Bidspirit auction | Rescue letter signed by Jakob

Rescue letter signed by Jakob Edelstein, head of the “Council of Elders” (Judenältestenrat) of the Theresienstadt Ghetto - Autograph signature of Jakob Edelstein, head of the Ältestenrat (“Council of Elders”) of the Theresienstadt Ghetto (who perished in Auschwitz), on a rescue-related document connected to the Palestine Office in Prague, late 1930s. A rescue letter on behalf of the mother of a Jew named D. V. Zaitschek, attempting to obtain a British passport for her. In his letter, Edelstein writes: “I received your letter of the 15th of this month and submitted your mother’s application to the British Passport Office. I hope that this time it will succeed. Warm regards, Jakob Edelstein.” Jakob Edelstein (1903–1944, Auschwitz) a Czech Jewish leader who served as head of the Zionist movement in Czechoslovakia and director of the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency in Prague from 1933. A member of HeHalutz, he was appointed at the age of 38 as the first head of the Ältestenrat (”Council of Elders”) in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Edelstein was born in 1903 in Horodenka, Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Ukraine). During World War I, he moved with his family to Brno, where he joined the Blau-Weiss movement. He and his family held certificates for immigration to Palestine before the war and had planned to join Kibbutz Givat Haim, but Edelstein chose to remain and not abandon his community. In 1939, he was deported by the Germans to the Nisko camp, from which he managed to return to Prague. In December 1941, he was sent to Theresienstadt, where, as head of the Ältestenrat alongside Paul Eppstein, he sought to establish a functioning Jewish city within the ghetto and even dared to confront Adolf Eichmann, head of the SS Jewish Affairs Department responsible for deportations across Europe. At one point, the HeHalutz organization proposed that Edelstein escape from Theresienstadt. He refused, out of concern for his community. In December 1943, Edelstein was deported with his family to Auschwitz, accused of forging identity documents to save Jews. On June 20, 1944, he was executed in Block 11, along with his wife and son. [1] Leaf. 21x15 cm. Red ink scribbles. Good condition.