From Hitler's Darkness to the Sunlight on Mount Carmel
The remarkable and deeply moving story of a German-Jewish doctor who survived WWII in the Netherlands.
When Yakov Adler fled his hometown of Nuremberg in 1933, he left behind a Germany that was rapidly closing its doors to Jews. In Amsterdam he found safety, a new purpose, and eventually love. After completing his medical studies at the University of Amsterdam, he became a physician at the Jewish Hospital on the Nieuwe Keizersgracht, where he met the head nurse, Beckel de Leeuw, who would become his wife.
The quiet romance of prewar Amsterdam ended abruptly in May 1940, when the first war casualties arrived at the hospital. What followed was a journey marked by danger, resilience, and devotion, including the extraordinary birth of their first child while in hiding.
Adler, a keen observer, wove world events into his personal story with striking clarity. His memoir conveys the emotional rhythm of the time. Hope rose with every piece of good news from the front, only to collapse again when German advances threatened Europe’s future. Through it all, the Adler family’s story keeps the reader in its grip.
Dr. Yakov Adler wrote these memoirs in modern Hebrew. The title comes from the Book of Esther, which he and his wife read together on one of their first nights in hiding, as Purim began. The story resonated powerfully with them in 1943. Hitler’s plans were no different from Haman’s, and they wondered whether deliverance might come once again.
From Sorrow to Joy is both an intimate family chronicle and a vivid historical account. It offers a physician’s clear eye, a survivor’s voice, and a timeless reminder of courage in the face of persecution.
RELEASED: 16 February 2026
Yakov (Ya’akov in Hebrew), also known under the nickname Jacques he used in the resistance, was born on 30 December 1911 in Nuremberg, Germany, to a religious Jewish family. He was the only surviving child of his parents, David and Bertha Adler. His father was drafted into the army in 1914, during World War I, leaving his mother to care for Yakov alone for four years. After the war, the Adler family opened a tailor shop in Nuremberg.
Yakov began studying medicine at the University of Erlangen in 1930. When conditions became increasingly difficult for Jews in Germany, Yakov left for Zurich to continue his medical studies, later moving to Strasbourg and eventually Paris. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Yakov’s parents moved to Holland, where he later joined them.
He completed his medical studies, and in 1937 Yakov earned his PhD. In 1939 he received his Dutch medical certificate. He interned at the Dutch Israelite Hospital (DIH) and later in Arnhem, where he specialized in Pediatrics. During his time at the hospital, Yakov met Betsy “Beckel” de Leeuw, a nurse. They fell in love and married in August 1942.
Between 1942 and 1943, Jewish physicians were required to register as Jews, wearing the yellow badge became mandatory, and the Germans intensified their raids.
One of these raids occurred on the very day of Batya and Yakov’s wedding. They were forced to flee Amsterdam and find hiding places. With help from the Dutch underground, they moved from place to place, hiding in cupboards, and in small villages. During this period, their first daughter, Jacqueline (Yael), was born. After the war ended in 1945, the family was reunited and settled in Steenwijk. Yakov worked at the regional hospital in Meppel. In 1946 their second daughter, Yemima, was born.
During the years of Nazism and the war, Yakov’s Zionist awareness deepened, and he began planning the family’s immigration to the Land of Israel. Knowing that many immigrants who survived the concentration camps suffered from tuberculosis, he decided to specialize in that field. In early 1947 he began working at the tuberculosis hospital “Zonnegloren” in Soest. At the end of 1947 their third daughter, Yocheved, was born.
When the State of Israel was established the family began their journey to Israel in 1949. Yakov began working at the tuberculosis hospital in Be’er Ya’akov. The family lived in several locations in the area and eventually settled in the staff housing near the hospital. Until his retirement, Yakov served as a department head and deputy director of the hospital.
In addition to being a physician and a loving family man, Yakov was sociable and warm hearted — a true people person. He was a member of Rotary, loved to travel, enjoyed classical music, and cultivated broad knowledge in many fields, including general and Jewish history, archaeology, art, and literature. He was an engaging conversationalist who could speak with anyone — and with every grandchild — about nearly any subject.
Yakov passed away in 2007 at the age of 95, surrounded by his loving family: his wife, his three daughters, three sons in law, nine grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. His wife Batya passed away in 2012 at the age of 99.
