Bidspirit auction | Two Schoolbooks for Children Published

Two Schoolbooks for Children Published in Amsterdam under Nazi Occupation - Two Hebrew-language textbooks for children published in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation, 1941. Geschenk voor de Israëlietische Jeugd – Leerboek voor het Hebreeuwsch lezen (A Gift for the Children of Israel – A Textbook for Learning to Read Hebrew), by G. G. Kleerkooper, principal of the Talmud Torah School in Amsterdam. Published by E. Mozes Azn., Amsterdam, 1941. Dutch and Hebrew. An illustrated primer for learning the Hebrew alphabet. On the title page, an entire printed line has been manually erased and blacked out - apparently the name of a distributor, partner, or authority, or possibly removed through self-censorship by the local Judenrat to permit the book's continued legal distribution during that difficult year. 4, [44], 2 pages. Good condition. Proosdoor (Voorportaal, voorlooper) – Vestibule – Reading Exercises, by Abraham de Jong (A. de Jong). Published by D. Allegro Press, Amsterdam, June 29, 1941. Hebrew and Dutch. An introductory textbook for learning to read Hebrew. In the preface, the author explains that the booklet is intended to serve as preparatory material before progressing to reading stories in Hebrew, and recommends using it alongside the Hebreeuwsche Themaboek (Hebrew Theme Book), published that same year by the well-known Joachimsthal publishing house in Amsterdam. He further notes that certain lessons (21, 22, and 23) were copied directly from the celebrated Yesodot (Foundations) series of textbooks published in the Land of Israel by Massada Publishing House in Tel Aviv in 1939. The booklet was published ”in cooperation with the Netherlands Zionist Federation” (Nederlandschen Zionistenbond). 28 pages. Good condition. The Jewish educational system in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation became, almost against its will, one of the most moving and tragic acts of spiritual resistance in the history of the Holocaust. Beginning in the autumn of 1941, with the implementation of the anti-Jewish racial decrees, thousands of Jewish pupils and teachers were completely expelled from the Dutch public school system, forcing the community to establish, within a matter of weeks, a separate and isolated network of schools under the supervision of the Joodsche Raad (Jewish Council). These schools operated under impossible conditions of both physical and spiritual siege. The repeated confiscation of school buildings forced classes into temporary barracks or private apartments, while severe shortages of textbooks, paper, and basic educational supplies plagued the system. Yet it was precisely because the world beyond the classroom was collapsing that teachers and pupils clung to routine and learning with almost sacred devotion. Rather than being curtailed, the curriculum was expanded to include the Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Zionist ideals as an anchor of hope and the promise of a future for the children. These schools functioned as enclosed havens of normalcy even as their classrooms grew emptier week after week with the escalating deportations to transit camps and extermination camps, until the educational system itself finally collapsed with the destruction of the Jewish community in September 1943.