A hand-drawn map with a red letter X purportedly showing the location of a buried stash of precious jewelry looted by Nazis from a blown-up bank vault has sparked a modern-day treasure hunt in a tiny Dutch village more than three quarters of a century later.
Wielding metal detectors, shovels and copies of the map on cellphones, prospectors have descended on Ommeren -- population 715 -- about 80 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam to try to dig up a potential Second World War trove based on the drawing first published on Jan. 3.
It wasn't immediately clear if authorities could claim the loot if it was found, or if a prospector could keep it. "We're quite astonished about the story itself. But the attention it's getting is as well," National Archive researcher Annet Waalkens said as she carefully showed off the map. "Searching there is dangerous because of possible unexploded bombs, land mines and shells," the municipality said in a statement. "We advise against going to look for the Nazi treasure."The story starts, Waalkens said, in the summer of 1944 in the Nazi-occupied city of Arnhem -- made famous by the star-studded movie "A Bridge Too Far" -- when a bomb hit a bank, pierced its vault and scattered its contents -- including gold jewelry and cash -- across the street.
Dutch authorities using the map and the soldier's account went hunting for the loot in 1947. The first time, the ground was frozen solid and they made no headway. When they went back after the thaw, they found nothing, Waalkens said.
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