Auction 91 Part 1 Jewish and Israeli History, Culture and Art
Ghetto-Zeitung, official Lodz Ghetto newspaper, issued by the head of the Judenrat, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. Issues 1-12 (bound together). March-May 1941. Yiddish.
The issues feature various announcements pertaining to life in the ghetto – treatment of epidemics, work arrangements, food distribution, as well as articles reviewing Rumkowski's activities (most written by Rumkowski himself). Most issues include a list of Jews judged and sentenced by Rumkowski.
Rare. Not in NLI. Only one listing in OCLC.
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski (1877-1944) headed the Judenrat of the Lodz Ghetto throughout its entire existence. Rumkowski is considered one of the most controversial figures in the history of the Holocaust and as the head of the ghetto instituted an extreme personality cult. Among his roles, Rumkowski was responsible for providing lists of people to be sent to the extermination camps. In 1944, he was sent with the last inmates of the ghetto to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where he was murdered, presumably, that same day.
Most issues comprise 4 pages. 34 cm. Good condition. Minor stains and blemishes. Inked stamps. Bound together. Binding with gilt title; slightly worn. Notation on front board.
The photograph depicts two female internees, one pouring water on the hands of the other. A printed note on verso provides a detailed description of the camp upon its liberation by the British (English).
Approx. 20.5X15.5 cm. Good condition. Stains. Pinholes to corners. Minor creases. Marginal tear to paper note on verso.
Majdanek, by Zinowij Tolkaczew. Warsaw: Czytelnik, 1945. Polish, Russian, English and French.
Limited edition portfolio (600 numbered copies), comprising 28 reproductions of paintings by the Jewish artist Zinowij Tolkaczew – official Red Army painter, who accompanied the units who liberated the Majdanek Nazi concentration camp.
Zinowij Tolkaczew (1903-1977), native of Shchedrin (Belarus), student of Alexander Osmerkin and Pyotr Konchalovsky; a professor in the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. Tolkaczew was among the first in Kyiv to join the Komsomol (the Communist youth organization), and was a member of the Communist party. In 1941, nearing the age of 40, he was drafted to the Red Army as a painter, and accompanied the fighting units that liberated Majdanek and Auschwitz. The works he created following this experience, are among the most unique depictions of the holocaust and Nazi death camps; they were exhibited across Europe, and published in three albums, copies of which were sent to the leaders of the Allied Forces, to ministers and to Military commanders.
[9] pp, 28 plates, [1] p. 36 cm. Good condition. Minor stains and some creases. Original cloth portfolio (slightly worn), with striped inner lining – designed to resemble concentration camp prisoner's uniform, and embossed front.
Provisional identification card for civilian internee of Mauthausen issued by the US army following the liberation of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. May 22, 1945. English and German.
Bilingual (English and German) identification card issued shortly after the liberation of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp by the American army. The document, filled out in handwriting, was issued to Béla Gelb, a Hungarian Jewish internee. According to the document, Gelb was imprisoned at the camp from April 3 to May 5, 1945. The document bears the hand signatures and inked stamps of the camp's American commander, Col. Richard R. Seibel, and the "Magyar Mauthausen Bizottság” (the Mauthausen Hungarian Committee).
On the back of the card is a typewritten text in Hungarian dated June 2, 1945, along with inked stamps of the Red Cross.
On May 3, 1945, the last members of the German SS fled from the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, and just a few days later, the US 11th Armored Division liberated Mauthausen and its numerous subsidiary branch camps. The Americans quickly established a system of food distribution, a hospital, and a center for the treatment of typhus. In general, they worked hard to organize daily affairs in the camp in a manner conducive to a swift rehabilitation of the former inmates. An important element in the American reorganization effort was a system enabling the identification of the former inmates, with the intent of eventually returning them to their countries of origin. With this purpose in mind – regarded as an important part of the official Allied policy with respect to the handling of displaced persons – former inmates were sorted according to their lands of origin, and provisional identity cards like the present document were issued to them.
Paper document, approx. 15X21 cm. Good condition. Card separated into two halves, split along perforation line. Minor stains. Fold lines and creases. Several minor tears to edges.
• Some 120 letters, postcards, and telegrams (most handwritten) sent to Yocheved (Jadzia) Rabinowitz from acquaintances and family members (some of them also evidently Holocaust survivors) – Munich, Paris, London, Lodz, Tel Aviv, and elsewhere. Among the letters are four "shanah tovah" cards for Hebrew New Year 5709 (1948), one issued by the Jewish National Fund in Munich, and one bearing a portrait of Theodor Herzl in giolden ink.
• Some 30 documents and items of ephemera: Two documents from the Theresienstadt camp administration certifying that Rabinowitz is leaving the camp and is not suffering from any illnesses (June 1945); five "International Reply Coupons" (attached to letters in order to cover the costs of Rabinowitz's letters of reply, 1945); three invitations to weddings of Jewish couples (1948); handwritten note from a representative of the consulate of Israel in Munich – request to allow Rabinowitz to board a plane and immigrate to Israel on account of the heart disease suffered by an uncle living in Israel (1949); and additional documents.
Size and condition vary.