[583] pages. 20 cm. The Vanished World published by the Forward Association, New York, 1947. English and Yiddish. Monumental work edited by Rafael Abramovitch, with 530 photos [large, across the entire page] from cities and Jewish villages in Eastern Europe, reflecting the vibrant Jewish communal life in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust: Jewish characters, synagogues, streets, businesses and daily life. The book is divided into two sections – photos of the streets and buildings of Jewish cities and photos of Jewish characters. It also includes photos of prominent Admors [Admor of Spinka] and noted rabbis [Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Rabbi Aharon Kotler], photos of prominent funerals, yeshivot, agricultural pioneers and more. Each photo has a Yiddish and English caption. The large majority of the pictures were taken by Roman Vishniac, M. Kipnis and Alter Kacyzna. Original cloth binding [with picture – a woodcut by Solmon Yudovin], slightly worn. Water stains and light tears on some of the leaves. Fine-moderate condition.
* Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Published by Doubleday, New York, 1952. Early print of the first English edition of Anne Frank’s diary, published in the United States [about three years after the first Dutch edition was printed in Amsterdam]. Preface by the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelet, pictures on the endpaper. 285 pages, 19 cm., without a jacket. Very fine condition. * Tugbuch Fun a Maidel, Anne Frank. First Yiddish edition, translated by Yehoshua Shiloni, published by Menorah Tel Aviv, 1958. 322 [1] pages. Tears and creases in the margins of the binding, stains. Fine condition.
* Selichot. Yaffe printing press, Fernwald. At the beginning of the Selichot is a letter to “Our dear brothers!” in the name of the Joint Distribution Committee: “You saw the great hardships which you suffered…” * Siddur She’erit HaPeleta, Sephard liturgy, printed by the efforts of Rabbi Avraham David Horowitz Rabbi of Augsburg-Landsberg, Augsburg. 1946. At the beginning of the siddur is a special letter from Rabbi Horowitz [on this day G-d Almighty showed his great kindness with me to leave me alive from the great chaos which took place in these countries in the years 1940-1945…] * Siddur HaShalem, Fernwald, Yaffe. Published by Chorev, 1947. * A Siddur, a gift from the Va’ad HaHatzala for the She’erit HaPeleta edited by Rabbi Naftali Baruch and Rabbi Aviezer Burnstein, Munich, 1946. Pocket edition which was printed in 10,000 copies. 13 cm. * Mesilat Yesharim, a gift from the Va’ad HaHatzalah for Sh’erit HaPeleta, printed by the committee for publishing books of the Va’ad HaHatzalah, Munich 1947. 15 cm. * Pesach Hagagdah, published by Yaffe, Fernwald. Illustrated title-page cover. Varying sizes and conditions, overall fine condition.
[2] 54 [2] pages. 20 cm. “Holy letters from our holy rabbis…of Slonim.” The book was first printed in 1945. This is the second edition that was printed in 1948. During this printing, the chassidim found out that the Admor of Slonim had died in sanctification of G-d’s name during the Holocaust. In the first printed leaves, the Admor is referred to as “shlit”a”, but at the end, his name is follwed by “hy”d” [may G-d avenge his blood]. In addition, there is a third section in middle of the book which is titled: Letters from our Rebbe, the crown of our heads, …shlit”a. This title is followed by parantheses added after the chassidim had received the bad news, “ztzk”l hy”d” . At the end of the work, the printers added a “michtav chozer” from the committee of Slonimer chassidim in Eretz Yisrael, full of pain and bitterness upon the murder of their Admor. The Admor was killed on the 6th of Cheshvan, 1944, but his chassidim were unaware of his death until the middle of 1948, as expressed in this kuntress. Very fine condition.
3 royal medals memorializing the victims of the Holocaust. *14 karat gold medal. 30.5 mm. diameter. 17 grams. * Sterling silver medal with colored screen-printing, 50 mm. diameter, 49 grams. * Bronze medal. 70 mm. diameter. 140 grams. Within an original wood box. Excellent condition.
29 bronze medals issued by Israel in memory of the Holocaust and Zionism. 4 medals with a diameter of 70 mm; 24 with a diameter of 59 mm.; and one with a diameter of 35 mm. A number of doubles, including two victory medallions over the Nazis, concentration and death camps, 50 years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and more. All in fine-excellent condition.
3 silver medals in memory of the Holocaust. Israel. 50 mm. diameter. * Hebrew caption: Remember, don’t forget, in memory of the Holocaust victims. 49 grams. * Hebrew caption: Concentration and Death Camps, 1942-1992. 61 grams. * Hebrew caption: Fifty years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 59 grams. Numismatica 19, p. 183. All in excellent condition.
5 bronze medals regarding the Holocaust: * Two medals from the Dresden synagogue that was destroyed by the Nazis in 1938 and reconstructed in 1998. One is particularly large and heavy, 75 mm. numbered 30. Matching medal – smaller and in silver: 43 mm. Numbered 131. Both in their original case with original booklet and in excellent condition. * Three identical medals from the “Ghetto Fighter’s House”: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 59 mm. Fine condition.
7 silver medals related to the Holocaust: 3 medals for official presentation. Anne Franke 1988. 27 mm. diameter. 12 grams. Numismatica 19, p. 219. *2 state medals. From Holocaust to Resurrection. 1981. 37 mm. diameter. 26 grams. Numismatica 19, p. 173.
2* coins, with a two shekel value. Chanuka candelabra from the Theriesenstadt Ghetto. 37 mm. 29 grams. Case for each coin. Fine-very fine condition.
Set of medals commemorating the concentration and death camps of the Second World War. Gold, silver and bronze. Issued by Israel. 1990s. 18 karat gold, 30 mm. diameter, 15 gram. Silver, diameter 50 mm, 60 gram. Bronze, 70 mm. Excellent condition. Within its original case.
Added at the end of the Siddur are five handwritten leaves, including four tables for calculating the Hebrew calendar, and especially the Hebrew leap year. On the first leaf of the book, ownership stamps of “Rabbi Aharon Rabinowitz previously a prisoner of Zion in Russia a rabbi and spiritual Mashpiah the son of the rabbi the holy gaon of Lachishan-Superasel- Bialystok. Additional ownership notations, earlier “Avraham David Gelberman, Kloisenburg, 1895”. And Yahrzeit notations from 1886.
The end of the Siddur is lacking. Overall condition fine.
3 medals relating to Judaism and the Holocaust: * Great Synagogue of Kassel Germany, 1839-1939. Bronze. 50 mm. diameter. Unique, artistic medal, concave shape, relief of the synagogue, Star of David and eye-catching Jewish motifs. By Victor Huster. * Fifty year anniversary of Alliance Israélite Universelle. Bronze. 59 mm. diameter. Bust of the society’s president, Narcisse Leven (1860-1910). France, 1910. *Coin – Chanuka candelabra from the Theresienstadt Ghetto. 1984. Silver. 36 mm. diameter. Two shekel coin with a relief of a Chanuka menorah. All are in very fine condition.
“It shall protect you and your offspring … and you shall be extricated from the birth pangs of the coming of mashiach , to serenity” (from Rabbi Yechezkiah Fisch’s blessings in his approbation)
Sheloshah Sefarim Niftachim – Shabbat hymns with sacred letters from Rabbi Ben Tziyon Halberstam, author of Kedushat Tziyon of Bobov. Printed by the students of Bobov’s Etz Chaim yeshivah, She’erit HaPleitah , Landsberg, Germany, 1948.
Sheloshah Sefarim Niftachim – text of Shabbat hymns surrounded by the Minchat Ya’akov commentary for ‘Atkinu Seudata’ and the Mateh Yehudah and Pirchei Shoshanim commentaries on the hymns.
At the back of the book, with a separate title page, there is a ‘sacred letter’ [‘אגרת הקודש’] by the Admo”r Rabbi Ben Tziyon of Bobov, who was martyred during the Holocaust. The Iggeret was written in 1939, and deals with the Jewish people’s tribulations in exile. Following it is another letter, discussing livelihood.
Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of the Admo”r Rabbi Ben Tziyon Halberstam .
148, [8] pp, 21 cm.
Very fine condition: Special original binding, partially detached.
13 silver medals related to various subjects: Uprising and heroism, 2 NIS, [3 coins]. 38 mm. diameter. 29 grams. 1993. Uprising and heroism, 1 NIS [2 coins]. 30 mm. diameter, 14 grams. 1993. State medal for the members of the yishuv who voluntarily enlisted in the British Army during the Second World War. 38 mm. diameter. 26 grams. Coin in honor of Chanuka. 39 mm. diameter. 31 grams. Chanuka candelabra from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, 2 NIS. 37 mm. diameter. 29 gram. 1945. Chanuka candelabra from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, 1 NIS, 30 cm. Diaspora Museum. 45 mm. diameter, 40 grams. The Conference for Holocaust Survivors. 38 mm. diameter. 26 grams. Avdat coin. 45 mm. diameter. 48 grams. Tiberias coin. 45 mm. diameter, 48 grams. Some in their original cases. Varying conditions: fine-very fine.
10 bronze Israeli state medals regarding the Holocaust:
59 mm. diameter.
* 3 medals. One gold-plated. 30 years since the liberation of the concentration camps, 1945-1975. * 30 years since the war of the Jewish partisans. * 2 medals (one gold-plated), 30 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany. * 2 medals commemorating the Bialystock Ghetto Uprising. * Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. * From the Holocaust to Resurrection. Marking the World convention of Holocaust survivors, Israel, 1981.
Very fine condition.
Chamesh Shitot L’HaRashb”a – two parts bound together with separate title pages (the first part is on Tractates Yevamot, Nedarim and Bava Kamma; the second part is on Tractates Ketubot and Kiddushin). First edition. Prague, 1809. Several rabbinic signatures, one of them being that of Rabbi Naftali Carlebach.
The flyleaf bears a shocking historic notation documenting the story of this book, bound with strong bonds of love for the fate of the eternal people, whom fires and persecution could not quench: “From the library of the teachers’ study hall in Würzburg, destroyed along with most of its books, burned on November 10th/15 Cheshvan, 1938 by the cursed evil ones – may they be persecuted and eliminated.”
88; 49, [3] leaves. 38 cm.
Very fine condition.
4 government medals regarding the Holocaust. * Twenty years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943-1963. Silver, 59 mm. diameter. 110 grams. * From the Holocaust to Resurrection. Bronze. 59 mm. diameter. 60 grams. * Remember don’t forget – in memory of the Holocaust victims. Silver, 50 mm. diameter. 49 grams. * 50 years since the death and concentration camps (1992). Silver, 50 mm. diameter. All are in very fine condition. Numismatica 19, p. 168, 181, 173.
Touching letter from Admor Moshe Kleinberg of Krakow, son of Admor Shem Kleinberg of Zaloshitz hy”d, regarding immigration certificates to Palestine for him and his friends so that they would be able to leave Poland. Displaced persons camp, Santa Maria al Bagno, Italy, [c. 1946].
Specifications: [1] leaf. 33×19 cm.
Unique features: Touching letter from chassidic yeshiva students, survivors of the horrific Nazi death camps who beg to immigrate to the Holy Land, “To serve Hashem with holy peace of mind and to taste the G-dly air.” The letter was written and signed by Rabbi Moshe and includes about another fifteen signatures of young men, including R’ Ahron Noach Yoskovitz, grandson of the “Imrei Emet” of Gur. The other bachurim were from Lodz, Sosnowiec, Krakow, and Zadonsky – Walla Vadokla. Includes a note that it would be impossible to record all the travails they underwent during the past five years [in concentration camps], “great suffering, agony of death,” and that every minute that they remain in Poland poses a spiritual and physical danger.
Background: Admor Moshe Kleinberg was the son-in-law of Rabbi Pinchas-Shalom of Kosoni. He suffered the terrors of the Holocaust in Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz. After the war, he established his court in New York and Antwerp. He passed away in 1995 and was buried in Israel. He authored Birkat Moshe and published some of his father’s Torah in Shem Shalom ( Encyclopedia L’Chassidut, p. 314). The Santa Maria al Bagno displaced persons camps was the largest such camp in Southern Italy. It was home to 2300 Jewish Holocaust survivors a t its peak, in the beginning of 1946 . It was operated by the UNRRA. The camp was used as a base to organize illegal immigration to Palestine. In April of 1946, thousands of Jews in the camp started a hunger strike to protest the British policies that prevented Jews from immigrating to Palestine. The refugee committee even sent a formal protest to the British authorities “regarding the prevention of the basic humanitarian right to allow each person the ability and merit to return to his home.”
This letter is a historic document that records the powerful desire of the Holocaust survivors to immigrate to the Holy Land and rebuild their lives.
Condition: Fold marks, light tears along the lines of the fold. Fine condition.
Chassidic calendar for 1940-41. Published by the department store of Avraham Meir Zisswein. Sato-Mare [Satmar]. Meir Leib Hirsch Press in Satmar. A rare calendar that is not mentioned in Mif’al HaBibliographiah and is not in the National Library.
Printed after the calendar is an additional important part, whose length exceeds that of the entire calendar. The addition includes: “Synagogue Customs” – ten pages (in Yiddish) containing the authentic customs pertaining to the versions of the prayers, the readings of the Torah, the Haftarot, the blessings of the Cohanim etc. of the synagogue of Satmar on Sabbaths, Jewish holidays, fasts and Yamim Noraim. Then were printed” Tefilat HaDerech, Kiddush levanah, Sefirat HaOmer and more.
The calendar was printed in the midst of the World War which methodically consumed the Jews of Europe. Hungary, which was part of the Axis powers, started in this year to deport foreign Jews to extermination camps. The deported Jews, between 14,000 to 18,000 people, were murdered with local Jews between August 26 to August 29, 1941, during the Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre, which was the largest roundup of Jews until then. On the leaf after the title page, a picture of Horthy Miklós, the regent of Hungary, who was known as an anti-Semitic, wearing a military uniform.
18 pp. 11.5 cm.
Fine-very fine condition: aging stain. Cover binding.
4 silver medals with a diameter of 60 mm. 80 grams. From the “Ghetto Fighter’s House”.
* The anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps, 1945-1975. Relief of a hand with a blue number tattoo next to a barbed wire fence. * Thirty years since the defeat of Nazi Germany, 1945-1975. * Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Relief of a hand gripping a torch opposite the ruins of the ghetto. * Bialystock Ghetto Uprising 1943. Bust of Mordechai Tennenbaum, commander of the uprising. Very fine condition.
Rare pottery Chanuka menorah made by Holocaust survivors. Munich, [1947].
Description: Height: 11.5 cm.; Length: 25 cm.; Width: 16 cm.
Pottery, with green paint and glaze. The “shamash” is shaped like a branch with three leaves jutting out of a tree stump – symbolizing the renewed growth and eternity of the Jewish Nation. Candles can be lit at its base, alongside the text הועד המרכזי במינכן התש”ח [The Central Committee in Munich, 1948]. The bottom section of the menorah bears the blurred stamp: תוצרת שארית [הפליטה] בגלות גרמניה [created by Shearit [HaPleitah] in the German exile].
Background: Holocaust survivors in Europe were called “Shearit HaPleitah.” They lived under harsh conditions in refugee camps operated by the Allies. Jewish organizations helped rehabilitate the refugees and arranged educational, cultural and vocational programs. With the help of American soldiers, the “Central Committeee in Munich” was established (also known as the “Central Committee for Liberated Jews”), to represent the refugees in the American Zone. This Chanuka menorah serves as historic testimony to the assistance that the refugees received in the areas of culture and vocation.
Conditions: Tiny cracks in the glaze. This type of menorah is very rare, particularly in the condition of the one before us – very fine .
Calendar for 1943-4, with the prayers of Shacharit and Mussaf and Birkat HaChodesh. Limoges, (France), [1943]. A French title page and foreword were added: Le calendrier israélite pour l’année 5703.
The calendar was printed under the Nazi occupation, with a list of names and addresses of rabbis in France during the Vichy Regime.
[2], 86: [1], [2], XLI pp. 12 cm. Original cover binding.
Very fine condition: partly detached binding.
Silver medal, 325, for official presentation, not for sale. Israel, 1962. Diameter 59 mm. 118 grams. A globe, with a satellite sent by Israel to outer space and a Hebrew verse. The reverse features the country’s emblem and a space for the name of the person who received the medal. Signature of Prime Minister David ben Gurion on the bottom. Only 560 medals were issued. Very fine condition. Numismatica 19, p. 224.
Babylonian Talmud – “Munich Shas,” printed by survivors immediately after the Holocaust in Germany. Munich-Heidelberg, [1949]. Original bindings.
Specifications: Babylonian Talmud – complete set, 19 volumes. Based on the Vilna edition of the Talmud. Published by the Vaad Agudat HaRabbanim in the American Zone in Germany for refugees.
Background: During the destruction of European Jewry, Jewish libraries were destroyed throughout the continent. In their introduction, Rabbi Senig and Rabbi Rose emotionally describe the atrocities of the Nazis who took great pains to burn all the holy works: “It is embedded in our memories that bitter day, when the command was issued in the ghetto, from the evil Nazi government, to collect all the holy books in one location, so that they would be taken and destroyed, it was life-threatening to leave even one holy book.” The survivors initiated one of the most interesting symbolic projects of the refugees in Germany: printing various works at improvised printing presses.
The masterpiece of this project was the printing of the entire Talmud. The Vaad Hatzala of the Agudat HaRabbanim in the United States was drafted to assist with this project, headed by Rabbi Rose and Rabbi Shmuel Abba Senig. They assisted with the printing of the Babylonian Talmud with funding from the Joint and the assistance of the American Military government. The Rabbis viewed this project as of first degree importance, as it enabled the study of gemara to return to its rightful place at the center of Jewish life. At first, one volume was printed with Tractates Nedarim and Kiddushin. In 1949, the entire Talmud was reprinted in 19 large volumes. This lot includes the complete set of this special edition Talmud. Only 600 sets were printed, and about 100 reached Israel.
Unique features: This edition, called the “Munich Shas” or “The Suvivors’ Shas” is characterized with colored title pages that were designed to mark the printing of the Talmud on the scorched lands of Germany, with illustrations of the Jewish villages in Eretz Yisrael and a labor camp surrounded by barbed wire, with the [Hebrew] texts, “labor camp in Germany during the Nazi reign,” and “You have almost destroyed me in the land, but I did not abandon your commands,” integrated with elements of redemption. The unique title page illustrations were made by artist G. Rosenkrantz, as he signed in the margins. This edition is a valuable collectible. This set of Talmud belonged to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher [1895-1983], a Gerrer chassid and Rosh Yeshiva who authored about 30 works on all elements of the Torah. He was the secretary of the Moetzet Gedolei Hatorah in Poland, a founder of the Sefat Emet Yeshiva in Jerusalem and the head of the Torah Shlomo Institute. He won the Israel Prize for Torah Literature in 1963 and twice won the Rabbi Kook Prize for rabbinical literature (1944 and 1951). His grandsons include Professor Assa Kasher and Professor Rimon Kasher. His personal stamp appears a number of times in the volume with tractate Avodah Zarah, and the other volumes bear the stamp of the Torah Shlomo Institute.
Condition: Very fine-excellent. All the bindings are originals, some are lightly scuffed. Loose back binding to one volume.
