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

When Mr. Janssens discovered the watch, he should 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.

Not too long ago, the farm in Belgium was offered and members of Mr. Janssens’s household went by way of 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 could be troublesome, Mr. Snijders stated. “It’s very complicated, more often than not it doesn’t work,” he stated. “It could possibly take years.”

Discovering remnants of Jewish historical past in Rotterdam is troublesome. In Could 1940, Germany bombed the town, wiping out its heart, killing 1,150 folks and destroying 24,000 houses. Within the Netherlands as a complete, about 75 p.c 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 very best.

Inside 24 hours, Mr. Snijders acquired the data that the watchmaker, Alfred Overstrijd, had a daughter who had survived the battle and had three youngsters residing 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.