Auction 87 - Jewish and Israeli Art, History and Culture
Including: sketches by Ze'ev Raban and Bezalel items, hildren's books, avant-garde books, rare ladino periodicals, and more
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Transpotrundschreiben für die Chawerim der Gruppe Ajelet Haschachar ["Traveler's Information Sheets for Members of the Ayelet HaShachar Group"], document containing detailed information for immigrants to Palestine, issued by the "Jüdische Jugendhilfe" [Youth Aliyah; in Hebrew, "Aliyat HaNo'ar"] organization. Berlin, [1939]. German.
Ten-page document (mimeographed), dated July 5 (year not indicated), issued by the Youth Aliyah organization. The name of the immigrant to whom the document is addressed – Heinz Freundlich – is written in pencil at the top of the first page; apparently, he belonged to the "Ayelet HaShachar" group which was scheduled to set sail from Trieste to Haifa on board the ship "Palestine" on August 9. The document gives a detailed list of all the things the prospective immigrant must know before embarking, namely what documents are required by the authorities, payment schedules, train schedules, the ship's departure time, regulations regarding visas and baggage, travel costs, equipment needed for the journey, and more. All stages of the journey had been planned out by the "Palestine Office" of the Jewish Agency.
Heinz Freundlich's name appears on the "List of Immigrants Arriving in Palestine" of the Aliyah Office in Haifa (available for viewing on the Israel State Archives website), dated August 14, 1939.
With the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Germany, in 1932 Recha Freier (1892-1984) initiated and founded the Youth Aliyah ("Aliyat Hano'ar") organization. The purpose of the organization was to assist young Jewish individuals with vocational training and prepare them for immigration to Palestine, where they would hopefully receive a Zionist education and put their skills and national values to work in the building of the future Jewish country. Initially, Freier operated independently, but eventually the organization she founded won the support of the Jewish Agency, and Henriette Szold (1860-1945) was entrusted with leading it. The Youth Aliyah organization sought to promote and advance the cause of Zionism among German Jewry; it brought together groups of young men and women, took responsibility for their education and training, facilitated applications for immigration certificates to Palestine, partially funded their immigration, and assigned the various groups for placement on specific kibbutzim and moshavim in Palestine, such as Ein Harod, Nahalal, Sde Eliyahu, and Ayelet HaShachar. Up until the outbreak of World War II, the organization helped roughly 5,000 young men and women – mostly from Western Europe – immigrate to Palestine.
The "Palestine Office, " in all its dealings, was subordinate to the immigration department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine in Jerusalem. It represented the executive branch of the Jewish Agency, assuming responsibility on its behalf for all aspects of the process of immigration to Palestine, including the submission of requests for exit permits from Germany and the issuing of British certificates. Throughout the 1930s and in the early 1940s, it facilitated the immigration – and, for all intents and purposes, rescue – of tens of thousands of immigrants from Germany.
10 ff., approx. 29 cm. Fair-poor condition. Stains. Closed and open tears, causing minor damage to text. Leaves torn in half (along fold line; mended with adhesive tape on back). Several leaves held together with a staple.
Fascinating document prepared by the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency in Berlin. The mimeographed four-page document contains vital, practical information and instructions for prospective immigrants to Palestine prior to their embarkation. It includes information regarding the documents required for leaving Germany (since Jews were now exempt from military draft, they were eligible to leave the country without any particular problems; an exit permit from the local police station was necessary); information regarding the withdrawal of cash and bonds and other securities from the country, and the shipping of movable property items; special instructions for groups (no singing or noisemaking during the train ride to Trieste; do not use the Hebrew word "lihitra'ot" ["see you"]); instructions on how to behave upon arrival in Trieste; and more.
The "Palestine Office, " in all its dealings, was subordinate to the immigration department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine in Jerusalem. It represented the executive branch of the Jewish Agency, assuming responsibility on its behalf for all aspects of the process of immigration to Palestine, including the submission of requests for exit permits from Germany and the issuing of British certificates. Throughout the 1930s and in the early 1940s, it facilitated the immigration – and, for all intents and purposes, rescue – of tens of thousands of immigrants from Germany.
[1], 3 ff. Upper half of leaf no. 2 missing. Approx. 29 cm. Fair-poor condition. Stains. Closed and open tears, with minor damage to text. Some repairs with adhesive tape. Leaves torn in half (along fold line; mended with adhesive tape on back).
The passport photograph, personal details, and signature of the bearer – Faiga Przygoda – appear on the first pages of the passport. According to the details given, Przygoda was born in Plonsk, Poland, in 1918, and resided in Tel Aviv; her occupation is listed as "milliner." Appearing on the following pages are inked stamps and permits documenting her journey: Przygoda is certified to have departed via the Port of Tel Aviv in August of 1939, and entered Romania via the Port of Constanța (on the shores of the Black Sea); from there, she reached Poland on August 26, 1939, five days before the outbreak of the Second World War.
The following inked stamps were applied after the map of Europe was fundamentally altered. These include a stamp of the Nazi German authorities then occupying Warsaw, with a notation dated January 16, 1940; a stamp of the German border police from February, 1940; a Nazi German exit permit issued in the city of Lublin; a permit from the Fascist regime in Italy allowing entry into that country; an exit stamp from Germany via the border crossing at Arnoldstein (Austria); and an exit stamp from the Port of Trieste dated March 1, 1940. The last stamp on the passport, dated March 7, 1940, is an entry stamp into British Mandatory Palestine, issued at the Port of Haifa.
32 pp., 15 cm. Good condition. Stains. Few blemishes. Binding slightly worn.
The passport photo and personal details of the bearer, Emma Bachurski, appear at the beginning of the passport. The subsequent pages bear two groups of inked stamps, separated by a decade in time (and with no stamps dated to the intervening period): stamps documenting departure from Europe in June, 1939 (exit permit from Germany, entry permit to Italy, entry stamp to Italy by train, and exit stamp from the Port of Genoa; and stamps documenting immigration to the State of Israel in the years 1948-49. Details of Emma's whereabouts in the missing intervening years appear only briefly in a handwritten comment added underneath the Italian visa, where it is noted that the entry permit to Italy has been issued for the purpose of travel to Shanghai from the Port of Genoa, aboard the ship "Gneisenau."
Emma Bachurski's name and personal details appear in documents kept in the German Federal Archives, as well as in the listing of survivors from Shanghai from the archival records of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). An examination of these documents helps fill in some of the blanks in Bachurski's story; evidently, she was a non-Jewish woman married to Jacob Bachurski, a Polish-born Jewish man with no citizenship, incarcerated in 1938 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in western Germany. Just prior to the outbreak of WWII, he was released from internment and escaped to Shanghai along with Emma. The couple remained there until the end of the war, and together they immigrated to the then recently established State of Israel.
15.5 cm. Good condition. Few stains. Minor blemishes. Minor wear to binding. Handwritten notation on front of binding.
First pages contain the personal details of the bearer of the passport, Karola Neumann of Würzburg; two identifying marks were added in order to mark out the bearer of the passport as a Jew: the letter J, stamped on the first page, and the name "Sara, " which was consistently added to her given name throughout the document.
The stamps in the passport document Karola's journey to Palestine, on which she embarked after the beginning of the war. The passport contains: two German exit visas (the earlier one with a cancellation stamp); entry visa to Italy, with mention of the "Galilea, " the ship on board which Karola was meant to cross the Mediterranean to Palestine; stamps from the border crossing between Germany and Italy, dated 14 November, 1939; British entry visa to Palestine (issued by the consulate in Rome), and an entry stamp from the Haifa Port, dated 21 November, 1939.
32 pp., 16.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and creases. Marginal tears (some open), repaired. Missing cover (leaves re-bound with thread).
Provenance: The Rimon Family Collection.
Letter from a Jewish refugee, a citizen of Germany or Austria by the name of Erich Wallach; mailed from the "T" detention camp, Trois-Rivières, Quebec, a camp intended for refugees listed as subjects of enemy or hostile countries. In the letter, Wallach seeks to inform his parents, living in Jerusalem, regarding the "voyage of 11 days which was perfectly safe thanks to the powerful and glorious British navy" and states that the conditions in the Canadian facility are good: "The food is good and plenty … we have our kosher kitchen and our lodgings are comfortable." He also offers his father a special birthday greeting: "I wish you may have very soon the opportunity to see a great and glorious victory of the allies and the defeat of our greatest enemy Nazism."
Marked with the Canadian postmark "Base A.P.O Canada, " dated 1940, along with the inked stamp and label of the censor (the latter bearing the inscription "Opened by Censor").
At the beginning of the Second World War, thousands of Jewish refugees bearing German or Austrian citizenship, who had fled to Great Britain to escape persecution at the hands of the Nazis, were apprehended as subjects of a hostile state. Some two to three thousand of these individuals were sent to Canada as "German" prisoners of war. Some of them even spent the early part of their internment in the company of true POW's – German soldiers who had fought for the Nazis and were taken captive – as well as Canadian citizens and residents of Japanese and (non-Jewish) German extraction. Over time, the Jewish detainees came to be known as "accidental Immigrants."
After a brief period of indecision, the British government conceded the absurdity of treating persecuted Jews as "subjects of hostile states"; nonetheless, in Canada, some of the refugees spent as long as three years or more in the detention camps. According to various sources, this was the result of an anti-Semitic bias on the part of a number of Canadian government officials. Once released, some refugees were returned to Great Britain, while others remained in Canada and were allowed to take up residence there.
[1] f., folded into envelope, 31X15.5 cm. Good condition. Fold lines. Minor tears and creases to lengths of fold lines. Tear to center of sheet (resulting from opening of envelope), with minor damage to text.
The collection tells the story of the refugee Tzvi Eilat (Cvi Girsas Chvackinas) – his long journey from his native Kaunas (Kovne), through Switzerland, where he found refuge during the war, and eventually to Palestine.
Among the documents:
• Eilat's official birth certificate (Kaunas, 1937; Lithuanian). • Confirmation of graduation of a public school (Kaunas, 1939; original in Lithuanian and a French translation). • Discharge certificate from as Swiss jail (Lenzburg, northern Switzerland, 1943; German), indicating a good behavior during the period of the arrest. • Swiss "Flüchtlingsausweis" – refugee identification card (Bern, September, 1943) – containing visas, and additional personal information. • Two photo student cards of the University of Lausanne, and university confirmation of registration (Lausanne, 1944-1945; French). • Two immigration certificates, issued by HeHalutz Geneva office (July-August, 1945; German). • Notification for "comrade Tzvi" (residing in Lausanne), informing him that he was put on the list for the "third Aliyah transport, " and an itinerary for the journey on board the "Lima, " sailing from Barcelona to Palestine. • Swiss photo identification card, used as Eilat's travelling document to Palestine (Bern, August, 1945). Containing an entry visa to Palestine (August, 1945), French border stamps (August, 1945), permit to remain permanently in Palestine as an immigrant (September, 1945), entry stamp from the Haifa port, and more. • Additional documents (some later).
Approx. 20 paper items. Size and condition vary.
17 letters, written by Jewish POWs from Palestine, volunteers to the British army, held in the German camp "Stalag VIII-B / 344." Lamsdorf, 1941-1944. English and German.
Letters handwritten (in pencil) on prisoner-of-war letter sheets (folding; mailed without the use of envelopes). Both sides of each letter stamped with official camp stamps (different stamps; the name of the camp changes in the later letters – see below, ) and most are stamped with British censor's stamps. The work company to which the sender belonged (coal mining, loading and unloading freight trains, etc.) is indicated in some letters.
Most letters were written by the POW Shelomoh Sela (Slodash), a soldier of the British Royal Pioneer Corps, who was captured during the German invasion of Greece (1941). Apparently, Slodash sent several of his letters under the names of other prisoners, signing them in Hebrew letters or with the word "your". The letters are addressed to his wife Elisheba in Tel Aviv (one letter addressed to their son, Ilan).
The letters contain words of consolation and greetings to Slodash's wife, son, family and friends. Slodash thanks his wife for the letters she sent, and tells her of his life in the camp. E.g., in a letter dated 5.8.1943, he assures her that the prisoners have access to hot water for bathing and drinking coffee and tea, enough time to rest and read newspapers and books, and receive food packages from the Red Cross. In a letter dated 27.9.1943 Slodash mentions a poem written to him by his son: "I was surprised of the 2 lines of Ilan's song, as I see he know what is Gola, his little heart are beating to this place, where his father is […] Tell him that he is brave. I'm proud of him."
Following his release, Slodash returned to Palestine, and published a book about his experience in the German Prisoner-of-war camp.
Palestinian-Jewish Prisoners-of-war in the German Stalag
More than 1,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine who served in the British army were captured by the Germans during the Battle of Greece, in spring, 1941. Initially they were interned in Greece. Following the German invasion of Soviet Russia, they were transported under harsh conditions to temporary camps, and later, to "Stalag VIII-B" prisoner-of-war camp ("Stalag": a contraction of the German term "Stammlager, " translated as "main camp, " which is surrounded by a network of "sub-camps.") The camp was situated near Lamsdorf (today Łambinowice, southern Poland, ) in the vicinity of Auschwitz-Burkenau; throughout the war, hundreds of thousands of prisoners of the Allied Forces had passed through the camp.
Despite a certain oversight by the Red Cross, the conditions in the camp were harsh, although as a rule, the Jewish volunteers were not treated worse than the rest of the camp's population. Within a short while after their internment, Jewish prisoners of the Stalag began to organize community life: they shared food packages with each other, produced various cultural events, established Hebrew classes, and more.
On several instances, Jewish POWs encountered groups of Auschwitz prisoners, from whom they gained first-hand knowledge of Nazi prosecution and annihilation of European Jewry. On some occasions, they tried to help the concentration camp prisoners by smuggling food packages with the aid of non-Jewish British POWs.
In 1943, the Germans re-organizes their network of POW camps, and Stalag VIII-B was re-named Stammlager 344.
Throughout the war, several prisoners had managed to escape the camp, and some prisoners were exchanged for German soldiers, and returned to Palestine. As the Eastern Front drew near, the camp's POWs were evacuated westwards. Some were liberated by the Red Army (the camp was liberated by the Russians on March 17, 1945,) and some were only released when the war in Europe was won in May 1945.
For Further reading, see: "Palestinian POWs in German Captivity", by Yoav Gelber (available online on the website of Yad Vashem.)
17 letters, approx. 34.5X15 cm. Good overall condition. Stains. Fold lines. Minor tears to edges and along fold lines, with minor damage to text in several letters. Two of the letters missimg tab used to seal the letter sheet.
Letters typewritten on official stationery with letterheads of various Nazi organizations, bearing many handwritten remarks, inked stamps and signatures of Nazi officials and clerks.
The items in the present collection provide a fascinating insight into the workings of Nazi bureaucracy in Germany and Austria: the Aryanization of Jewish property, the collection of the "Reich Flight Tax, " which particularly targeted Jews seeking to escape Nazi Germany, writs of execution against several Jews (in accordance with the law, given names of Jewish men and women appearing on official documents are supplemented with the names "Israel" and "Sara", respectively) – All testify to the bureaucratized robbery of Jewish assets, concealed under a legal guise.
The majority of the collection comprises annual tax statements, payslips detailing salaries and deductions, pensions and stipends, paid to Austrian and German clerks, soldiers, disabled veterans, musicians, and others; employment certificates issued by various Nazi institutions; correspondence relating to industrial production for the war effort; various administrative requests exchanged between different governmental bodies, many of which by the "German Labour Front, " and more.
Included:
• Document sent by the Brigittenau district tax office in Vienna, to the Mariahilf district tax office, regarding a writ of execution against the Jewish woman Elisabeth Sara Steiner (29.5.1941).
• Document sent from Gänserndorf in Gau Niederdonau, to the tax office in Mistelbach – approval of submission of a tax statement by three Jewish individuals: Malvine, Siegfried and Julie Peschkes (18.11.1938).
• Form sent from the Neubau district authority in Vienna to the Lemberg (Lviv) tax office, requesting administrative assistance in collecting a debt from the Jews Irma (Sara) and Erwin Hopmeier (21.11.1941).
• Request for payment issued by the Mariahilf district tax office to the Jew Gustav Israel Holzer; payment required for the purpose of cancellation of a standing foreclosure order (1.12.1941).
• Document sent by the Vermögensverkehrsstelle in Vienna – the authority overseeing the Aryanization of Jewish property – to the tax office in Mariahilf, confirming the Aryanization of the company B. Wolkenstein (28.1.1941).
• Letter sent by the authority overseeing the Aryanization of Jewish property in the Ministry for Economy and Labour (Vermögungsverkehrsstelle im Ministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit), sent to the Neubau tax office, with regards to the Jewish woman Bortcza Herzl (this name appears in a list of victims of Aryanization published in the book "Das Dreieck meiner Kindheit", Vienna, 2008. p. 216.)
• Document issued by the Air Force command (Flugplatzkommando A 21/XVI) in Brünn (Brno) detailing annual salary payments made to colonel Rudolf Prochaska. Prochaska is believed to have been one of the Nazi assailants who assassinated Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, during the "July Putsch" in 1934 (7.3.1944).
• Letters and documents exchanged between engineers and administrators of the "German Labour Front, " regarding the development of alternative methods for manufacturing fibers required by the arms industry (1940-1941).
• Many additional documents, issued by various governmental organizations: tax offices in different districts of Vienna, Berlin, Düsseldorf, and other cities; The Viennese police (Der Polizeipräsident in Wien, ) the Reich's administration in Vienna, and more; several financial periodicals, and other official documents.
Approx. 120 items. Size varies. Good overall condition.
This letter was printed in German and Hungarian on the official stationery of the "Schweizerische Gesandtschaft, Abteilung für fremde Interessen" (The Swiss Legation, Department of Foreign Interests) managed by the diplomat Carl Lutz. It certifies that the bearer is included in a collective Swiss passport.
Carl Lutz (1895-1975), Swiss diplomat. Appointed in 1942 to serve as vice consul in charge of the "Department of Foreign Interests" in the Swiss Embassy in Hungary. Worked to expedite the emigration of Jews from Hungary, whose borders were still open at the time. Just before the occupation of Hungary by the Germans, Lutz began exercising his authority to issue "Schutzbriefe" ("Protective Letters"), thus resorting to an idea originally conceived by Moshe (Miklos) Krausz, director of the Palestine Office in Budapest. The letters granted diplomatic protection to Jews with emigration permits. Eventually, this idea of "protective letters" was adopted by other ambassadors, and enabled the rescue of large numbers of Jews. Lutz displayed extraordinary dedication in his efforts to save Jews, and refused to leave Budapest even after the siege encircling the city was tightened. He remained there, steadfast in his mission, until the conquest of Budapest by the Soviet Red Army in 1945; only then did he return to Switzerland. For all his noble efforts and achievements in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust, Israel's Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center bestowed upon him the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" in 1965.
1 f., approx. 30 cm. Good-fair condition. Fold lines and creases. Minor stains. Tears to edges and to length of fold lines (reinforced with strip of adhesive tape on back).
This letter was printed in German and Hungarian on the official stationery of the "Schweizerische Gesandtschaft, Abteilung für fremde Interessen" (Swiss Legation, Department of Foreign Interests) managed by the diplomat Carl Lutz. It certifies that the bearer is included in a collective Swiss passport.
Carl Lutz (1895-1975), Swiss diplomat. Appointed in 1942 to serve as vice consul in charge of the "Department of Foreign Interests" in the Swiss Embassy in Hungary. Worked to expedite the emigration of Jews from Hungary, whose borders were still open at the time. Just before the occupation of Hungary by the Germans, Lutz began exercising his authority to issue "Schutzbriefe" ("Protective Letters"), thus resorting to an idea originally conceived by Moshe (Miklos) Krausz, director of the Palestine Office in Budapest. The letters granted diplomatic protection to Jews with emigration permits. Eventually, this idea of "protective letters" was adopted by other ambassadors, and enabled the rescue of large numbers of Jews. Lutz displayed extraordinary dedication in his efforts to save Jews, and refused to leave Budapest even after the siege encircling the city was tightened. He remained there, steadfast in his mission, until the conquest of Budapest by the Soviet Red Army in 1945; only then did he return to Switzerland. For all his noble efforts and achievements in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust, Israel's Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center bestowed upon him the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" in 1965.
1 f., 22.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and fold lines. Minor tears to edges. Small hole at intersection of fold lines. Punch holes, mended with adhesive tape on verso.
1. "Letter of Protection" (Schutzbrief), issued by the Red Cross in Budapest (printed in Hungarian, German, French and Russian), stating that as an employee of the Budapest Waterworks, Dr. Schmied is under the protection of the Red Cross. Stamped with the signature-stamp of the Red Cross representative, Righteous Among the Nations, Friedrich Born. 21 December, 1944.
2-5. Four identification documents, issued to Dr. Schmied during WWII: • Civil identity card (Polgári személyi lap), 1941. • Permit issued to Schmied as an employee in a military facility, 1944. • Certificate for an essential employee in the waterworks, 1945 (Hungarian and Russian). • Identification card, issued by the Budapest police headquarters, May 7, 1945 (the day Nazi Germany surrendered).
Size and condition vary. Overall good-fair condition.