KZ. Mauthausen. Bild und Wort von S. Wiesenthal [Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Pictures and words by S. Wiesenthal] Linz-Vienna, 1946. Rare early testimony of the horrors of the Holocaust, written and illustrated by the “Nazi hunter” Simon Wiesenthal. First edition. Extremely rare.
114 pages, including [26] plates in two shades. 31 cm.
The first book of Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005), and one of the first testimonies published after the Holocaust.
Testimony in German of his experiences in the Mauthausen camp, and alongside it 25 illustrations and photomontages by the author, of the camp, the guards and the inmates.
Weisenthal was born in Galicia and studied architecture. After the Holocaust he became famous as the “Nazi hunter” as a result of his involvement in chasing and bringing to trial over 1,100 war criminals. In the Holocaust he was in various concentration camps. At the end of the war he took part in a death march and, despite gangrene in his leg, managed to survive and to arrive at the Mauthausen camp, where he was liberated by the Americans weighing less than 45 kilograms.
He utilized his talents for drawing and architecture, which even saved him in the camp, to publish this book a year after his liberation. In 1947 Weisenthal began to work for the American army collecting material in order to prosecute war criminals, and later in his life he worked privately in tracking down Nazis.
Soft illustrated cover. Excellent condition.
A rare album “Der Beilis Prozess.” Photographs and sketches of the participants in the Beilis trial. Lodz, 1913.
[12] pages. 12×17 cm. A historical album of the Beilis trial which was published soon after Beilis was acquitted in 1913. The album displays, through photographs and illustrations, with titles in Yiddish and Russian, the main participants of the trial: the prosecutors, the experts for the defense, Beilis and his family.
The Beilis trial was held as the result of a blood libel in the Ukraine which excited the whole world in the years 1911-1913. A Jew by the name of Menachem Mendel Beilis was accused, based on false testimony, with the murder of a young Ukranian boy, in order to use his blood in his Pesach matzot. Experts from the Zionist movement, as well as Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (the Rayatz) and Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson on behalf of the Admor the Rashab, were involved in his defense. In the end Beilis was acquitted, and after the revolution of 1917 it was discovered that all of the different levels of the ruling class – from the Czar, through the Minister of Justice to the prosecutor – were involved in the blood libel, and some of them were even sentenced to death.
Original scuffed cover with gold embossing. Fine to very fine condition.
L’extermination des Juifs – a preliminary report in French about the Theresienstadt camp, which was published immediately at the end of the war in Geneva, 1945. The book Zebra Konzentrationslage – one of the first testimony books, about the Flossenburg camp, Germany, 1947.
*[1] 7, 55, 26 pages.
Theresienstadt Posen et Environs: L’Extermination des Juifs Dans des Camps. French. A preliminary report, including first testimonies, regarding what took place in the Theresienstadt camp and the destruction of the Jews in the Posen region. One of the first publications published after the Holocaust. Printed by stencil.
Rare, very fine condition.
*[1] 191 pages, 21cm.
ZEBRA – Ein Tatsachenbericht aus dem Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg
by Hugo Walleitner. German. One of the first testimonial books published after the Holocaust, in which the author describes through words and drawings what he went through in the Flossenburg concentration camp in Germany.
Excellent condition.
“Burn it like all who were dear to me and my world were burned in the Auschwitz crematoria” (Yechiel De-Nur in a letter to the National Library).
The book of poetry of the author Yechiel De-Nur, the Auschwitz survivor known by his pen name Ka-Tsetnik, which the author tried to destroy in every possible way in order to leave no remnant of his character before the Holocaust. Apart from the copy before us there is only one other known complete copy in the world, apart from the copy which De-Nur destroyed in the National Library. Kultur-Lige Publications, Warsaw 1931.
62 pages, [1], 17×11.5 cm. An illustration on the last page by the artist Yitzchak Broyner.
Yechiel De-Nur (Feiner) (1909-2001) is known as one of the greatest authors who wrote about the Holocaust, and in its wake, chose the literary pen name Ka-Tsetnik, after the KZ – concentration camps. As he said:
“This is not a literary name. I do not see myself as an author who writes works of literature. This is a chronicle from the planet of Auschwitz… time there is not as it is here, on Earth.” Ka-Tsetnik became famous when he collapsed while giving testimony in the Eichmann Trial. He is one of the few who experienced Auschwitz and survived.
As part of his world view that the pre-Holocaust world is lost and has moved to another planet, De-Nur wanted to actively destroy all remnants of that world, including this book which he wrote before the Holocaust. In a letter to the director of the National Library (a copy of it is enclosed) De-Nur relates that when he was informed in 1953 that a copy of the poetry book
Tsveyuntsvantsik was found, he destroyed it, saying that it belongs to “the author who was destroyed in Auschwitz.” Later, when he found a copy displayed in a class exhibition case in the National Library, he found a way to destroy that as well. It is interesting that when an additional, third copy was found in the National Library, De-Nur did not destroy it but rather ripped it to shreds and returned the pieces to the library, writing:
“As a sign and witness I enclose here remnants from “the book.” Please burn them as all who were dear to me and my world were burned in the Auschwitz crematorium.”
Enclosed are the letter and additional material on De-Nur’s attempts to destroy the book. The catalog of the National Library, item 31V 5304, confirms the above details.
New cover. Stains and water damage, reinforced tears on the title page. Inscriptions in pen on page 10 and the adjacent pages. A corner is missing on the last page. Without the wrapper and the author’s picture. Fine condition.
Anti-Semitic plate, lithograph, handpainted soon after it was printed. Published by Epinal. The lithograph was manufactured by Oliver o Pinot.
The lithograph is accompanied with anti-Semitic, rhymed stanzas in French regarding the Wandering Jew. The illustration depicts a Jew with a long curly beard, long nose, and wandering stick. The people around him, as if the local children, are relatively clean and neat – and everybody looks at him with a critical look.
Similar lithographs were printed in 19th century France with the title “LA Juif Errant,” with the same poem, but with illustrations by Fracois Georgin.
Size: 40×30 cm.
Fine condition.
“This small but important book was distributed in Germany by the American War Information Unit at the end of World War II in order to convey to the civilian population the enormity of the crimes committed by the Nazis in the name of the German people. Thus this book, which is not much more than a pamphlet, may represent the single most significant use of photography as a witness in the medium’s history” (Parr, M. and Badger, G.,
The Photobook: A History , Vol. II, p.194).
[32] picture leaves, 26 cm.
The book includes 45 photos from Buchenwald, Belzen and others, taken at liberation in the spring of 1945. Includes the noted picture of Nobel Prize winner Eli Wiesel in Buchenwald taken by soldier Miller. The book ends with photos of General Eisenhower, testifying to the atrocities in the Ohrdruf camp. These photos were used as testimony in the Nuremberg Trials. Lack of organization prevented this work from reaching the civilian population, and only solitary copies remain today. The book’s good condition makes it especially rare. Not in the National Library.
Very fine condition.
La voix du peuple massacre [the sounds of the massacre of people] by Marcel Bidoux, published by Reveil des Jeunes, Paris 1945. French.
An early work which reveals the Nazi’s crimes in the Warsaw Ghetto with an in-detail historical description of the events inside the ghetto, based on testimonies passed from word of mouth, and written documents from various sources inside the ghetto during the war. Accompanied by pictures from the ghetto.
80 pages. 21 cm.
Tears on the spine. The cover title page is partially detached, brown and slightly brittle leaves.
Moderate-fine condition.
“I can not let those people die, people who came to me for help when death hovered above their heads. Let my punishment be whatever it will be; it is clear to me that I must act according to my conscience” (Sempo Sugihara).
A transit visa from Kovna to the island of Curacao via Japan, which was given to save the life of the Jew Yisrael Gorodecki from the village of Janow in Poland, signed by two consuls, Righteous Among the Nations, saviors of Jews, Sempo Sugihara and Jan Zwartendijk, and a discovery: a Greek diplomatic stamp unknown up until now. Kovno, Lithuania, and Riga, Latvia, July-November 1940. A unique historical item. Extremely rare.
4 pages, 29.5 cm. Polish Citizenship Certificate 4 pages long of the Jew Yisrael Gorodecki which was issued under the auspices of the British Consulate and the British Office for Polish Interests in Kovno, Lithuania. A photograph of Gorodecki with his signature and Polish and British stamps, personal details filled in by hand. On the second page is a visa to the Curacao Island no. 1407 from the date 22.07.40, signed by the Dutch Consul
Jan Zwartendjik, and a transit visa written and signed in English and Japanese by the Japanese Consul
Sempo Sugihara from the date 30.07.40. In addition is a visa to Greece signed by the
Greek Consul to Riga, Latvia, from the date 21.11.40.
A rare and important historical document, testimony to the noble deeds of diplomats who did all that they could to save Jews during the Holocaust. Signed by two out of the sixteen diplomats who are recognized as Righteous Among the Nations and an additional diplomat who, until now, was unknown as a savior of Jews. This document was its bearer’s only chance to be saved from death.
With the German invasion of Poland at the outbreak of World War II, many Polish Jews escaped to the Baltic countries. In the summer of 1940, when Russia forcibly annexed Lithuania, the refugees tried to escape from Europe by every possible means. The world’s gates were locked, and it was impossible to pass through the Soviet Union without a valid visa for the final destination.
Jan Zwartendjik, a Dutch businessman who was appointed as the temporary Consul to Lithuania, agreed to issue visas to the Dutch Curacao Island and even declared (while hiding the truth) that there was no need for an entry visa. The Soviets agreed that the refugees could pass through the Soviet Union on their way to Curacao, on the condition that they receive transit visas to Japan. Therefore, Dr. Zerach Warhaftig, one of the leaders of the Mizrachi movement approached the Japanese Consul,
Sempo Sugihara , and requested from him to issue the visas.
Chiune “Sempo” Sugihara (1900-1986) served as the Deputy Consul of the Japanese Empire in Lithuania in Kovno, which served as the acting Consulate in the critical window of opportunity of the summer of 1940.
Despite the fact that his government denied the offer, Sugihara decided to act and to issue the permits to the many Jewish refugees who flooded to the Consulate’s doors. In the remaining weeks before he left Kovno, he dedicated most of his time to issuing these permits. Many yeshiva students, such as the students of the Mir Yeshiva who had also escaped to Lithuania, took advantage of this opportunity to escape.
At the beginning of August 1940, when the Russians took control of Lithuania, Sugihara and Zwartendjik were forced to stop their activities. Even as he was boarding the train, Sugihara continued stamping passports, knowing that each of them was a lifesaver for its recipient. All together, Sugihara and Zwartendjik managed to issue 1500 lifesaving passports. The two diplomats were given the medal of ‘The Righteous Among the Nations’ by Yad Vashem.
In the document before us is
a historic discovery: an additional visa issued by the
Greek Consul in Riga, Latvia, in November 1940, after Sugihara and Zwartendjik left. In the Yad Vashem Museum there is no testimony to this activity of the Greek Consul getting involved in saving the Jewish refugees in Latvia, even after the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940.
Folding signs with tiny tears. Fine condition.
A photograph album from the Holocaust – Extermination of Polish Jews, with a foreword by Gershon Taffet and Philip Friedman. Published by the Central Historical Committee in Poland, Lodz 1945.
A book in album format which contains 252 photographs depicting the different stages of the holocaust of Polish Jewry in chronological order, beginning with the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939: antisemitic propaganda, forced labor, starvation in the ghetto, concentration camps, the partisans, until after the liberation in 1945. With a foreword in Polish, Russian, English, French, Yiddish and Hebrew. The photographs are described in four languages, Polish, Russian, English, Yiddish. The book was published in December 1945, and is considered one of the first and most important books to document the destruction of Polish Jewry.
Black title-page cover, with the book’s name in English and Polish. Printed on special paper.
[21], 104, [15] leaves. Its length is bigger than its width: 23×32 cm.
Tears on the title-page cover, the body of the album is in very fine condition.
* Churban U’Mered shel Yehudei Varshaw . Book of testimony and commemoration, edited by Melech Neustadt. Published by the ” Vaad HaPoel shel Histadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim HaIvrim B’Eretz Yisrael V’Adat HaGolah.” Tel Aviv, 1946. Tears in the upper and bottom sections of the spine.
* Sefer Lintchitz [Leczyca] , edited by Rabbi Yitzchak Yedidya Frenkel, published by “Olei Lintshitz B’Yisrael,” 1953. Replete with photos of community members. Printed on quality chrome paper.
* Belsen . Published by the “Irgun Shearit HaPleitah Mei’Haezior HaBriti.” 1958. Tens of photos of Jews in the Bergen-Belsen camp.
* Album Auschwitz, sipuro shel transp ort . Edited by Yisrael Guttman and Belah Guttman, published by Yad V’Shem, Jerusalem, 2003. Album edition with tens of photos of Jews in the Auschwitz concentration camp, pictures with names of tens of people who died there, the various departments within the camp, historic background and informative content regarding Auschwitz during the Holocaust years. Most of the photos were taken by the SS and saved in an album that was found after the Holocaust. Each chapter of the book was written by an expert in that field. One of the most important works regarding the Auschwitz death camp.
Varying sizes and conditions. Overall fine condition.
Letter sent to Mr. Gustav Leibling with confirmation that the addressee received a certificate from the office to immigrate to Palestine. The letter was written on 17.12.36, when the Nazi government further limited the community and there was great pressure from German Jews to immigrate to Palestine.
[1] leaf, 29 cm. Letterhead of the “Misrad Eretz Yisrael” of the Palastina-Amt Berlin Der Jewish Agency for Palestine. Signature and stamp.
The Misrad Eretz Yisrael was the German branch of the Jewish Agency. They were officially responsibile for German immigration to Palestine, including the submission of immigration requests and distribution of the certificates that allowed for immigration on behalf of the British government. The office helped close to 40,000 Jews immigrate to Palestine during Nazi rule between 1933-1938.
Very fine condition.
Anne Frank: Yomana Shel Na’ara [A Girl’s Diary], first Hebrew edition, translated by S. Schnitzer, published by Karni, printed by ‘Davar’. Tel Aviv, 1953.
First Hebrew edition of ‘Anne Frank’s Diary’ translated by S. Schnitzer which was published six years after the first edition published in Holland [in Dutch]. This edition was published in a limited number of copies and distributed as a gift to the subscribers of the “Dvar HaShavua” newspaper. After achieving great success among the Israeli readership it was published in many editions in Israel.
220 pages. 20 cm.
Slight tears on the paper cover. A few small holes on the last leaf without damage to text.
Very fine condition.
An application form and naturalization certificate issued to the couple Kurt Froehlich and his wife in the month of June-July 1942 by the Palestinian government. Signed by the High Commissioner MacMichael.
[1] page, 20.5×33 cm. On one side is the application form with two original photographs and stamps of the Immigration Office. On the other side is the naturalization certificate with the signature and stamp of the High Commissioner, Harold MacMichael.
Very fine condition.
* A postcard designed by E. Burner [picture on the plate], depicting a prisoner’s handcuffed hands rising out of a barbed wire fence. In memory of the Buchenwald, Dachau and Stutthof camps. April-May 1945.
* A memorial postcard for the liberation of the Dachau camp depicting inmates in uniform breaking through the barbed fire fences during the liberation. On the rear side is the official stamp: DACHAU GEDACHTNISKUNDGEBUNG 18/5/47.
Identical size: 15×11 cm.
Very fine condition.
Anti-Semitic caricature of the “Wandering Jew” from the front page of the French newspaper L’Eclipse – Journal Hebdomadaire, February 28th , 1869.
LA RENTREE DE ROCAMBOLE, par GILL Reclame peu deguisee en faveur de la PETITE PRESSE Accompagnee de la Complainte sur l’air du .JUIF-ERRANT.
An image of the wandering Jew in laborer’s clothes, sawing the trunk of a tree shaped like an animal with head and feet, is at the center. A text balloon states “Quei Plaisir D’Etra A Bonne.” It is surrounded by stanzas of a poem regarding the Wandering Jew by Issac Laqueden.
In the 19th century, many French newspapers published caricatures titled “La Juif Errant” with variations of the stanzas of this poem and illustrations by Francois Georgin.
Size 47×32 cm.
Fine condition.
A letter of protection that was given to the Jew Jeno Heller by the Department for Representing Foreign Interests of the Swiss Consulate under the management of Karl Lutz, during the destruction of Hungarian Jewry. Later he added “also his family” (und Familie) in order to save all of Jeno’s family.
[1] page. Official paper of the Department of Foreign Interests of the Swiss Consulate. Two columns, German and Hungarian. Official stamp. Number 2335.
Karl Lutz (1895-1975), one of the prominent Righteous Among the Nations and Swiss diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews during the destruction of Hungarian Jewry and their deportation to Auschwitz. Lutz acted to save the Jews of Budapest by issuing Swiss “letters of protection” to Jews who had certificates, and carried out negotiations with high-ranking Nazi clerks, including Adolf Eichmann. He issued approximately 8,000 letters of protection.
The document before us is testimony to the known fact that later, in opposition to an agreement, Lutz expanded the content of each letter of protection and included all of the certificate holder’s family. In this manner, approximately 30,000 Jews merited to be included under the protection of the letters of protection.
Lutz worked together with other diplomats, such as Angelo Rotta to establish “an international ghetto” which protected the Jews who were in possession of a letter of protection from destruction. Lutz merited, as a result of his actions, to be among the first to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, and a governmental medal and stamp were issued in his memory.
Small tears on the fold, with no lack. Fine to very fine condition.
A letter of protection for the Jewish widow Riedl Emilne, maiden name Iren Furedi, dated November 15, 1944, the day the Large Ghetto in Budapest was established. This letter of protection, signed by the representative of the Apostolic Nuncio (the Diplomotic Vatican) in Budapest – the Bishop Angelo Rotta – enabled the widow’s life to be saved, and for her to be transferred to the “International Ghetto.”
[1] page on official paper. 29.5×21 cm. Stamp of the Vatican representative and Rotta’s original signature.
Angelo Rotta (1872-1965) served as the representative of the Vatican in Budapest in 1944 and received a medal as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions in saving tens of thousands of Jews. At the time of the deportation of Hungarian Jewry to Auschwitz, Rotta worked to attain various documents to save Jews together with other diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg and Karl Lutz and succeeded in attaining letters of protection from the Vatican for approximately 2,500 Jews.
Rotta wrote fewer letters of protection than Raoul Wallenberg and his are therefore more rare.
Tears in the area of the fold with no lack. Fine condition.
An official souvenir postcard from the “Degenerate Art” – Entartete Kunst exhibition. On the rear side is a postal stamp from the exhibition with the date February-April 1938 and an additional stamp with a swastika.
The anti-semitic “Degenerate Art” exhibition opened in Munich in July 1937 and displayed some 650 works of approximately 100 artists which were confiscated from museums and galleries throughout Germany, in order to make them a public mockery. The exhibition traveled through a number of cities in Germany until 1941, and propaganda material such as booklets, postcards and posters were printed before each exhibition to accompany the anti-semitic atmosphere, as part of the Nazi propaganda. Over two million people visited the exhibition during the years it was exhibited.
Size: 9×14 cm.
Very fine condition.
Antisemitic plate – lithographic print, hand-painted from the period of the printing, published by Epinal. Lithograph by Oliver O. Pinot.
The lithograph is accompanied by verses of an antisemitic poem in rhyme, in French, about the legend of the wandering Jew. A Jew with a long curled beard, and a long nose, holding a walking stick in his hand is in the illustration. The people around him who depict the natives of the place seem much cleaner and tidier than him, and they are all looking at him suspiciously.
Similar lithographs were published in 19th century France bearing the title La Juif Errant in which the poem before us appears with the illustrations of the artist Francois Georgin.
Size: 30×40 cm.
Fine condition.
30 cm, 254 pages, mainly illustrations, facsimiles and photographs.
Rare and important documentation regarding the activities of Va’ad Ha’hatzala in Germany after the Holocaust under the management of Rabbi Nathan Baruch, who worked to rehabilitate the survivors who were refugees in the camps in Germany. The report documents, among other things, support of the survivors, the establishment of kosher kitchens, yeshivot, Talmud Torahs and orphanages. Includes photographs of all of the rabbis of the committee, pictures and letters of Rabbi Herzog, and correspondence of the Va’ad with high-ranking political figures.
Original colorful cardboard cover. Apart from a cloth spine which is partially torn, very fine condition.
A photograph showing Nazi soldiers at a street corner conducting a search of Jews’ clothes. In the foreground is a regal looking Jew with his hand up in surrender while the SS soldier searches his clothes.
Original photograph. Size: 8×12 cm.
Very fine condition.
Six illustrated anti-Semitic posters with Russian text. Russia, c. 1930.
Includes a poster with a train with Jewish passengers with sidecurls and long noses, pulling a chained Russian slave holding a hammer and sickle; a monster with a star of David at its head holding Stalin’s head, and more. Some of the posters bear an eagle and swastika – the emblem of the Nazi party. All the posters have Russian text.
All measure: 14×20 cm.
Stains, fine condition.
Buchenwald, reproducties naar zijn teekeningen uit het concentratiekamp . ‘Buchenwald – Reproductions of Sketches from the Concentration Camp’ by Henri Pieck. Het Centrum Press, The Hague (Holland), [c. 1945]. Dutch and English.
Portfolio with harsh illustrations describing inmates in the Buchenwald concentration camp, by Henri Pieck. The case includes an introduction in Dutch and English by Professor R.P. Cleveringa and a leaf with picture titles and short explanations.
32 pages. 34 cm. The plates are in very fine condition. Tears on the edges of the book cover. Detached front binding.
A royal writ of protection and defense (Schutzbrief) of the King of Prussia, Frederick the Third, sealed with an original wax seal, which granted the tailor Mosis Lewin, one of the first Jewish residents of the city of Lodz, the right to own land despite the limitations on Jews under his reign. A rare testimony to the beginning of the Jewish residency in a city which became a Jewish center, second in size and importance in all of Poland on the eve of World War II, with 223,000 Jews.
[3] pieces of paper. 21×35 cm. One page printed on both sides. Two parallel columns in German and Polish, personal details filled in by hand, handwritten signature and wax seal. Additional Polish signatures on the binding of the front cover.
This royal writ of protection was given to Mosis Lewin in 1797 and grants him and his family the right to settle in the city of Lodz due to his profession as a tailor. The area of the city of Lodz was annexed to the Southern Kingdom of Prussia from Poland in the years 1793-1795 and the Kingdom ruled there until they were conquered by Napoleon in 1806. The Kingdom of Prussia passed laws (mentioned in this writ of protection) that severely limited the rights of the Jews and in practice prevented them from living in cities. Therefore, the rights granted in this document are extraordinary. According to the population records, in the year 1793 there were only 11 Jews in the city of Lodz and in the year 1808 their number had grown to 58, of which three were tailors, and an official congregation had not yet been established. The city’s rapid growth began in 1820 and according to the records, the Lewin family was a central part of it.
Only one writ of protection is known in the world, identical to the document before us, which is displayed in an exhibit in a museum in Berlin (DOK 84/7/1). That writ is in worse condition and has no wax seal.
Small tears with no damage to text. Aging stains. Complete wax seal with the original string. Very fine condition.
