Auction 61 - Rare and Important Items
Decorated Chinese Ketubah - Marriage Between Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria - Shanghai, 1948
Opening: $20,000
Sold for: $25,000
Including buyer's premium
A Ketubah (legal contract) recording the marriage of Werner Lubianitzki (born in 1922) from Danzig, with Gertrude Katz (born in 1929) from Vienna. Shanghai, China, "36th year of the Chinese Republic". [Tamuz, July 1948]. Chinese. Signatures and transliteration of names in Latin characters.
A printed form, decorated with typical Chinese motifs, in bright colors: cherry and peach blossom, bird-and-flower painting and a wide frame decorated with colorful dragons. The marriage contract is arranged in several columns: the names of the groom and bride are written on the right column; the name of the advocate in whose office the contract was signed - Hans Behmack - and the names of the witnesses: G. [Gustav] Flörsheimer and H. [Heinz] Brauer - appear in the center column; and in the left column appear the signatures of the groom, the bride, the two witnesses, the advocate and parents of the bride - Julius Katz and Regine Katz. All the names are written by hand, in Chinese and in Latin letters.
Following the Kristallnacht (November 1938) many German and Austrian refugees arrived in Shanghai, where the gates remained open for Jews when numerous countries closed their gates. Between November 1939 and July 1940 some 18,000 refugees entered Shanghai (some estimate that 20,000 arrived), most of whom arrived impoverished and were supported and absorbed by local Jewish aid organizations. In 1943, following orders issued by Japanese authorities, all the Jewish stateless refugees were settled in Hongskou district where they lived in rough hygienic conditions in a crowded area, until the end of the war. When the war ended about half of the refugees immigrated to the United States and the others immigrated to Palestine. When the communists occupied China in 1949, most of the Jews were gone already, and only several thousands were still there.
Gustav Flörsheimer, who signed the ketubah as a witness, appears in the Lexicon of musicians persecuted by the Nazis (Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit) published by Hamburg University (editors: Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen, Sophie Fetthauer), 2016 (on the website of Hamburg University). Flörsheimer (1906-1985), born in Höchst, Frankfurt, fled to China through Italy in September 1939 and lived in a home for refugees in Shanghai. Served as a cantor, was a member of the association for Jewish cantors in Shanghai and delivered lectures about Zionism and Judaism. In 1943 he was transferred to the ghetto in Shanghai (Hongkou), and after the war (after 1948) he immigrated to the USA where he lived for the rest of his life. Flörsheimer's mother was murdered in Kovno and his sister was deported from Drancy concentration camp in France to Auschwitz where she was murdered.
The name of Hans Behmack, the advocate from Vienna, is mentioned in Michael Andreas Frischler's study (Vienna University), "Little Vienna in Shanghai", as owner of a legal office in Shanghai already in 1941 (ibid, pp. 69-70; see enclosed material).
Rare. Only a few examples of similar marriage contracts are known, but none are identical to the one offered here. In the collection of ketubot of the NLI appears only one Chinese ketubah, from Hong Kong (1938), written on a printed Baghdadi ketubah-form.
Approx. 51X38 cm. Good condition. Creases. Framed - not examined out of frame.
A printed form, decorated with typical Chinese motifs, in bright colors: cherry and peach blossom, bird-and-flower painting and a wide frame decorated with colorful dragons. The marriage contract is arranged in several columns: the names of the groom and bride are written on the right column; the name of the advocate in whose office the contract was signed - Hans Behmack - and the names of the witnesses: G. [Gustav] Flörsheimer and H. [Heinz] Brauer - appear in the center column; and in the left column appear the signatures of the groom, the bride, the two witnesses, the advocate and parents of the bride - Julius Katz and Regine Katz. All the names are written by hand, in Chinese and in Latin letters.
Following the Kristallnacht (November 1938) many German and Austrian refugees arrived in Shanghai, where the gates remained open for Jews when numerous countries closed their gates. Between November 1939 and July 1940 some 18,000 refugees entered Shanghai (some estimate that 20,000 arrived), most of whom arrived impoverished and were supported and absorbed by local Jewish aid organizations. In 1943, following orders issued by Japanese authorities, all the Jewish stateless refugees were settled in Hongskou district where they lived in rough hygienic conditions in a crowded area, until the end of the war. When the war ended about half of the refugees immigrated to the United States and the others immigrated to Palestine. When the communists occupied China in 1949, most of the Jews were gone already, and only several thousands were still there.
Gustav Flörsheimer, who signed the ketubah as a witness, appears in the Lexicon of musicians persecuted by the Nazis (Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit) published by Hamburg University (editors: Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen, Sophie Fetthauer), 2016 (on the website of Hamburg University). Flörsheimer (1906-1985), born in Höchst, Frankfurt, fled to China through Italy in September 1939 and lived in a home for refugees in Shanghai. Served as a cantor, was a member of the association for Jewish cantors in Shanghai and delivered lectures about Zionism and Judaism. In 1943 he was transferred to the ghetto in Shanghai (Hongkou), and after the war (after 1948) he immigrated to the USA where he lived for the rest of his life. Flörsheimer's mother was murdered in Kovno and his sister was deported from Drancy concentration camp in France to Auschwitz where she was murdered.
The name of Hans Behmack, the advocate from Vienna, is mentioned in Michael Andreas Frischler's study (Vienna University), "Little Vienna in Shanghai", as owner of a legal office in Shanghai already in 1941 (ibid, pp. 69-70; see enclosed material).
Rare. Only a few examples of similar marriage contracts are known, but none are identical to the one offered here. In the collection of ketubot of the NLI appears only one Chinese ketubah, from Hong Kong (1938), written on a printed Baghdadi ketubah-form.
Approx. 51X38 cm. Good condition. Creases. Framed - not examined out of frame.