A man has unearthed the priceless treasure buried by his family during the Second World War. The news about the stunning discovery 80 years later has been published on the website of University of Cape Town. It gives the details about how the Glazewski family buried its silver and fled their estate in eastern Poland in September 1939 ahead of the advancing Soviet army. The four sons of the family settled in different corners of the world, but never forgot the treasures that they had left behind.
Before their rushed departure, the four brothers buried the family silver in a knee-deep hole on the property. Their father Adam remained in Poland and lived for 20 years but they were never able to see him again, according to the university website.
Jan Glazewski, Adam's grandson, finally discovered the treasure using a map drawn by his father, Gustaw. He got the hand-drawn map in 1989 after many requests along with some instructions.
Armed with the map, Jan Glazewski began his quest to find the family silver. But his hopes were dented when he visited the old family home and discovered that the cellar was all that remained.
"It (finding the silver) was really a needle in a haystack kind of situation," Mr Glazewski said at the university lecture.
He returned to the property in 2019, but faced another problem - the area was overgrown with bushes and the cellar was no longer as visible as it had been before, making finding the treasure a near impossible task.
But a determined Mr Glazewski refused to give up and asked for some help from locals. A 92-year-old school principal also pitched in and after three days of search, they were able to find the cellar, the adjoining yard's wall and the buried silver.
"My father didn't give me an indication about what was buried. My big regret was that I didn't ask him more. I just imagined that it would be the same family silver we've got on the mantlepiece. But what I found, firstly, the volume was huge, and secondly, it went back generations. I was happy to find just a teaspoon, but I found a lot more than that," said the retired professor of environmental law at the University of Cape Town.
Mr Glazewski found silver candlesticks, candelabras, milk jugs, trinkets, coins and medallions, a gold cross embedded with amethysts, goblets, and a few hunting guns.
