A Presentation Bible – Silver Plaque Engraved with a Dedication to Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski – Lodz Ghetto, 1941

A Presentation Bible – Silver Plaque Engraved with a Dedication to Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski – Lodz Ghetto, 1941
A small presentation Bible given to the head of the Judenrat of the Lodz Ghetto, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, mounted with a silver plaque made by a Jewish silversmith in the ghetto. Lodz Ghetto (December 1941).
An incomplete copy of the Bible, the Daniel Ernst Jablonski edition (Berlin, 1710), presumably re-bound in the ghetto and presented to Rumkowski. A silver plaque mounted on the front board, with an engraved dedication: " The Exalted President C.M.R [Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski], Bible, Litzmannstadt Ghetto, the eighth of Tevet 5702 [December 1941]" (Hebrew). Engraved above the dedication are two Stars of David and a seven-branched menorah, whose candles send beams of light to the words "Exalted President". The dedication and illustration are surrounded by a narrow olive branch border, the lower left corner imitating a fold. Additional handwritten dedication on front endpaper: "As an eternal keepsake, by Tzvi Peretz" (Hebrew).
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski (1877-1944) headed the Judenrat of the Lodz Ghetto throughout its entire existence. Rumkowski is considered one of the most controversial figures in the history of the Holocaust and as the head of the ghetto instituted an extreme personality cult, orchestrating parades in his honor, hanging his picture in schools, issuing banknotes and postage stamps with his portrait, etc., so much that some defined his rule as "a state within a state, a corrupt Fascist miniature". Among his roles, Rumkowski was responsible for providing lists of people to be sent to the extermination camps. In 1944, he was sent with the last inmates of the ghetto to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where he was murdered, presumably, that same day.
The Yad Vashem collection of artifacts contains several unique silver artifacts made by Jewish silversmiths in the Lodz Ghetto during the Holocaust, including a small prayer book shaped folding silver Hanukkah lamp, given to Rumkowski by Zisso Eibeschitz, the manager of the paper factory in the ghetto (the Hanukkah lamp was found amidst the ruins of Rumkowski's house in the ghetto); a decorated silver Esther Scroll case, also given as a gift to Rumkowski; a pin made in the ghetto by artist Chaim Klieger; and additional items.
Incomplete copy of the Bible, missing the books of Genesis, Deuteronomy and Isaiah. Several additional leaves are missing and several leaves are bound out of order. The book was re-bound in a cloth-covered binding, with a shoelace bookmark. Approx. 10.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and minor blemishes. Small tears to edges of several leaves. Open tears to several leaves (repaired with tape and paper). Ownership inscription on the last leaf of the Book of Malachi (blank).