With Just A Metal Detector and A Map Scribbled By His Father, This Man Uncovered A Long-lost Family Treasure Hidden For Decades

In 2019, Jan Glazewski, a retired professor from South Africa, stood in a Ukrainian forest, clutching a map his father had drawn in 1989. That map, created decades after the family fled Poland during the Soviet invasion, led him to uncover a long-forgotten treasure buried during World War II. What he found were precious family heirlooms.

In 1939, as the Soviet Red Army closed in on their estate near Lviv, the Glazewskis fled, burying valuable silver and hunting guns before they left. The buried treasure would remain hidden for decades, with its exact location known only to Gustaw, who had drawn the map from memory.

A Family on the Run

As reported in a press release published by the University of Cape Town, the Glazewski family’s flight began on September 17, 1939, as the Nazis attacked from the West and the Soviet forces advanced from the East. As the family gathered for lunch at their estate, the world around them was changing rapidly.

With the border just a few kilometers away and both military forces closing in, Gustaw and his brothers made the difficult decision to flee toward Romania. Before leaving, they buried the family silver and hunting guns in a forest near their manor, hoping that they could return someday.

Their father chose to remain behind in Soviet-controlled Lviv, eventually spending his final years in a basement, separated from his family. His sons, meanwhile, escaped to different parts of the world, and the buried treasure remained untouched for years.

A Final Map to the Past

Jan grew up in South Africa, where his father told him stories about their escape from Poland. However, the exact location of the treasure remained a mystery. According to Jan, he often asked his father to document the treasure’s location, and in 1989, when Gustaw was older, he finally sat down and created a map from memory.

“My father was getting old, and I kept asking. He drew everything from memory, half a century after he left,” he said.

Using an old typewriter, he carefully detailed the area where the treasure was buried, noting that “where the forest begins, you must dig for our silver,” as quoted by Futura Sciences. Despite the passage of time and the fading memories, he kept the map close, knowing that one day, it could lead him back to the past.

A Treasure Finally Found

In 2019, after retiring, Jan finally had the time to follow his father’s instructions. Armed with a metal detector and the help of local Ukrainians, he returned to the forest in search of the buried treasure. It took time, but in the end, his persistence paid off. After years of uncertainty, Jan Glazewski unearthed a jewelry box, a baptism spoon, and sets of family 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,” recalled the retired professor of environmental law at the University of Cape Town.

According to Jan, holding the objects his mother had packed eighty years ago filled him with a sense of closure and connection to a past that had been lost when he was just seven years old.

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