Bidspirit auction | ”And Yet We Have Not

”And Yet We Have Not Forgotten Your Name!” - a collection of 7 chilling letters sent by Rabbi Avraham Prins, among the rabbis of Amsterdam, from his hiding place from the Nazis, to his friend Professor Van Creveld - chilling documentation of the severe conditions in his hiding place and moving testimony of devotion and self-sacrifice to observe the Mitzvah of Brit Milah under any circumstance - Amsterdam, circa 1942-1943. A collection of letters sent by Rabbi Avraham Prins, of the rabbis of Amsterdam, from his hiding place from the Nazis, to his friend Professor Van Creveld, a chilling testimony to the distress and hardship in hiding, and the self-sacrifice to fulfill Mitzvot amidst the terrible distress: In these letters we find a wondrous testimony to the prayer of the Jewish people throughout the generations, 'And yet we have not forgotten Your name, please do not forget us'. A letter in which he recounts staying in hiding with his family, and when a carpenter arrived to work in the house, everyone had to hide from him so he would not see there were Jews in the house. His wife's mother, who was with them, could not hide due to her old age, and by the grace of Heaven nothing happened. But after a few days she fell ill and returned her soul to her Creator. And they buried her in a Jewish burial with shrouds and Tahara! He concludes the letter with New Year wishes and a poem he wrote from hiding, a prayer for a good year and the redemption of Israel: May it be the will of the Lord our God That He redeem our brethren And ransom His nation soon The endlessly stricken Those in distress The scattered in captivity May God bring them from darkness to light From sorrow to joy and comfort May the Lord bring them from slavery to freedom And renew upon them and upon the whole world a year of humanity Seat them in peace in their land And bring them all safely to their homes From youth to elder So may it be His will, and let us say Amen. In a letter, apparently from the end of 1944, we find a chilling halachic question testifying to unimaginable self-sacrifice. Rabbi Avraham addresses his friend with the goal of helping him find a Mohel willing to risk himself to circumcise a child: 'In one of the families that were hidden in secret in this city a child was born, a boy, and for the time being the father does not want to give permission to circumcise his son, and here I ask you: Do you know if there is still a Kosher Mohel who dares to circumcise a child?' And regarding Pidyon HaBen, an additional question if there is a Kohen in the city to whom the redemption money can be given. In another letter he laments the state of Judaism and recounts his lectures in the labor camps and his realization during the Holocaust that all of Israel are one: 'Thank you for the books you sent us, the book Hygiene and Judaism was in my library, it was... I do not know where Hygiene is now.. and Judaism...' In this letter Rabbi Avraham recounts his hiding place, 'During the day there is darkness in our house and also cold, and towards evening we light the stove and light the candle and then we begin to live, here I have enough time to think about our nation, about our community, about the future...' 'Before my hiding I was for some time the head of religious education in Amsterdam. The experience in these days and also in the labor camps where I spoke a few times, taught me a lot.... but besides this, my opinion is that the ”distant ones” also belong to the community, for we are all children of Israel, this we learned especially in this time...' In another letter we find Rabbi Avraham describing his joy at meriting to learn Torah by the light of the candle sent to him by his friend: 'You heard about our bad luck with the lighting.. The room we sit in is very dark and black, and even during the day it is impossible to read and learn there, the lack of work is terrible. Last Friday night we lit the candle you gave us a few months ago, by the large and beautiful flame I learned for as long as possible, about 5 hours, [with] great pleasure!' A chilling and moving testimony of self-sacrifice for the observance of Torah and Mitzvot within the terrible inferno. 7 letters, most of them 2 pages or more. Attached is a handwritten leaf of the times of the day for the onset of the Jewish festivals and Shabbat in the holiday months of Tishrei 1944. Good and preserved condition. ובכל זאת שמך לא שכחנו! -  אוסף 7 מכתבים מצמררים ששלח רבי אברהם פרינס מרבי אמסטרדם, ממחבואו מפני הנאצים, אל ידידו פרופסור פאן קרעפעלד - תיעוד מצמרר על חיי הדחק במחבואו ועדות מרגשת על דבקות ומסירות נפש לשמירת מצוות ברית מילה בכל מצב - אמסטרדם, תש”ב-תש”ד בקירוב | 1942-1943  אוסף מכתבים ששלח רבי אברהם פרינס מרבני אמסטרדם, מתוך מחבואו מפני הנאצים, אל ידידו פרופסור פאן קרפלד, עדות מצמררת על תנאי הדחק והקושי במחבוא,