拍卖会 12 Important collection, Eretz Israel, settlement, anti-Semitism, Holocaust and She'erit Ha-Pleita, postcards and photographs, Judaica - Books, Chabad, Rabbinical Letters
由 DYNASTY 举行
2.8.21
Abraham Ferrera 1 , Jerusalem, 以色列
The auction will take place on Monday, August 2nd, 2021 at 19:00 (Israel time).
该拍卖会已结束

拍卖品 59:

Jews building the Warsaw ghetto wall - a large and rare photograph - Large and rare photograph [March-April 1940]


起拍价:
$ 250
拍卖行佣金: 22%
增值税: 17% 仅对佣金收取

Jews building the Warsaw ghetto wall - a large and rare photograph - Large and rare photograph [March-April 1940]


A large and rare  photograph showing Jews with armbands building the Warsaw ghetto wall on the outskirts of Schwintokrizka Street Warsaw, [March-April 1940]. The photo shows five Jews laying bricks for the construction of the ghetto wall at the end of Schwintokrizka Street, which borders Marzalkowska Street, next to the store of "Watani Magazine", which was owned by Jan Tarnowski and his partners. This wall stood for about ten months. In 1941, the Germans ordered  to be evacuated as part of an increase in the area of the ghetto, and in fact it reached the intersection of Zilna and Begano streets. (In the map of the Warsaw ghetto that appears in the book 'Warszawski Ghetto', the new location of the wall can be seen). The temporary wall in the photo before us was built in March-April 1940 on the outskirts of the Jewish residential area, known as the "Seuchensperrgebiet". The Jews were obliged both in the construction of the wall, and in the burden of expenses.


In the summer of 1940, the Germans informed the chairman of the Warsaw ghetto Judenrat, Adam Czerniakow, of their plan to create a closed area in Warsaw where Jews would be forced to settle. For many months, the Jews of Warsaw were forced to build the wall that would become the wall surrounding the Warsaw ghetto, and the Judenrat was tasked with financing its construction expenses. In November 1940, the Warsaw ghetto with more than 450,000 Jews closed. Of the 1,800 streets in the city of Warsaw, only 73 were included in the ghetto.


Regarding the construction of the ghetto walls by the Jews themselves, Mary Berg wrote in her diary in November 1940: "Today the Jewish ghetto was officially established. The Jews were forbidden to move outside the borders marked by certain streets. There is vigilant movement. Our people hurry nervously through the streets, whispering varied rumors, each more imaginative than the other. Work on the walls - which will be three yards high [almost 3 meters] - has already begun. Jewish builders, supervised by Nazi soldiers, place bricks on top of bricks. Those who do not work fast enough are punished by whipping by the inspectors. It makes me think of the biblical description of our slavery in Egypt. But where is Moses who will free us from our new slavery? "


On June 25, 1945, the chairman of the Judenrat, Adam Chernyakov, describes in his diary the reduction of the ghetto area: "In the plan, the 'Shifra-Gavit' (sperregebiet - quarantine area) was reduced and the streets Khmielna, Marshalkovska, the Old City, etc. were removed. On the other hand annexed the... Jewish cemetery (the three points are originally. Apparently Chernyakov wrote this with bitter irony). The Jewish hospital is out of bounds". Similarly, on September 27, 1940, he wrote:" Information about the ghetto. The area has been greatly reduced. Telomska Street with the synagogue, the hospital in Chista, will probably be outside the ghetto". (Here Chernyakov goes on to list a long list of streets that were removed from the area where the ghetto was planned to be built).


The photograph before us also appears in the Yad Vashem Museum under the caption: "Jews building the Warsaw ghetto wall."


Provenance: Moreshet Museum - Mordechai Anielewicz Testimony House.


Size: 32x20 cm. Glued to a thick wooden board for display and preservation. Very good condition.