Just hearing the term “Holocaust” could send shivers down one’s spine.

It was one of the darkest moments of our history. Adolf Hitler, the cruel Nazi leader, persecuted millions of Jews and many others. There was, in fact, no beautiful memory from this history. Every history book only talked about sadness, terror, and death.

Surprisingly, after almost 80 years after the Holocaust, a German Jewish family received a beautiful heirloom from their ancestor – a Bible that was found hidden inside a wall in the attic.

The Bible that was found was called the Leiter Bible because it belonged to Eduard and Ernestine Leiter. It was first discovered in 1990 in the attic, well-hidden inside a double wall of the couple’s old home in Oberdorf, Bopfingen, Germany.

The family who bought the Leiter house decided to keep the Bible. It was with them for almost three decades before deciding to sell it to Gerhard Roese, an art historian, in 2017. It was sold for around $75.

Roese immediately knew that the Bible was important.

The Bible weighed more than 22 pounds and was really big compared to our regular Bible. The Leiter Bible was 3 inches thick and almost 30 inches long. Roese first noticed the words embossed on the side and in the front of the Bible that said: “Die Heilige Schrift der Israeliten.”

It also contained many illustrations from Gustave Doré.

Gustave Doré was a French artist, illustrator, printmaker, caricaturist, and sculptor in the late 19th century.

Eventually, the art historian decided it was best to donate the Leiter Bible to a local synagogue near the old Leiter home. Then, he began to search for the Leiter Bible’s rightful heirs. The search wasn’t easy. After the Holocaust, the few survivors left and even changed their names for protection.

After almost four long years, Jo-Ellyn Decker, a librarian in the research and reference of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum heard of the Leiter Bible.

Upon checking, they found a small postcard inside the Leiter Bible.

It provided vital clues about Eduard Leiter. There, they had found out that Eduard and Ernestine Leiter were a Jewish couple from Stuttgart. They, along with other Jews, were forced by the Nazis to move to Oberdorf, Bopfingen.

The Leiters were forced to live with seven other Jewish families but not long after that, they were sent to Theresienstadt in August 1942. It was a ghetto and concentration camp located outside Prague.

This is where their story unfolded. Before they were forced to leave Oberdorf, the Leiters decided to hide all their belongings, including their beloved 1874 Bible.

They wanted to save their valuables so they can get them when they return.

Unfortunately, Eduard and Ernestine Leiter never came back.

The couple was included in one of the Nazi’s extermination camps along with an estimated 925,000 Jews. However, in the Leiter family, there was one survivor, their son, Sali.

After more months of searching, they were able to find a man named Charles, who turned out to be Sali.

Sali, being a survivor of the horrific Holocaust, decided to change his name to Charles. He started building his life again and decided to move to the U.S. In no time, the team traced his great-grandson on LinkedIn.

His name is Jacob Leiter.

“At first, I was kind of shocked,” said Jacob, 27, about the Leiter Bible.

It was a shock to know that after almost 8 decades, a Bible from his great-great-grandparents was able to survive.

“We really didn’t speak too much about my great-great-grandparents,” recalled Susi Kasper Leiter, Jacob’s grandmother, and a child Holocaust survivor.

Jacob had told her about the prized heirloom and in about four months, they both communicated with Jo-Ellyn Decker. Their family’s stories and history were like a missing puzzle for them.

Just three months ago, last June 2021, a US Holocaust Memorial Museum representative decided to finally meet Jacob and Susi to deliver the Leiter Bible to them.

After almost 8 decades, the Leiter Bible is finally home.

“I kept saying throughout the whole process how lucky I am that I have my grandmother to experience this with,” Jacob said. “Just doing this in its entirety with her is something I’ll remember forever.”

The Leiter Bible had been through so much, but like Sali and Susi, the Bible survived the Holocaust and found its way to Jacob.

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Source: Heilige Schrift de Israeliten, Wikipedia, Times of Israel