This tiny Bible measures 3.5” x 5” and is 1” thick. The Leander van Ess Catholic version of the Bible contained only the Christian Greek Scriptures and the Psalms.
Hidden by her mother in a sewing box with a false bottom, it traveled with 12-year old Simone Arnold when she was ordered to report to Wessenberg Reformatory for Girls in Germany in 1943.
In her memoir Facing the Lion: Memoirs of a Young Girl in Nazi Europe, Simone relates:
” Cleaning day after day under Fräulein Messinger’s bed, I got an idea: I would hide my little Bible in the springs. At first I hesitated out of fear. It meant I had to empty my sewing box totally in order to take the Bible out . . .My little book ended up in the springs in the middle of Fräulein Messinger’s bed . . . Regular Bible reading eased my inner feelings. I regained confidence in my hopes for the future. Far away I was creating, building, planning in a peaceful paradise world…”
