A Nazi soldier stole a watch in 1942. It turned up 80 years later.

After nearly 80 years, a watch that was taken a Nazi soldier during World War II, lost in a cornfield and later hidden in a clock on a farm in Belgium has been returned to the grandchildren of its maker.
And it still works.
🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️
The pocket watch was crafted in 1910 Alfred Overstrijd, a Jewish man from the Dutch city of Rotterdam. He made it as a gift for his brother, Louis. An inscription on the back of the watch includes Overstrijd’s name and the place and time it was made as well as the fact that it was intended for his brother.
In 1942, Louis Overstrijd was arrested the Nazis, at which point it’s likely that a soldier took the watch, according to Rob Snijders, a Dutch horian who specializes in Jewish hory.
For Richard van Ameijden, the grandson of the watchmaker, the reunion with his grandfather’s watch was uplifting, but it was also a rude awakening to continuing atrocities.
“When I look at the watch, it touches me partly because there’s a war now as well,” van Ameijden said, referring to Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
An undated photo provided Pieter Janssens shows a watch that was taken a Nazi soldier during World War II. The watch, which was lost in a cornfield and later hidden in a clock on a farm in Belgium, has been returned to the grandchildren of its maker. (Pieter Janssens via The New York Times)
How the watch traveled from Rotterdam to Belgium is not entirely known, but Snijders has reconstructed the journey.
During the war, people across Belgium and the Netherlands were forced to accommodate Nazi soldiers. A Belgian farmer named Gustave Janssens housed three soldiers and made them use a cornfield next door as a bathroom. It’s likely that the watch fell from the pocket of one of the soldiers in the field, Snijders said.
When Janssens found the watch, he must have figured that the soldier had stolen it, Snijders explained. Instead of giving it back, the farmer hid it .
Recently, the farm in Belgium was sold and members of Janssens’ family went through the belongings, Pieter Janssens, the farmer’s grandson, said. chance, he said, the family came upon the watch.
He emailed Snijders in an effort to find its original owner.

Snijders posted details on social media.
Within 24 hours, Snijders received information that the watchmaker had a daughter who had survived the war and had three children.
Snijders later found van Ameijden on LinkedIn. He arranged a meeting between the descendants, during which the watch was officially handed back. “There were tears, I saw them,” said Snijders.