(Jewish Group) Menachem Kaiser thought he knew his family's Holocaust history.

[Behind the Aegis]

Menachem Kaiser thought he knew his family’s Holocaust history. Then he met Nazi treasure hunters.

hen Menachem Kaiser set out to reclaim a building his grandfather’s family owned before the Holocaust in Sosnowiec, Poland, he thought it would take him 18 months at most. His grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, had already meticulously gathered paperwork and the documentation necessary.

Instead it’s been over six years since Kaiser began the journey — and he’s no closer to an ending.

Kaiser documents his journey in “Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure,” out March 16, where his quest to reclaim his family’s building leads him to discover his grandfather’s first cousin, Abraham Kajzer, the closest relative to survive the Holocaust. Abraham, Kaiser learns, actually wrote a Holocaust memoir, “Za Drutami Śmierci,” that in part details his time spent in Riese, vast underground tunnels constructed by the Nazis where many suspect treasure looted during the Holocaust was hidden.

Abraham’s words, in modern-day Poland, have become a key text for the treasure-hunting community. They also became a central part of the story Kaiser ended up telling.

“Our stories are even richer and more complicated than we sometimes realize, especially stories that are the most familiar to us, the stories that have been passed down.” Kaiser explained in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I was really lucky to have the opportunity to push and probe, but I think a lot of people have these remarkable stories in their family. The sneakiest ones are the ones we think we know. They will just always have a trapdoor. That’s the takeaway: The journey inward into what you think is familiar territory turns out to be radically not.”

more...