Stalin, Hitler and ... Tobit?

APOCRYPHA WATCH: Stalin, Hitler and ... Tobit? Yep.

The renowned German historian Werner Maser says that the luggage included one historically significant object: a personal gift from Stalin to Hitler.
It was a painting by an unknown Russian artist taken from the collections of the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad.
The subject of the painting was linked with the legend of the Book of Tobit from the Apocrypha.
As the legend was known both in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, Stalin, a former student at an Orthodox seminary, imagined that it might have been familiar to Hitler, who once was a choirboy and who was interested in art. After all, the subject matter had been a source of inspiration for certain well-known artists in previous centuries.

The painting depicted a devout Jewish family that had previously lived in exile in Assyria.
Tobit, the father of the family, had gone blind in exile and lost part of the use of his hands.
Coming to his aid was the family’s son Tobiah, who had been told by the angel Raphael to use the gall of a fish on the eyes, which would restore his father’s sight and the full use of his hands.

Stalin’s cryptic message was that the victories achieved by Germany in the previous months, especially in the west, were based not only on Hitler’s political skills, but also on the support provided by the non-aggression pact.
The idea was that thanks to the pact, Hitler had regained his sight and Germany had re-established the mobility that it had lost.
For that reason, Hitler, like Tobit the father, would do well to rely on the help of the son Tobiah, or Stalin.

The reason for Stalin’s extraordinary idea for a gift was, in the final sense, that Hitler had drawn attention in early 1940 to aspects of the Soviet military conquests.
He passed on his statements through his Ambassador in Moscow, Friedrich-Werner von der Schulenburg, drawing attention to the conquests which had been implemented under the terms of the German-Soviet pact, but which Hitler felt did not quite correspond to the spirit of the agreement.
It is not known what Hitler felt about the highly symbolic gift that he got from Stalin.
Inspired by his conquests of the previous summer, and especially by his victory in France, one might imagine that Hitler might have found it difficult to identify with Tobit in his state of blind helplessness.