Judaica

Holocaust & Related Artifacts

Lot 660
A Completed and Signed Auschwitz Camp Death Certificate; February 6, 1942. The single page document filled out by a neat hand. The victim: "the clerk, Vladislav Rybak, Catholic," was 37 years old at the time of his death. The information basic and minimal -- birth date and place, and name of his parents. Official signature by clerk or secretary, with official rubber stamp in violet. Along with this, another document: a blank "protocol" form for execution for the SS Camp system. The certificate well folded, with beginning separations at the corners; the protocol near pristine. Sizes: 11-1/2 x 8-1/4"; 5-1/2 x 7-1/2". A "special" pair of documents -- the ones the Nazis are most remembered for.
Estimated Value $150-250.

Lot 661
A Lot of Differing Getto Views Under German Occupation, c. 1940's. Lot of six photos with assorted people scenes. Two with bearded Jewish men, in jackets or overcoats, wearing armbands -- one with German inscription on back; the other simply "1941," and thought to be at Litzmannstadt by the consignor. Two more, with market scenes: one a view of the old town, with married women in shawls, and rather old looking children all barefoot, soldiers in the background, "Rybin" in pencil on back; the other with seated men in the middle of the street, inscribed "Winter 1940, Jews in the market place." Along with these, an unusual photo of a bearded jew pumping air into the rear tire of soldier's BMW motorcycle. Lastly, a view of a German soldier striding down a populated, soggy street. On the back, in German, "The ghetto in our area." Photos all very fine or better. Sizes range from: 3 x 2-1/4" to 3-1/2 x 2-3/8". Some interesting shots in this group. Lot of 6 pieces.
Estimated Value $225-UP.

Lot 662
A Notable Group of Jewish Themed Photos of World War II. Here we see the Germans and German Occupation, and the their relations with the Jews, at either extreme of the spectrum. From the more or less humane, a small picture said to be from the Lublin ghetto. Here German soldiers or policemen appear to be sharing bread with some ragamuffin children. Another, with German inscription on back, has of view of "Israel bei der Arbeit" -- seven Jews, under the watchful eyes of three German guards, doing street work in Solec, Poland. Also, a scene of an older Jewish man in Busko, gleaning straw from the street (German inscription on the back to that effect). Another picture, from uncertain local, with a winter time view of a Jewish cemetery. On the darker side, scenes which were more typical towards the end of the Reich -- four scenes of executed Jewish or Polish citizens. Two of these, a dead woman on the ground and on old woman hanging from a tree, are by the Mikhail Shoya, a war correspondent on the Ukrainian front. Lot of 8 pieces, all very fine or better. Photos range from: 2-1/4 x 1-1/2" to 3-1/2 x 2-3/8". Good archival material here.
Estimated Value $300-UP.

Lot 663
Handmade Postcard by Dachau Prisoner Celebrating Liberation Day, 1945. Card of two leaves, the exterior with painted and inked scene, the interior with inscription in five lines, also in ink. The cover shows the gray walls and pavement of Dachau with its iron gates wide open, the receding pathway leading the eye to a rising sun in the distance. This expression of hope and joy in vivid colors compared to the grays of the camp. Below, on a ground of barbed wire shedding large drops of red blood, is boldly written "Dachau 1940 - 1945." Of note, on the left gate is an inset door, over which is the infamous slogan: "Work makes you free." Card intact, a tad yellowed and soiled, with some rubbing to the edges and cover. This an important Holocaust artifact. However, we urge prospective bidders to view the work and form their own opinion. In our opinion the drawing style, the type and texture of the board, along with yellowing from age, seems consistent with other contemporary works in paper from that period. Size: 6 x 4-1/8".
Estimated Value $250-UP.

Lot 664
Jewish Residence Registration. Lot of two registration forms, one for Dawid Jakubowicz, the other for another family member, perhaps a sister-in-law, Rojsa. Living in Eichstädt, Wartbrücken, Poland the two were forced to register, as were all other Poles, with the newly arrived German authorities. Stamped "Jude" at the top of the page, undoubtedly these joined many other forms so stamped as the Nazis began to separate the Jews and begin their special persecution. The verso, written in German and Polish, stresses the penalties for false information. Official stamps. Some toning, else fine.
Estimated Value $150-200.

Lot 665
Lodz Ghetto Artifacts: a 1 Mark Note and Two Postal Items. The note a One Mark Quittung Note: with black and green over printing, and serial number in red, and dated May 15, 1940. Face with denomination in German; the reverse with denomination and menorah. Note faintly yellowed, otherwise near mint condition. The postal items: a postcard addressed to a Max Winternitz(?) in Vienna, brief greetings from Max Fûchs and wife, December 15, 1941; and a registered letter envelope, used within Litzmannstadt, with cancelled stamp, sticker, and verso cancellation, dated February 1, 1944. The stamp a commemorative in brown ink, showing Hitler with flag and eagle standard, with date of January 30, 1944. In addition to these: a parcel receipt return postcard, used within Lublin, for the SS Concentration Camp. This with two rubber stampings, plus one in red for the Red Cross. The cancelled stamp torn off (thought by some to be done in an effort to discern if information was being smuggled to the prisoner). Items very fine or better. Lot of 4 pieces. The registered envelope scarce, and the Lublin camp card rare.
Estimated Value $250-350.

Lot 666
Lot of Three Concentration Camp Letters, all from Auschwitz. Poland, 1943-1944. The letters all of the same form, which open up to a generous two page size. All correspondence written in pencil. Each is a male prisoner writing to his wife, each of whom live in Radom area. All items used postally, and each with red 12 pf. Hitler stamps. Several with small violet hand stamps. Items range from fair to very good condition, one with some recent tape reinforcements. Definately worth your perusal. The two pages fully used in each letter -- each an archive that shouldn't be overlooked.
Estimated Value $350-UP.
These are perhaps the most iconic of Holocaust artifacts that can be acquired in any quantity, and at reasonable prices. The name, Auschwitz, says it all. Each letter is not merely a document, but a testament to those who endured, and sometimes survived the times.

Lot 667
Lot of Three Concentration Camp Letters, Two being Rare. Poland, 1942-1944. One: a prisoner in the Sachsenhausen/Oranienburg camp writes a brief letter to his wife. Two: Another in the camp at Stutthof/Danzig camp writes, also, to his wife. Three: Again, a letter of a prisoner in the Gross-Rosen/Schliessen camp writes to his wife in Radom. All items used postally, most with red 12 pf. Hitler stamps. Several with violet hand stamps warning that correspondence to be written only in German. Items mostly good to fine condition. The Gross-Rosen poor, somewhat tattered with old tape repairs. But this and the Stutthof letters are both quite rare and hard to find.
Estimated Value $300-UP.

Lot 668
Pencil Rendering of an Old Jew, Litzmannstadt Getto, 1941. Old bearded man, in long overcoat and wearing small-brimmed cap, sits towards the right on a cane or bentwood chair. His pose reflecting his years -- tired or listless, his head turned somewhat to the right, his eyes unfocused, his vision looking inward. His cane leans against his body, while one leg is outstretched to ease his knee. By his side is a small plank table on which a book rests. To the right is a window containing a sign written in Hebrew. At left bottom, drawing is inscribed in three lines: "Peter Weber, Litzmannstadt Ghetto, 1941 Jahr." An accomplished work, where the artist has admirably captured the mood of the sitter. The drawing with slight creases at one corner, and signs of fairly recent trimming on two sides. This is a significant and rare work of ghetto art, by an artist who perished in the Holocaust. Weber's work, when availible, regularly sells for over $600.00. Size: 11-1/2 x 9-1/4".
Estimated Value $500-UP.

Lot 669
Photo Lot of Germans and Jews in Wartime Poland. Photos comprised of two groups. One with six scenes from a camp located near Spala, during 1939/1940. This said to be a temporary camp for Jewish and Polish citizens, along with being a residence for POW's. Two scenes include a view of the camp, and group shots of soldiers and officers. Another view shows a work detail of prisoners shouldering a long tree trunk. Another view with distant scene of along line of men in a queue. The last two, a view of smiling women and children at the soup kitchen, along with this a less happy line of male prisoners in the soup line. In the second group are three views, said to be from Zambrow, in Poland. One picture depicts a well dressed Jew, in trousers, braces, and polished shoes, digging a pit under military supervision, with towns people looking on in the back. Another a market scene, with smiling Jewish citizens and German soldiers holding geese and chickens. The last a Jewish man, apparently dead, on the ground. This with hard to decipher penciled inscription on the back. Lot of 9 pieces, all very fine or better. Photos range from: 2-1/2 x 3-5/8" to 2-5/8 x 3-3/4". Interesting material here.
Estimated Value $300-UP.

Lot 670
Prisoner of War Postcards and ID tags. Lot of ten postcards mailed from prisoner of war camps, two postal receipts for mailing to POW camps, two work camp or prisoner of war camp metal badges and two SS identification badges. The postcards, addressed to Paris, Bialystok, Krakow, among other cities, are stamped with various "approved by censor" marks. One assumes these are typical of many such letters, containing concerns about family welfare and the like. A letter from a French prisoner to his mother reveals other worries, "...The news of the bombardment of Paris by the RAF has caused much emotion here...the bombardment confirms for me the total ineptitude of the British in military matters...I worry about the conduct of the war..." The metal badges have embossed legends, one is from Stalag 344, another from a work camp run by the SS and the other two from SS battalions.
Estimated Value $350-UP.

Lot 671
World War II Era. Attractive Group of Polish-related Philatelic Items, c. 1941. Among the material here, most is devoted to postcards or souvenir sheets with Reich/General Government or General Government stamps, often paired with special pictorial cancellations: e.g., Munich, Lublin, Radom, etc. One, from Krakow, with Red Cross overprint, and another with Reich's overprints. A similar elaborately ornamented card for the Reich's Philatelic Organization with militaristic cancellation from Breslau, but without stamp. Also included, a tourist postcard showing folk dance scene, "La nationale danse polonaise," with General Government stamp. Another such stamp, clipped from envelope, dated May 8, 1941, with ghetto cancellation in Hebrew. Among the remaining pieces, two early racist stickers from the infant National Socialist party, then in Munich: one showing heroic German paratroopers, the other exhorting "... the name of civilization." and showing three African soldiers from the French colonies. A varied and intriguing lot, worth your examination. Some items definitely rare! Conditions from fine to choice. Lot of 16 pieces.
Estimated Value $250-UP.

Lot 672
WWI Era Anti-Semetic German Postcard, along with Polish Judaica Ephemera. The postcard by F. Preiss of Berlin, and sent by a soldier undoubtedly stationed on the eastern front. Post marked September 22, 1916, the card sends "Greetings from Russian Poland," and depicts the two notable life forms of the region -- the Russo-Polish Jew and the "Russo-Polish louse (bestia pisacca)." Also from Poland two rare postal or periodical stickers. In blue ink, one for the "Achi-Ezer" Charitable Institution, Lublin, 1917. This with vignette showing bearded man in suit handing bread to a bereft woman flanked by two children. The second a round sticker in red ink, ca. 1920's or 30's, issued by Warsaw's "Linas Hacedek" United Institution. This with a scene of a doctor tending to an elderly man in a hospital bed. From the WW II period are several items. One a postcard-size photo of Polish workers in a German labor camp, wearing the infamous striped jackets. Also a small photo scene from a ghetto in Sicierniewice: several men by a horse drawn wagon, the horse looking half starved. From Krakow, a stamped letter (8-9-39) addressed to Paul Rehfeldt, HICEM Group Leader, in London. Last, a parcel receipt card, with Red Cross stamp, from the SS Camp in Lublin. Two minor stains on WW I postcard, otherwise it and most pieces very fine. The stickers better. The latter around 1-1/2" in size. Lot of 7 pieces. Peruse carefully, some items rare and desirable.
Estimated Value $350-UP.

Lot 673
Arbeitsbücher. Lot of seven identity cards/books. 1). Deutsche Arbeitsfront Mitgliedsbuch for Therese Weiss of Vienna. Book includes several pages of receipt stamps for membership dues to the Worker's Front, dated December 1939- September 1944. 2). Arbeitsbuch für Ausländer, issued to Szeliga Wladrjslawa (Polish) in 1944 and assigning her to farm work. 3). Arbeitsbuch für Ausländer, issued to Feliks Sladaj (Polish) in 1943, listing him as a farmer. 4). Deutsches Reich Arbeitsbuch for Theodor Olesch (of the "Grossdeutsches Reich"), issued in Kattowitz, May 1940. 5). Identity card for Irmgard Kissel, issued in July of 1944, valid until July of 1949. 6). Arbeitskarte for Polish worker Roman Dziub of Blanowice. 7). Arbeitskarte for Paul Penczek of Kopciowitz, Poland, authorizing him to work for I.G. Farben in Dormagen. Conditions vary, there is the expected wear with soil. Fair to very good.
Estimated Value $350-UP.

Lot 674
Interesting and Colorful Lot of Third Reich Postal Items. Among the items are two commemorative postal covers, one cancelled in Kattowitz and the other from Lamsdorf, show the various military forces and their equipment valiantly displayed to their propagandistic best. One set apparently for Germany itself, the stamps inscribed as "Deutches Reich," the other for occupied or "reacquired" territories and denoted as "Gross Deutches Reich." Also, a Polish mail sticker, postally cancelled, showing a red-starred Russian barbarian tearing Christ from the cross, and labeled "Antichrist = Bolshevik." Other items include: an unused telegram envelope with cellophane window; and a similar official business envelope, cancelled in Breslau. On a more human level, a hand drawn Mother's Day card from a border guard in Saarbrucken -- a heartfelt work of nâive art, expressing "joy and bliss" to his mother. Also a photograph of a stalwart female postal employee, wearing Reich's patches and badge on her uniform. Interestingly, an attempt was made to ink out the swastikas and those emblems. Lastly, a good-sized folded map showing the numerical codes for the postal zones in the expanding Reich (ca. 1944). Items mostly letter or postcard size. Map, about 36" x 48". Small items intact, and in fine to very fine condition. Map show modest use, but with some heavy fold marks, and a little taped repairs. Worth a close look. Some striking material here.
Estimated Value $250-450.

Lot 675
Lot of Nazi Propoganda. Lot of five. Three issues of the Soldaten Zeitung, Krakow edition, from October 1939. Published just weeks after the surrender of Poland, these issues are full of the expected propaganda and reports of Nazi successes in Wilna as well as various aspects of international reaction to Nazi movements. Toning, some tears, very good condition, overall. The last two items in this lot are books published by the Niebelungen Publishers, Berlin. The first, Raubstaat Polen, was published in 1939 immediately after the invasion of Poland. Using Nazi world view to justify the invasion, the book is obvious propaganda propagating the idea of "Lebensraum" and the injustice of the Versailles Treaty. Foxing and cover wear/soil, otherwise good to very good condition. The second, Warum Krieg mit Stalin?, published shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941, serves much the same function -- relaying Nazi justifications for the invasion and stressing the greater good of the Nazi policy (an interesting section of the book relates how horrible the Soviets invasion of Finland was, ignoring the fact that at the same time the Nazis were subjugating Poland). Foxing and cover wear/soil, some paper loss at spine; good condition.
Estimated Value $350-450.

Lot 676
Nazi Bureaucracy for Volksdeutsche. Lot of twelve items, most of them related to the position of ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe. 1).Stammbuch for Heinrich (Heinz) Kraus of Reichenberg, the Sudetenland. Seven page document outlining membership in the NSDAP and various responsibilities undertaken as a member. 2). Completed questionnaire for Pole Paul Redlich to ascertain his family's eligibility to be considered member of the German "Volk". Minor foxing throughout. 3). Birth Certificate for Anna Oeter, born in Zossen, May 26, 1942. 4). A group of five documents of soldier Christian Barth, outlining the Russian-born German's family background and eligibility. 5). Identity/duty card for Herbert Schroter of Breslau. 6). Two anti-"Bolshevik" flyers likely printed for sympathetic "Volk" inside of Russia. 7). Printed ration card for a soldier on leave -- valid for two weeks.
Conditions vary, there is toning throughout and scattered minor foxing.
Estimated Value $375-UP.