Heirloom Bible back from the war after 72 years
NEW Zealander Jill Porter spent more than a decade looking for the family of a South African World War 2 veteran. Her mission was to return his Bible, found by her late father, who had fought in the Western Desert of Egypt and Libya more than 70 years ago.
Porter, a former nurse, found the Afrikaans Bible among family possessions around 2004.
She was intrigued by an inscription on the inside cover that read: “To Dear Norman, from Mom. Maak tog gebruik van jou Bybel Normie en help die ander jong manne ook reg ( Do use your Bible and set the other young men right too).”
Porter felt the Bible should be returned to his family, but all she had to work with was a Durban street address written below the note. In her quest to track down Norman Muller’s family, she found that the Devonshire Avenue property mentioned in the Bible no longer existed.
In 2006, during a working trip to South Africa, Porter resumed her search for Muller’s family in Durban, but again without luck.
It would take her another eight years to track down Muller’s oldest living relative, a niece, Maxie Nel, who lives in Pretoria.
“I was in Pretoria at the time [2006]. I was much closer to the family of Norman than I knew.”
About a year ago, her efforts paid off when she took her search to the internet and created a Facebook page titled “Return Afrikaans Bible found in Western Desert WW2”.
Last weekend, Porter had her first conversation with the 87year-old Nel, a retired bank teller, on Skype.
Speaking from Auckland, New Zealand, Porter said she could not have rested until the Bible was returned.
Her father, Andy Porter, found the Bible in the desert and sent it home in 1942.
Porter said she tried to piece together information about Muller and roped in a war historian to help.
“With the information that the war historian found, we believe the Bible was found between December 1940 and January 1941,” she said.
“Norman was missing in action in December 1940 and confirmed captured in January 1941.”
Porter said she was able to confirm that Muller served in the Transvaal Signal Corps as a signals sergeant and was captured and held in Italy until after the war.
He lived in Durban and married, but had no children.
Said Nel: “All these memories came rushing back. I cried not because of sadness, but because of nostalgia.
“He was a very smart man. He was very good with numbers. I’m not sure what exactly he did, but I think he became an accountant.”
She said her uncle “was a friendly person with a beautiful voice. He was a jolly boy.” Muller died of cancer in 1978. A family friend who is visiting New Zealand has agreed to bring the Bible back home later this month.