Online Auction 31 - Jewish and Israeli History and Culture
Part I
"Haggadah di Hitler" – Popular Allegorical Work Recounting the Story of the Liberation of North Africa in World War II – Rabat, 1943
Opening: $100
Sold for: $400
Including buyer's premium
Haggadah di Hitler, by Nissim ben Shimon. Work in the format of the Judeo-Arabic translation of the Passover Haggadah. [Rabat, 1943?]. Judeo-Arabic. A copy without title page and cover.
A short work in the format of the Passover Haggadah in the Sharh translation – the Judeo-Arabic translation of the Hebrew Bible and apocrypha – recounting the story of the liberation of North Africa by the Allies, and the salvation of the Jews from the Nazis and their puppet regimes – the French Vichy government and Mussolini's Italy.
The Vichy government encated racial laws in Morocco and Algeria, and Jews were put to forced labor; Algerian Jews were sent to concentration and extermination camps; Tunisia was under German occupation and Jews were sent to extermination camps; in Libya, under Italian rule, racial laws were enacted and Jews suffered persecutions and humiliations, were arrested and sent to forced labor camps, and concentration camps. After these countries were liberated by the Allies, the racial laws were repealed, and camp prisoners were released. During this period, several popular works in a similar vein were published in North Africa, including "Meauda Filchan di Mi Kamocha ala Hitlir" [The Scroll of Hitler] documenting the war and the liberation.
In this Haggadah, the author only briefly refers to Jewish sufferings during the war. The military aspect of the war, however, is described in detail from the North-African perspective. The author particularly emphasizes the activity of the French resistance movement, and Charles de Gaulle, the president of Free France, as a redeemer and liberator. The author describes de Gaulle using haggadic terms referring to the redemption of the Jewish people by God himself: "And General de Gaulle brought us out, not by war, and not by Laval, and not by Doriot, but General de Gaulle himself by his power. As it is said 'for I will pass through the land of France that night'".
The "Haggadah di Hitler" passages begin and end with the parallel passages in the Judeo-Arabic Haggadah. The text is occasionally humoristic, as in the case of Rabbi Jose the Galilean of the Haggadah, who's figure is replaced by "Rabbi Joseph Stalin".
13 pp. (title page and cover missing), 15 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains and blemishes. Horizontal fold line. Closed and open tears to margins (most of them small). Leaves detached or loose.
Reference: Avishai Bar-Asher, "What Makes This Night Different from any night in 1939?. In: "The Hitler Haggadah, a Moroccan Jewish Piece from World War II" (Mineged Publishing House, 2021), pp. 66-69.
A short work in the format of the Passover Haggadah in the Sharh translation – the Judeo-Arabic translation of the Hebrew Bible and apocrypha – recounting the story of the liberation of North Africa by the Allies, and the salvation of the Jews from the Nazis and their puppet regimes – the French Vichy government and Mussolini's Italy.
The Vichy government encated racial laws in Morocco and Algeria, and Jews were put to forced labor; Algerian Jews were sent to concentration and extermination camps; Tunisia was under German occupation and Jews were sent to extermination camps; in Libya, under Italian rule, racial laws were enacted and Jews suffered persecutions and humiliations, were arrested and sent to forced labor camps, and concentration camps. After these countries were liberated by the Allies, the racial laws were repealed, and camp prisoners were released. During this period, several popular works in a similar vein were published in North Africa, including "Meauda Filchan di Mi Kamocha ala Hitlir" [The Scroll of Hitler] documenting the war and the liberation.
In this Haggadah, the author only briefly refers to Jewish sufferings during the war. The military aspect of the war, however, is described in detail from the North-African perspective. The author particularly emphasizes the activity of the French resistance movement, and Charles de Gaulle, the president of Free France, as a redeemer and liberator. The author describes de Gaulle using haggadic terms referring to the redemption of the Jewish people by God himself: "And General de Gaulle brought us out, not by war, and not by Laval, and not by Doriot, but General de Gaulle himself by his power. As it is said 'for I will pass through the land of France that night'".
The "Haggadah di Hitler" passages begin and end with the parallel passages in the Judeo-Arabic Haggadah. The text is occasionally humoristic, as in the case of Rabbi Jose the Galilean of the Haggadah, who's figure is replaced by "Rabbi Joseph Stalin".
13 pp. (title page and cover missing), 15 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains and blemishes. Horizontal fold line. Closed and open tears to margins (most of them small). Leaves detached or loose.
Reference: Avishai Bar-Asher, "What Makes This Night Different from any night in 1939?. In: "The Hitler Haggadah, a Moroccan Jewish Piece from World War II" (Mineged Publishing House, 2021), pp. 66-69.
Passover Haggadas
Passover Haggadas