In 1944, the Nazis deported 18,000 or so Jews from the city of Cluj-Napoca in what is now Romania to the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nearly all perished, books and records disappeared, and scant trace of a once-vibrant community remained.

But in February, a rare relic of Cluj’s Jewish past surfaced. Kestenbaum & Company, a Brooklyn auction house that specializes in Judaica offered for sale a bound memorial register of Jewish burials in the city between 1836 and 1899.

At the request of the Jewish Community in Cluj and the World Jewish Restitution Organization, the auction house withdrew the register. The register is handwritten in Hebrew and Yiddish. It was spotted online by a genealogy researcher who alerted Robert Schwartz, president of the Jewish Community of Cluj. “Very little belonging to the community survived WWII,” Schwartz told The New York Times. “It’s surprising that the book surfaced at auction, because no one knew anything about its existence.”

The community is attempting to rebuild. The Neolog Synagogue, the only one of the three synagogues there that is still used as a Jewish place of worship, is undergoing renovation and will house a small museum, Schwartz said. “This document could be valuable as a key exhibit,” he said, noting its importance for the history of the community. 

Daniel Kestenbaum, founding chairman of the auction house, said that the consignor is “a scholarly businessman,” who has agreed to discuss the matter with the restitution organization.