Lot 274
Certificate Illustrated by Pesach Irsai – Gift of "WIZO" Women from Bergen-Belsen to "WIZO" Switzerland – Switzerland, 1945
"Im Tirtzu Ein Zo Hagada" [Hebrew: If you will it, it is no dream]. Certificate of appreciation, written and illustrated by Pesach Irsai (Signed: S.P. Irsai, Caux). Bern, Switzerland, May 14, 1945. German.
Artistic scribe, on paper attached to cardboard: souvenir for the Swiss "WIZO" women, in appreciation of their generous work, assisting in protecting Jews and investing energy towards Eretz Israel, from WIZO women, survivors of Bergen- Belsen, from Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and Czechoslovakia.
Text and illustrations appear behind a barbed wire fence. On the lower part are illustrations of houses, a water tower, tents and trees in Eretz Israel, on golden soil. On the right side – a woman carrying a child in her arms. On the upper left corner – a shining sun (painted white, with a golden Star of David in it).
The graphic designer and typographer Pesach István Irsai (1896-1968), a foremost modernist graphic designer in Europe between the world wars and one of the most important graphic designers in Eretz Israel. Immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1925 but returned to Hungary in 1929 due to his wife's illness. When World War II broke out he stayed in Budapest and suffered the atrocities of the holocaust. Was one of the "Kastner Train" survivors; arrived in Bergen- Belsen and then in Switzerland, where this certificate was created. Approx. 28.5X35 cm. Framed. Good condition. Stains.
