Krieges Tagebuch eines jungen Emigranten [War Diary of a Young Emigrant], by Heinz Wisla. Typewritten. Jerusalem, 1944. German.
Memoir by Heinz Wisla (1920-2004), a Berlin-born Jew, recounting the story of his escape from Nazi Germany and his arduous journey to Palestine. Typewritten, with a handwritten title page, signed by Wisla (noted on title page: "Berlin 1940"). Corrections in pen and pencil on many leaves. Enclosed with the book are three pictures of the author, two taped to title page and on back endpaper. Handwritten beneath the picture on the endpaper: "Jerusalem – 1944".
A Hebrew adaptation of the book, "Ba-derekh le-Erets-Yisra'el", was published in 1945 by "Am Oved", under the pseudonym Ben-Zvi Kalischer (translated from a German manuscript by Shalom Kremer).
According to the memoir, Wisla escaped Nazi Germany in the beginning of the war, after a period of imprisonment in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. His long journey to Palestine, passing through many countries – Slovakia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere, was laden with adventures. Among other things, Wisla describes swimming to escape the gunshots of Romanian border guards, drifting to a lonely island in the Aegean Sea, and meeting with Pope Pius XII in the Vatican. In February 1944, Wisla reached Palestine on board the illegal immigrant ship Nyassa.
The description of the meeting between Wisla and the Pope is one of the most astounding passages in the diary. Wisla writes that upon reaching Rome from the Italian detention camp in Rhodes, he was able to arrange an audience with the Pope, alongside several German-Catholic paratroopers, who were on their way to the North-African front. During this audience, Wisla requested the Pope's aid in improving the situation of Jewish refugees. The Pope promised to do whatever he could and even announced to Wisla, the German soldiers still within earshot: "My friend, you are a Jew and must be proud […] always be proud of being a Jew!". This story was published in April 1944 in the Jerusalem Post (anonymously). Some used this story to disprove the claims that Pope Pius XII adopted a policy of non-involvement during the destruction of European Jewry.
The credibility of this memoir is questionable (though presumably Wisla indeed escape from Germany, some of the details in his memoir are imprecise or unverifiable).
[135] leaves, 27.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear and small tears to margins (not affecting text). Fold lines and creases. One leaf cut in its lower part (one third of leaf is missing). Worn, loose card binding.

Large map (approx. 200X200 cm.) of Kudirkos Naumiestis in Lithuania. Edited and sketched by Rachmiel (Ralf) Goldberg. Mimeographed manuscript. Chicago, 1971. Yiddish and some English.
A map of the Lithuanian city of Kudirkos Naumiestis, documenting the local Jewish community before its destruction in the Holocaust in 1941. Marked on the map are the houses of the Jewish residents, the institutions of the community (the synagogue, the Kloyz and the Beit Midrash, Chevra Kaddisha, and more) as well as the mass graves of the Jews who were murdered during the months of June-September 1941. On the lower part appears a small map of Lithuania.
In the margins, a short historical review of the 250 years of Jewish settlement in Kudirkos Naumiestis, until the destruction of the Jewish community during the Holocaust, and a description of the creation of the map by editor Rachmiel (Ralf) Goldberg. Goldberg writes that he sketched the map from memory, with the help of his friends, and notes that he chose to sketch the streets large and wide so that names could be added to them and mistakes that were surely made could be corrected (indeed, several names were added by hand to this map). He emphasizes the importance of the map for future generations, writing: "Perhaps … an offspring might randomly unfold the map, out of curiosity, and see a name he has once heard, or maybe he might notice how and when the destruction occurred, and then perhaps he might recall: do not forget and do not forgive" (Hebrew).
On verso, a sticker with information and folding instructions (Yiddish and English).
Approx. 200X200 cm (two conjoined sheets of paper, 200X100 cm each). Good-fair condition. Strips of tape to edges and center, front and back. Tears along edges and fold lines, some reinforced with tape. Paper yellow in part.

Legion, a long poem by Gabriel Talphir. Warsaw: "Pratzim", 1925. Hebrew.
The debut book of poet Gabriel Talphir; an impressive Futurist long poem depicting a vision of Hebrew legions conquering Palestine. The cover was designed by Henryk Berlewi (signed in the plate: "H. Berlewi"). At the beginning, a printed note with corrections.
The Jewish-Polish artist Henryk Berlewi (1894-1967) was one of the leading constructivist artists in Poland in the 1920s. He studied art in Warsaw, Antwerp and Paris. During the years 1919-1921, he worked with the artistic and literary avant-garde group Jung Jiddisch. Berlewi designed and illustrated books; especially remembered are his illustrations for books by poets Uri Zvi Greenberg and Peretz Markish. In 1924, Berlewi published a theoretical essay titled "Mechano-Faktura" in which he introduced the artistic method he had developed – using mechanical means to create texture. The "Mechano-Faktura", which is based on arrangements of lines and simple geometric forms, using the colors black, white and red, rejects the illusion of space in favor of two-dimensionality. In late 1920s, Berlewi moved to Paris, where he mainly focused on painting portraits. After World War II, his works were displayed in several large exhibitions in Paris, as well as in Berlin, Warsaw, Zürich and New York.
80 pp. approx. 27.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Ownership stamp on first page. Stains, creases and blemishes to margins of some leaves. Several leaves with tears to inner margins. Worn and slightly stained cover. Tears and missing parts to spine.

Dos Kelbl [The Calf], by Mendele Mocher Sforim. Kiev: Kiyever Farlag, [1919]. Yiddish. Illustrations by Joseph Tchaikov.
A chapter from "Seyfer Habeheymes" (The Book of Beasts), "Dos tosfos yom tov kelbl" (The Tosfos Yom Tov's calf), by Mendele Mocher Sforim, with seven in-text illustrations by Joseph Tchaikov. Title and cover illustration also by Tchaikov.
The logo of the Kiyever Farlag publishing house which appears on the first page and on the back cover was designed by El Lissitzky.
16 pp, approx. 28.5X22.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Unopened pages. Stains. Small tears to edges of leaves. Restored tears to left edge of all leaves. Minor creases. Vertical fold line to all leaves. Blemishes to cover (repairs to spine and edges).
Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.