Bible hidden from Nazis returned to Jewish family’s descendants 80 years later: Report

A Bible belonging to a Jewish family in Nazi Germany has finally made its way back to its descendants after decades of being passed from collector to collector. According to a report by The Washington Post, the Holy book belonged to Eduard and Ernestine Leiter, who had to leave their home due to the growing persecution in Nazi Germany. They died in a concentration camp in Poland but now, almost 80 years later, researchers and historians have traced the couple's lineage and returned the book to the family. 

As per the media outlet, the Bible was put up for sale on eBay in 2017. Back then, artist and historian Gerhard Roese noticed that the book contained illustrations from Gustave Dore, who was a famous artist of the late 19th century. Dore's illustrations implied that the Bible may have belonged to a family during the Holocaust.

Search for descendants

Roese then worked with researchers of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to find the ancestors of the original owners. During the investigation, Roese found that the couple has a son, Sali, who survived the concentration camp, changed his name to Charles and moved to America. Charles had a son named Max who died years ago but was featured in the New York Times in 2008.

After looking more into finding who it belonged to, Roese found that Max had three grandchildren, one of whom had a LinkedIn page and was then contacted by the researchers. After four years of investigation, the team was finally able to find the owner’s great-great-grandson living in New York City. Upon receiving the Bible, Jacob Leiter and his grandmother, who is a Holocaust survivor Susi Kasper Leiter, were overjoyed to have a piece of their family's history returned to them. 

According to the Post, the book allowed the family to learn more about its ancestors. Separately, the Holocaust Memorial Museum said that it is a miracle that the Bible still exists, as thousands of non-German books were burned by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. The museum added that other targeted books included books from Karl Marx and the novel All Quiet On The Western Front by Ernest Hemingway.

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