National Archives of the Netherlands Unveils Nazi Treasure Map of Stolen Jewels

He National Archive of the Netherlands released thousands of documents to the public today, including a map that appears to show where the Nazis buried millions of euros worth of jewellery, watches, gold and diamonds, stolen from a bank in the Dutch city of arnhem.

The document contains clues about the supposed location of the treasure four ammunition boxes filled with watches, jewelry, gold and precious stonesand indicates that the objects would be buried somewhere in the Dutch town of Ommerenin the center of the Netherlands, but these assets have not been located so far, after several attempts.

This valuable loot was stolen by German soldiers from a branch of the Robaver bank (1911-1947) in Arnhem in August 1944, after the building was hit by a direct hit: they first hid the valuables in their coats, and then they filled chests with those items before burying them, according to the documents.

Given the enormous value of the objects (several million euros, according to the archive), the Dutch state itself has tried several times to locate it and even counted for the investigation with the help of a Nazi officer from Germany, who made a sketch of where the treasure would be, and a metal detector was used, but without result.

A Dutch historian, Joost Rosendaalassured the regional channel Omroep Gelderland that the fact that there is a map “so specific is special, but there are still many things that are not clear and many questions remain.”

He also recalled that Ommeren “was an area where battles were still taking place at that time, so it is possible that the treasure was buried and then removed a couple of days later.”

The treasure map comes from the archives of the Netherlands Institute of Managementwhich was dedicated to the search for German assets on Dutch territory after the Second World War.

As of this Tuesday, the map can be consulted by the public at the National Archive of the Netherlands, institution located in the city of The Hague, which has the equivalent of 137 kilometers of documents, 15 million images, nearly 300,000 maps and historical drawings, and 800 terabytes of digital files.

In all, thousands of documents are released today as part of the annual Open Access Day, including minutes of the council of ministers, or a collection of documents on abuses in internment camps, where many Dutch Nazi supporters were imprisoned after the war.

EHR

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