'Oh God of Israel, have mercy on your humiliated brothers': Desperate message left by Jews forced out of their Netherlands home during the Holocaust is discovered scrawled on back of bathroom door 73 years later by builder

  • Builder made the historic discovery at a home in Dutch village of Bilthoven
  • Hidden message, dated April 23, 1942, asks reader to 'find family of ours'
  • 'Give them my things and you will become something', sad message said
  • Jelle Kapitein is trying to find out the fate of the people behind the note 

By Elaine O'flynn For Mailonline

Published: 13:21 EST, 17 July 2015 | Updated: 16:21 EST, 17 July 2015

A builder in the Netherlands uncovered a desperate message left by a Jewish couple hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust, 73 years on.

Jelle Kapitein discovered the hidden note scrawled on the wall after he prised off the wooden panels on a bathroom door in his client's house in the village of Bilthoven.

He is now appealing for anybody who knows what happened to Levie Sajet and his wife Ester Zilberstein who signed the message dated April 23, 1942.

Secret: Builder Jelle Kaptein discovered the hidden note behind wooden panels of a bathroom door in the village of Bilhoven. He is now on the hunt to find out what happened to the Jewish couple behind the words

Secret: Builder Jelle Kaptein discovered the hidden note behind wooden panels of a bathroom door in the village of Bilhoven. He is now on the hunt to find out what happened to the Jewish couple behind the words

The message, written in Dutch, reads: 'Look on the roof and find my last personal things and try after the war to find family of ours

'Give them my things and you will become something

'Oh God of Israel, have mercy on your humiliated brothers

'Signed, Levie Sajet born at 1-8-1881 born in Nijmegen and his housewife Ester Zilberstein born at Stettin on the 28-7-1899.'

Kapitein of Urk, the Netherlands, told ABC News he was surprised to make the discovery as he carried out a routine job in the household.

'The tone of the text -- so sad, so hopeless. [It] made a great impression on us,' he added.

'It's sad that we found this story after 73 years... It's difficult to find the answer.'

Kapitein is now trying to find any relatives to the Dutch couple by contacting museums and archives in the hope they will have information about their fate.

A Holocaust history museum in the country, the Yad Vashem Museum, is also asking him to consider donating the door to its collection and so they can help authenticate it.

'Yad Vashem is currently researching its archives for more information regarding the couple who wrote their names and personal details on the door. However, we have yet to confirm their identity,' the museum said in a statement. 

Victim: Dutch Jewish girl Anne Frank wrote a diary while she and her family were in hiding from the Nazis

Victim: Dutch Jewish girl Anne Frank wrote a diary while she and her family were in hiding from the Nazis

Convicted: News of Kapitein's find comes the same week as 94-year-old Oskar Groening, the 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' was sentenced for four years for complicity in the murder of 300,000 people
Convicted: News of Kapitein's find comes the same week as 94-year-old Oskar Groening, the 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' was sentenced for four years for complicity in the murder of 300,000 people

Convicted: News of Kapitein's find comes the same week as 94-year-old Oskar Groening, the 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' was sentenced for four years for complicity in the murder of 300,000 people

'Yad Vashem would be pleased to receive the door if Mr. Kapitein wishes to donate it to our collection, as it bears witness to the fate of the Dutch Jews during the Holocaust.' 

The Nazis invaded and occupied the Netherlands in 1940, during World War Two.

The Jewish population were made second class citizens - firstly ordered to wear the Star of David badges, before in 1942 the Nazis began deporting Jews to concentration camps for hard labour and to be killed.

Many Jewish people went into hiding to avoid capture, including Anne Frank, who kept a diary while she hid in a secret room concealed by a staircase in an Amsterdam house.

The diary was discovered after the war, and after Anne died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. 

News of Kapitein's find comes in the same week as 94-year-old Oskar Groening, the 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz', was sentenced for four years for complicity in the murder of 300,000 people.

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