The Jewish experience in World War II was one of tragedy and desperation, loss and separation. But, by preserving that history--from the earliest days of persecution to the Holocaust's aftermath--we can create collections that educate and inform. At Opal Rare Books, we hope that you also see the importance of preserving this piece of history and the stories of all the people who lived and died so recently and deserve to be remembered.
"I Counted Twenty-One Other Jewish Girls Who Had Been Assaulted, and Raped, and Forty-Three Jewish Men of Various Ages... Who Had Been Tortured"
Stephanos, Bishop. Jews Under Hitlerism. New York: The American Greek Orth. Cath. Church Missionary Diocese, 1943. $500.
Octavo. Hardcover. 1st Edition.
Rare first edition of this early eyewitness account of abuses against Jews all over Central Europe in the wake of the Nuremberg Laws, in the extremely rare dust jacket. Written by Rev. Dr. Stephanos, a Greek Orthodox bishop in America, Jews Under Hitlerism meticulously catalogues the abuses against European Jews he personally witnessed as a missionary in 1938. It also relates stories told to him by trusted friends, such as one about a Viennese treasury official whose born-Jewish wife drank poison to protect him and their children. Bishop Stephanos personally visited Austria (from which he was expelled by the Gestapo), Budapest, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, and Germany and surveyed the deteriorating situation of the Jews in each place. Book with expected toning to wartime paper, light staining to extremities. Dust jacket with light soiling, faint dampstaining to bottom edge, and shallow chipping most pronounced at head of blank spine. An extremely good copy, most rare with striking dust jacket in any condition.
First British Edition of Nazi Rule in Poland, 1943, with a Folding Map and Seven Black-and-White Photographic Plates
Segal, Simon. Nazi Rule in Poland. London: Robert Hale, 1943. $450.
Octavo. Hardcover. 1st Edition.
First British edition of this harrowing look at the Jewish situation in Poland as of 1942, with folding map and seven photographic plates depicting discriminatory signage toward Jewish and non-Jewish Poles, examples of underground publications by both groups, and two early images of the Warsaw Ghetto. Compiled under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee, this book was published in an attempt to shed light on the suffering of the Jews in Poland. Of particular interest are sections on legal discrimination, the creation of the ghettos, resistance activities in Poland, and evidence that Poland was being used as a testing ground for further European conquest (including the elimination of Europe's Jews). First published in America in 1942, but that edition is nearly unobtainable. Book near-fine, with slightest rubbing to extremities and faint white stain to spine. Dust jacket with only a few tiny spots of soiling, light rubbing to extremities, and toning to spine. A near-fine copy.
"We Are Not Human Beings. We Are Fish in a Bowl, Kept There to Be Slaughtered."
Heiden, Konrad. The New Inquisition. New York: Modern Age Books / Alliance,1939. $350.
Octavo. Paper Wrappers. 1st Edition.
First edition of one of the earliest accounts available in America of Nazi atrocities, including reports from Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, and Buchenwald and a prediction of eventual mass murder. Konrad Heiden was a German-Jewish journalist who wrote his first book about the Nazis as early as 1932. Fully aware of their plans for the future, Heiden went into exile in 1933, traveling through Switzerland and eventually landing in France. In 1937, Heiden's German citizenship was revoked and his property was confiscated. When the Nazis occupied France, Heiden escaped from internment and fled to the United States with the help of Varian Fry and the International Rescue Committee. He spent the remainder of his life as a chronicler of the Nazi era, investigating its leaders and emergence and even identifying the author of Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a hoax text written by a Russian working for the Soviet intelligence services to drum up antisemitism). This work, written not long after the revocation of Heiden's citizenship when he was still living in France, aims to expose the horrors of life under Nazi rule. Heiden writes about the early concentration camps; the intentional starvation of the Jews; the destruction of Jewish sites; and, above all, the mass cruelty and brutality. He carefully recounts the circumstances of individual murders, shedding light on the violence of the Nazi regime and the lack of hope for those persecuted by it. He offers this summation of events: "To drive 600,000 people by robbery into hunger, by hunger into desperation, by desperation into wild outbreaks, and by such outbreaks into the waiting knife--such is the coolly calculated plan. Mass murder is the goal, a massacre such as history has not seen." Bump to bottom corner of text, light wear to extremities, mild toning to small portion of cover and to spine. A near-fine copy of a very rare title.
"Further Evidence Has Accumulated of the German Government's Fixed Determination To Make the Lives of Its Jewish Subjects Insupportable..."
Stein, Leonard, editor. The Persecution of the Jews in Germany. Supplementary Bulletin No. 2. London: The Joint Foreign Committee, 1933. $300.
Slim octavo. Paper Wrappers. 1st Edition.
First edition of this supplementary bulletin, released just a month after the Joint's second pamphlet, detailing even more discrimination against the Jews of Germany, including early reports of brutal abuses in the concentration camps. Broken into categories such as "Further Development of the Persecution"; "Nazi Terror"; and "British Opinion", this supplement deals with newly reported examples of Nazi persecution of the Jews as of 1933. The Joint exhibits extensive knowledge of persecution carried out in areas such as education, employment, and housing as openly published in newspapers. The supplement includes discussion of the early concentration camps as well as violence directed toward Jewish people and property in Germany. Reprint of Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian) set of obituaries laid in describing the Nazi murder of a doctor and his wife's subsequent suicide. A few tiny spots to interior and only slight soiling to wrappers. A near-fine copy. Rare.
First Edition of Armed Resistance of the Jews, 1944
Apenszlak, Jacob and Polakiewicz, Moshe. Armed Resistance of the Jews in Poland. New York: American Federation for Polish Jews, 1944. $175.
Octavo. Paper Wrappers. 1st Edition.
First edition of this meticulous cataloguing of armed Jewish resistance in occupied Poland during World War II. Jacob Apenszlak was the editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper Nasz Przeglad until he fled to America in 1939 to escape the Nazis. He was a frequent co-writer with Moshe Polakiewicz. Together, working for the American Federation for Polish Jews, the pair produced this work on the armed resistance of the Jews in Poland. While most know about the Polish partisans, the Polish Jewish community was also heavily involved in trying to disrupt and destroy the Nazi occupation as partisans and also as guerilla fighters in the ghettos (Lublin, Vilna, Warsaw) and in the death camps (Majdanek, Trawniki, Poniatow). The authors devote a substantial section to relating the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in chronological order, from the uniquely cruel murders of the inhabitants to various individual stands against deportation to the death camps. In addition to focusing on those resistance efforts, this work serves as an honest journalistic report on the state of Jewish life in Poland and the existential threat imposed by the Nazis. Faint numbers written on corner of front wrapper. About-fine condition.
First Edition in English of One of the First Holocaust Narratives, The Story of a Polish Jew Attempting to Escape Lwow During World War II
Szende, Stefan. The Promise Hitler Kept. London: Victor Gollancz, 1945. $125.
Octavo. Hardcover. 1st Edition in English.
First edition in English of this harrowing tale about "The Last Jew Out of Poland," a man named Adolf Folkmann who fled from Lwow to Norway, barely escaping the Nazi's murder machine. "The promise was the extermination of the Jews. Here is the story of that accomplishment in Poland, not Warsaw this time, but Lwow. It is also the story of Adolf Folkmann [as told to Hungarian writer Stefan Szende], one of the few to escape--his immunity at first working as a salvage collector of Germans--his contact with a Ukranian which saved him once more--and finally, as liquidation became wholesale, his escape through the Underground to Norway as a Polish Aryan slave laborer--and from Norway to Sweden. A personal, practical sauve qui peut attitude colors this account of terrorization and escape. It is not a popular subject--but it is dramatic reading" (Kirkus). Originally published in Swedish as Den siste juden frän Poland. Book fine, dust jacket about-fine.
Credits:
Created with an image by zef art - "Low key image of jewish holiday Hanukkah background with menorah on dark toned foggy background"