TRUTH CAN BE STRANGER THAN fiction. Rarer, and therefore even stranger, is when truth is exactly as strange as fiction. Case in point: the fevered treasure hunt for World War II loot that engulfed the Dutch village of Ommeren in January 2023. It felt like something scripted specifically for the Indiana Jones universe.
Local mayor begged them to stop
As it does every year, the Dutch National Archives started the New Year with a “Revelation Day”—disclosing documents that had hitherto been unavailable to the public, typically after a standard 75-year confidentiality term.
Among the thousands of documents released was an actual, hand-drawn treasure map for valuables hidden by German soldiers at the end of World War II. And the spot where the loot was buried was marked by an actual X. Just like in the movies.
The result was equally cinematic: Hundreds of detectorists and other fortune seekers descended on the treasure’s presumed location, digging so many holes that the local mayor begged them to stop. A full year later—and as is the case with the best treasure stories—the loot has still not been found.
Hellbound and Down 