Bidspirit auction | The Black Book of Polish

The Black Book of Polish Jewry - First documentation of the persecution of European Jewry in real time. New York 1943 - First edition - The Black Book of Polish Jewry - an account of the martyrdom of Polish Jewry under the Nazi occupation - edited by Jacob Apenszlak, in collaboration with Isaac Lewin, Moses Polakiewicz, published by The American Federation for Polish Jews. Real-time testimonies on the fate of Polish Jewry under the Nazi occupation - the first complete account of the tragedy of Polish Jewry published under the auspices of a committee of American senators. New York, October 1943 - First edition. “This book, containing a detailed account of the plight of the Jews in Poland from the beginning of the German invasion to the most recent days, is presented to the reader at the most tragic moment in the history of the Jewish people, perhaps at a time when the process of the destruction of Polish Jewry is reaching its most horrifying peak. No other people in occupied Europe has suffered such immense spiritual and material loss, endured such humiliation, and sacrificed so much innocent blood as the Jews in Poland. Yet despite the magnitude of the tragedy, public opinion in the democratic countries is entirely unaware of the conflagration in which hundreds of thousands of Jews have perished under the blows of their barbaric oppressors, or of the destruction of the precious material and spiritual wealth accumulated by Polish Jewry over centuries. This first complete account of the most monstrous persecution in human history is intended to fill the glaring gap in contemporary war literature, which has not yet told its full story... The Black Book of Polish Jewry has been prepared on the principle that the pure truth, without exaggeration and without propaganda, speaks for itself. And this truth, as reflected in eyewitness reports, official documents, affidavits of those who managed to escape from occupied Poland, and even in statements and photographs of the Nazis themselves, presents such a crushing and powerful indictment against Hitler’s cruel and bestial regime that any further indictment would be superfluous...” (from the introduction). A chilling real-time documentation of the mass slaughter and the near-total annihilation of the Jews of Poland. A rare publication issued in the midst of World War II under the auspices of a committee that included Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold L. Ickes, Senator Robert F. Wagner, Fiorello H. La Guardia, and others. The book presents a fairly clear picture of the persecution of European Jewry at that time, through eyewitnesses, reports from the Nazi press, statements of clandestine envoys who infiltrated the tightly guarded territory of Poland, all together presenting shocking documentation of the persecution of European Jewry and its systematic destruction by the Nazis. District after district, city after city, town after town, it recounts the horrifying story of the atrocities and the inconceivable destruction that Hitler’s henchmen inflicted upon Polish Jewry - beginning with street assaults and the seizure of Jewish homes upon the Nazis’ entry into Warsaw, the arbitrary murder of Jews on Nalewki Street in Warsaw, continuing with the appointment of the Warsaw Judenrat and the first attempt to establish the ghetto, forced labor, restriction of Jewish freedom of movement, starvation and the spread of disease among the Jewish population, harrowing testimonies from within the Jewish ghetto - punishments for escape attempts, the looting and beatings endured by Jews in the ghetto, the rise in mortality rates in the ghetto, factual data on the rampant hunger, and more. Further on, documentation of the deportation of Jews from the ghettos of Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz, Lublin, Vilna and others to the death camps. The process of systematic extermination in the gas chambers of Chelmno, as well as, for the first time here in the midst of World War II, testimonies from within the Treblinka death camp - the transports to the camps, arrival at the camp, the various roles of the kapos, the selection of prisoners, and their dispatch to death in the gas chambers - among the first testimonies heard outside Europe regarding the killing of Jews by gas (the gas chambers are referred to here as “death chambers”), and more. All the documents and affidavits in the book were carefully examined by recognized authorities in order to achieve full verification of the facts. Among other things, the book includes a report by an envoy of the Polish government on the destruction of Warsaw and the outlawing of the Jews of Poland, and more. As well as on the destruction of Jewish economic, cultural, social, and religious life. The book is accompanied by numerous photographs and reproductions of documents collected from authoritative sources. Among the photographs: Jews arrested in the ghetto by German soldiers for the “crime” of carrying food, Jewish forced laborers in the ghetto,