Jak zapobiegać chorobom zakaźnym i jak je zwalczać? [How to prevent and fight Infectious diseases?], by Dr. Stefania Silberberg. Krakow: Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna [JSS – Jewish Social Self-Help organization], 1941. Polish.
Jewish medicine in the ghettoes is considered a one-time phenomenon in history – the establishment of a health system by persecuted victims under the threat of death. Immediately after the establishment of the first ghettos, Jewish physicians (whose percentage in the population was very high – approximately 40% of all Polish physicians on the eve of the war were Jewish) started setting up an extensive health system and before long established an efficient, disciplined infrastructure: hospitals, family healthcare centers, women's and children's medicine, social medicine, pharmacies, medical schools and even research labs.
Throughout the years of the ghettos' existence, right up to their destruction, most of the Jewish physicians continued working, providing their services to the inmates of the ghetto, even when the mortality rate of the physicians, who contracted contagious diseases, reached 20 percent.
This rare booklet provides important documentation of medical activity in the ghettos: a healthcare manual for the Jews of the ghetto, written by a Jewish physician in the Krakow ghetto. The manual, published by the JSS organization (JSS – Juedische Soziale Selbsthilfe, the only Jewish help organization given Nazi permission to operate in the Generalgouvernement area), is one of the only publications printed by Jews in the ghettos with permission (the German authorities forbade almost every Jewish publication in the area of occupied Poland). As early as June 1941, JSS representatives requested German authorities for special permission to print 50,000 copies, and after several months received a limited approval to print 10,000 copies to be distributed through the branches of the organization in the various ghettos (see enclosed material).
The manual begins with a short introduction on the subject of bacteria, epidemics and vaccines, followed by three chapters dedicated each to a different disease: Typhus fever (Tyfus plamisty), Typhoid (Tyfus Brzuszny) and Dysentery (Czerwonka) – three common diseases that killed thousands of the Jews in ghettos throughout the war.
The author, physician Stefania Silberberg, is mentioned in several listings on the "Yad Vashem" and the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum websites, and in a list of deceased from Krakow printed in the medical journal Przeglad Lekarski (issue no. 1, July 1945). The listings indicate that Stefania was born in 1898 in Krakow to parents named Hermann and Adela and was a bacteriologist by training. In 1942 she was presumably sent to her death at the Belzec or Treblinka extermination camp.
Rare booklet. Not in OCLC.
14 pp, approx. 23 cm. Good condition. A few stains and blemishes, mostly to cover. Rusty staples.

Manuscript, ledger of the Beit Din in the Bergen Belsen camp in Germany, comprising some 85 Beit Din acts, permits for agunot and agunim, Holocaust survivors, to remarry. Bergen Belsen, 1947-1948. Hebrew and Yiddish.
This ledger is an early documentation of the extermination of European Jewry during the Holocaust. In order to release agunot and agunim, the rabbis were required to thoroughly research the methods of extermination used by the Nazis, and they carefully examined the chances of survival from the various incidents. These rabbis were the first to collect testimonies from Holocaust survivors, very soon after the war ended, while the memories were still fresh and raw (see: E. Farbstein, BeSeter Raam, pp. 311-334).
The marriage permits in the ledger are numbered in ascending order: 476-559. The name of the subject of the permit is inscribed at the top of the page, followed by a transcription of the testimony, signed by the rabbis who received it, and concluding with the permit to remarry, with the signatures of the rabbis issuing it. The signees include: R. Yoel Heilpern, R. Yisrael Aryeh Zelmanovitz, R. Yissachar Berish Rubin and R. Yitzchak Glickman.
These testimonies mention all the types of circumstances and atrocities of the Holocaust: the roundups and selections, ghetto liquidations and death marches, gas chambers and crematoriums, death by starvation and shooting, and more. One of the testimonies describes a fictitious marriage arranged in the ghetto, in an attempt to avoid being deported to the camps. Another one attests that there was not a single survivor from the barrack of sick inmates in Auschwitz. One of the testimonies describes how the husband informed a fellow inmate of his name and origin, moments before he was killed, stating that he has a wife and two children. Another testimony reports of a man who died during a death march, yet they were unable to bury him, since they were compelled to keep on marching, and other atrocious incidents which were the bitter fate of the Jews in the extermination camps. The testimonies document Jews from various cities and areas in Poland and Lithuania: Warsaw, Kraków, Łódź, Lublin, Lviv, Białystok, Piotrków, Chrzanów, Elkish (Olkusz), Vilna and more; who were sent to Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald, Majdanek, Bergen Belsen, Stutthoff, Ravensbrück and other camps. The testimonies also include mentions of the ghettos of Warsaw, Łódź, Białystok and others.
Signature and stamp of R. Yisrael Aryeh Zelmanovitz on the cover, as well as the stamp of the Bergen Belsen Beit Din.
These rabbis worked in collaboration with R. Shlomo David Kahana of Warsaw, who resided in Jerusalem, and was one of the central figures working to release agunot and agunim following the Holocaust. Rav Kahana is mentioned repeatedly in this ledger as the one they consulted in regard to issuing marriage permits.
R. Yoel Heilpern of Jasło, son of Rebbe Matityah Chaim of Dobshitz and son-in-law of R. Elimelech Rubin of Jasło. His three children perished in the Holocaust, and he miraculously survived. Following the Holocaust, he served as rabbi in the Bergen Belsen camp, working industriously to find solutions for the agunot. In 1948, he immigrated to the United States, where he served as rabbi in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He authored Osef Takanot Agunot.
R. Yisrael Aryeh Zelmanovitz, elder Sanz Chassid, one of the first disciples of Rebbe Yekutiel Halberstam of Sanz-Klausenburg. Following the Holocaust, he served as rabbi in the Bergen Belsen camp, and later immigrated to Eretz Israel where he served as rabbi of various cities – first in Yavne, then in Kiryat Sanz, Netanya, in Akko, and finally, in Bnei Brak. He authored the Chayei Nefesh series.
R. Yissachar Berish Rubin, descendant of Rebbe Yeshaya Steiner ("R. Yeshayale of Kerestir") and son-in-law of R. Chaim Meisels of Sarwasch. Following the Holocaust, he immigrated to the United States, where he served as rebbe of Kerestir.
R. Yitzchak Glickman, disciple of leading Polish Torah scholars – R. Meir Shapiro of Lublin and R. Meir Arik. After the Holocaust, he served as rabbi in the Bergen Belsen camp, and following his immigration to Eretz Israel, as rabbi of Holon. His book Resisei Torah (Holon 1992) includes responsa by Rav Kahana on the topic of agunot, from his tenure as member of the Beit Din for agunot in Bergen Belsen. In his book Shoa UTekuma, he published lectures and studies on the Holocaust, and in his book Birkat Emunah, he discusses at length the commandment of Kiddush HaShem and how to relate to the Holocaust and current events.
Additional inscriptions at the beginning and end of the ledger.
Written in a German technical ledger, put here to secondary use.
[68] leaves, over 100 written pages. 29.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Several tears. Worn and stained cardboard cover.

A letter handwritten and signed by Jacob Herzl, Theodor Herzl's father; addressed to a Mr. Steiner [presumably, Heinrich Elchanan York-Steiner]. Written when Theodor Herzl was staying in Constantinople, before his meeting with the Turkish Sultan. Vienna, May 12, 1901. German.
A short letter by Jacob Herzl, in response to a letter sent to his son while he was staying in Constantinople in order to meet with the Turkish Sultan: "My son is on a trip and is supposed to return in 14 days. The matters you raised in your letter from yesterday will, therefore, have to be sorted out only after his return". The letter is signed: "Jac. Herzl".
Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, believed that realizing Zionism depended on obtaining a charter for the settlement of Jews in Palestine. Therefore, he was involved in extensive political activity, negotiating at length with the Ottoman authorities in an attempt to meet the Turkish Sultan. On May 17, 1901 (five days after his father wrote this letter), Herzl succeeded in meeting Sultan Abdul Hamid II in Constantinople. In the course of the meeting, which lasted about two hours, Herzl suggested that in exchange for receiving assistance in covering the Empire's debts, the Sultan will promote Jewish settlement in Palestine. The meeting was the beginning of a long negotiation which ended without results.
Jacob Herzl (1832-1902), a Jewish-German merchant and banker, Theodor Herzl's father, was born to a Jewish orthodox family in Semlin [Zemun], Serbia (his father, Theodor's grandfather, was the attendant of the Sephardic synagogue of the town). At the age of 15, he left home and started working as an apprentice for a supply company. Several decades later, his fortune was worth several million marks, with business extending to various fields of commerce and banking.
In 1857, Jacob married Jeanette Diamant, and three years later their first and only son, Theodor (Binyamin Ze'ev), was born. Jacob approved of his son's revolutionary ideas and unique way and when he realized for the first time what his true plan was – the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Palestine – he told him he should write a book in order to appeal directly to the people (about a year later, Theodor Herzl wrote the book "Der Judenstaat").
Throughout his life, Jacob Herzl helped his son fund a considerable part of his Zionist activity (the Zionist weekly Theodor Herzl published, "Die Welt", was established with his father's help). When Theodor was travelling, his father's address served as his temporary mailing address. Theodor's close relationship with his father is reflected in many of his letters. After publishing "Der Judenstaat", he wrote in his diary: "At this time, my loyal father is my only solace. All those I consulted with on the matter so far conduct themselves with careful restraint, lurking, waiting. Beside me I feel only my dear old man…" (Inyan Hayehudim: Sifre Yoman, Translation of Theodor Herzl's Diaries, 1895–1904, Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 1997. p. 275 [Hebrew]).
The letter was presumably sent to the writer, publicist and Zionist activist Heinrich Elchanan York-Steiner (1859-1934), one of Theodor Herzl's first supporters and co-founder of the weekly "Die Welt".
[1] folded leaf (written on one side), 23 cm. Good condition. Fold lines. A few stains and creases. Small tears to edges and long tears along fold lines (with no loss of text).