A Nazi Soldier Stole a Watch in 1942. It turned Up 80 Years Later.

When Mr. Janssens discovered the watch, he will need to have seen the Dutch title on the again and figured that the soldier had stolen it, Mr. Snijders defined. As a substitute of giving it again, the farmer hid it inside a clock in his home.

Which is the place it stayed for the following 80 years.

Lately, the farm in Belgium was bought and members of Mr. Janssens’s household went via the belongings, Pieter Janssens, the farmer’s grandson, stated. By likelihood, he stated, the household stumbled on the pristine pocket watch made in 1910, with the inscription on the again.

He then emailed Mr. Snijders, in an effort to hint the watch to its unique proprietor.

Such requests will be tough, Mr. Snijders stated. “It’s very advanced, more often than not it doesn’t work,” he stated. “It could possibly take years.”

Discovering remnants of Jewish historical past in Rotterdam is tough. In Might 1940, Germany bombed town, wiping out its heart, killing 1,150 individuals and destroying 24,000 properties. Within the Netherlands as a complete, about 75 % of the Jewish inhabitants was killed within the Holocaust.

Nonetheless, Mr. Snijders posted particulars of the watch’s historical past on social media and hoped for the perfect.

Inside 24 hours, Mr. Snijders obtained the data that the watchmaker, Alfred Overstrijd, had a daughter who had survived the warfare and had three youngsters dwelling within the Netherlands. (Louis Overstrijd, the proprietor of the watch, didn’t have youngsters.)

Mr. Snijders later discovered Mr. van Ameijden, one of many watchmaker’s three grandchildren, on LinkedIn. He organized a gathering between the descendants of the farmer and the watchmaker, throughout which the watch was formally handed again. “There have been tears, I noticed them,” stated Mr. Snijders, who attended the two-hour gathering this month in Rotterdam, which was earlier reported by Radio Rijnmond, a Dutch radio station.