Polish man returns cigarette case that saved a Jewish prisoner from the Nazis

A silver cigarette case that was used as a bribe to secure the release of a Jewish man from the Lodz Ghetto prison was recently discovered in the home of a Polish man who said he found the artifact in Nazi-era rubble.

The Polish man turned over the artifact over to the Shem Olam Institute after keeping it in his home for over 10 years. Shem Olam, a Holocaust educational organization, said the cigarette case will be taken to Israel, where it will go on display.

The case was made by Jewish artist Chaim Klieger, who used it to bribe the warden of the Lodz Ghetto prison, Salomon Hercberg, to secure the release of one of his friends who was being held there.

The case is made out of silver and is etched with the word “Lodz” and a Magen David star on one side and Hercberg’s name on the other.

Chaim Klieger, a Jewish artisan who continued his work inside the Lodz Ghetto

According to Shem Olam, Klieger’s case would have carried an extremely high value in wartime Europe, when luxury items were scarce.

The institute said Kliger’s bribe saved his friend from almost-certain death at the hands of the Nazis, as prisoners were usually the first Jews to be shipped to labor or death camps.

“This is a very special item, something that wasn’t available at the time, certainly not during WWII,” Shem Olam Director Rabbi Avraham Krieger said in a statement.

“Klieger decided to use the item as a bribe even though he knew it was an extraordinary piece of art to save the life of his friend,” he said.

“The fact that this case has stayed in good condition for long speaks to the craftsmanship and artistry of the piece,” he said.

“Every time we find an item like this one it’s chilling.

Jewish inmates of the Lodz ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland at labor making baskets (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

“Since this is a piece by a Jewish artist whose works were mostly destroyed during the war, the discovery has great value in terms of Jewish heritage and memory,” Krieger said.

Klieger survived the Holocaust and moved to Brazil, where he died in 1956.