Grab Your Shovels: Map Pointing Towards Nazi Treasure in the Netherlands Has Been Revealed

The Dutch city of Arnhem was bombed by allied forces in the lead up to Operation Market Garden, which was intended to secure bridges that cross the Rhine and would have allowed an infantry invasion of northern Germany.

The National Archives of the Netherlands declassified a World War II-era file that contained a hand-drawn Nazi treasure map earlier this month, causing groups of amateur treasure hunters to descend on a small Dutch town in search of the long-lost valuables.

The map includes a cliche red X marking the spot where the treasure was supposedly buried. Officials declassified the findings after it had been in storage for more than 75 years, the maximum amount of time something can remain classified under Dutch law.

The archive believes the treasure came from an August 1944 allied bombing, which damaged the then-Rotterdamsche Bank in Arnhem, which is about 25 miles away from Ommeren where the cache is supposedly buried.

The contents from the bank’s safes spilled out into the street during the bombing and German soldiers were said to have filled their pockets with watches, jewelry, and precious stones.

According to the declassified documents, the treasure was then stored in ammunition boxes and hidden on a train. It was then buried somewhere in Ommeren in the weeks before allied forces liberated the area.

The documents state German soldiers Sergeant Major Kastel, Sergeant Bräuer, and Private Biebert were seen with the haul. Another German soldier identified as “Helmut” said he kept watch as the other three buried the treasure.

After the war, Dutch authorities followed rumors of the treasure and after being convinced it may exist, got into contact with Helmut, who had possession of the map. Two of the three other soldiers died in the war and officials were unable to locate the remaining soldier.

Armed with the map and with Helmut’s assistance, authorities searched the area multiple times but never found the alleged treasure.

At the time, authorities came up with three possibilities for what happened to the treasure: Helmut made the whole thing up for some reason, a Dutch farmer in the area discovered the stash and dug it up, or someone from the Dutch institute investigated the rumors and “took advantage of their position” and dug it up before an official search began.

The institute says it is not sure whether the treasure exists but says they looked into it and found the story to be reliable.

However, Historian Joost Rosendaal from Radboud University told El País that while he thinks the story is worth investigating, he had doubts about the sequence of events. He notes that while there were bombardments in the area at the time, there are no records of banks in Arnhem being hit, adding that the bombing and looting of banks in the area were well-documented. He also states that the Witzig battalion the soldiers belonged to were fighting on the eastern front of Latvia and Lithuania at the time.

“They only arrived in the Dutch region we are talking about in February 1945,” Rosendaal said.

Despite the story’s inconsistencies and the previous searches that have come up empty, a yellowed map with a big red X indicating where treasure could be found has proven too tempting for treasure hunters to ignore.

“Like a lot of people, the news about the treasure made me go look for myself. The chance of the treasure still being here after 70 years is very small I think, but I want to give it a try,” 57-year-old Jan Henzen told Reuters while he searched for the Nazi treasure.