A family relic displaced by the Holocaust has found its way home after 80 long years. Found in a clock on a Belgian farm, the antique watch’s journey has been speculated on.
In 1910, Alfred Overstrijd crafted a beautiful watch for his brother Louis, inscribing it as such. “Neufchâteau 1910, made by A.A. Overstrijd, pour mon frère Louis,” reads the watch. It was reportedly an 18th birthday gift.
The piece was made in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, where Alfred was learning to be a watchmaker, as reported by DutchNews.
In 1942, Louis, a Jewish man, was arrested by Nazis. Eventually, both Alfred and Louis would be sent to Auschwitz, where neither would survive, according to the New York Times.
Eighty years later, Pieter Janssens and his family began sifting through his grandfather’s belongings following his death. That’s when they came upon the inscribed pocket watch.
Historian Rob Snijders believes the watch could have ended up at the farm due to Nazi soldiers being housed by civilians. Gustave Janssens reportedly housed three soldiers, and according to the New York Times, he made them relieve themselves in the cornfields because of his distaste for the situation.
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According to Snijders, the watch was likely stolen by the Nazis upon Louis’s arrest and then dropped in the cornfields as they relieved themselves. Upon finding the watch, he says that Mr. Janssens probably noted the inscription and deduced it had been stolen. Thus, he hid it in a clock in the house, where it stayed for 80 years.
After making the discovery, Pieter Janssens contacted Snijders to assist in finding the gift’s owner.
According to the New York Times, Mr. Snijders said tracing Jewish history like this is “very complex, most of the time it doesn’t work,” adding, “It can take years.”
Reportedly, this is because a May 1940 bombing left the city decimated, leaving 1,150 people dead and 24,000 homes destroyed. The report noted that roughly 75% of Jews in the area were wiped out by the Holocaust.
Social media were crucial in piecing together the mystery. After posting on social media, Snijders discovered a family link to the Overstrijd brothers. Alfred had a daughter who had three children of her own. The historian soon found Richard van Ameijden, a grandchild of Alfred, on LinkedIn, a popular networking platform.
The New York Times reported that they eventually held a two-hour meeting. “There were tears, I saw them,” Snijders said.
Van Ameijden reportedly said he and his siblings share custody of the beloved heirloom.
Happy to have found the owners, Janssens said, “It’s a story that must not be lost.”
Van Ameijden compared the “trauma” his ancestors experienced to that being incurred in Ukraine now. “When I look at the watch, it touches me partly because there’s a war now as well,” he said.
“I imagine that children and older people who are sleeping in subway stations in a bombed Mariupol are holding their belongings. I think of that when I see this watch.”
Hoe het horloge van opa Alfred na bijna 80 jaar weer terugkwam naar #Rotterdam; een verhaal dat begint met een wildpoepende Duitse soldaat in een Vlaams korenveld. luister ? hieronder of lees het verhaal van @CelinevdBurg_ https://t.co/DaVwmslhcD @RTV_Rijnmond @joodsamsterdam pic.twitter.com/MAALnNReIt
— Jacco van Giessen (@jaccovangiessen) April 10, 2022
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The meeting was reported on by a Dutch radio station earlier this month.
