, the map in question was transferred to the state archive, provided that it was not published for many years.
The treasure, which is stated to be buried under an aspen tree in the village of Betuwe in Ommeren, near Arnhem, has long been in the interest of both the state and treasure hunters.
The Dutch state searched several times in the past to find the treasure, which has both material and spiritual value.
In fact, Sonder, a German Nazi officer, was brought to Ommeren in 1947 because he had information on where the treasure would be. Searches with metal detectors yielded no results.
Sonder suspected that his former sergeant had secretly returned to dig up the treasure from the burial place. However, the treasure is thought to be still buried in Ommeren, as no one has reported a loss of jewelry for 80 years.
Regional broadcaster Omroep Gelderland sought the opinion of historians and war experts on the Nazi treasure.
“While it sparks the imagination, there are still many question marks. But it’s nice to have such a special map. I wouldn’t be surprised if the treasure disappeared,” says historian Joost Rosendaal.
According to Rosendaal, it is also possible that the treasure was buried in the area where the war was going on at that time and then re-extracted 2 days later.
Treasure hunters are in the field with detectors
There are no more poplar trees in the area where the treasure is buried. However, many treasure hunters have been searching for days in Betuwe.
According to a city spokesperson, treasure hunters are digging on private property. The police did not give any punishment to these people. He just warned the treasure hunters to leave the area.
A village resident told local media that his land had been dug up by treasure hunters.
In the archives opened to the public in the Netherlands, there are 1,287 pages of records, including a map of the Nazi treasury in the village of Betuwe, the minutes of the cabinet, documents about the abuses in the concentration camps where “collaborator Dutch” were imprisoned after the war.