ANTWERP —  Several Torah scrolls have been stolen from Antwerp’s main synagogue, in what may be the largest such theft ever reported in Belgium.

Congregation members arrived for morning services on Saturday to find that between four and six Torah scrolls had been taken from the synagogue on Oostenstraat overnight Friday – including one that is more than 200 years old and was hidden by a Jewish woman held in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

Community leaders suspect that whoever stole the Torah scrolls had inside information as to how to reach the Ark through a hallway door into the sanctuary.

Pinchas Kornfeld, head of the city’s Jewish community, told Ynet that “the last people to leave the synagogue closed the seminary, and the first ones to arrive in the morning noticed that the Holy Ark had been broken into.”

According to the Belgian Jewish newspaper, Joods Aktueel, police have investigated the scene and are seeking possible images captured on video surveillance cameras in the area.

Experts have suggested that the thieves are more likely to demand a ransom for the Torah scrolls than to try to sell them. Buyers always want to know the origin of a scroll, and these Torah scrolls are easily identifiable, Joods Aktueel reported.

During World War II, 10 Torah scrolls and hundreds of prayer books were thrown out of the synagogue onto the street and burned.