Földvári Books

Early Firsthand Reports on The Grossaktion Warsaw, Treblinka and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

[In Hebrew:] Hurban Yahadut Varsha. [Liquidation of Jewish Warsaw. According to Official Documents Received by the Representation of Polish Jewry.]

[Tel Aviv]: [S.n. but Reprezentacja Żydowsta Polskiego], October 1943. First edition. Text in Hebrew, except for the map which is bilingual (Polish-Hebrew). Former collection copy, related ink inscriptions on the title page, private bookplate on title page verso (Rabbi Yehuda Liv), stamp on the second leaf and on p. 28. Stenciled. Bound by staples and papered spine. (4), 29, (1) p., and a map of Treblinka II extermination camp. Damaged at spine. Title page and last leaf chipped, slightly worn. Paper toned throughout. Otherwise in very good condition.

Hebrew translation of the first comprehensive description of the Treblinka extermination camp, illustrated with the first printed map of the camp, produced for confidential circulation and consequently scarce. One of the earliest reports on the Grossaktion Warsaw, supplemented with a firsthand account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

This pamphlet constitutes the first Hebrew edition of the so-called November Report of Oneg Shabbat, addressed to the Polish government-in-exile and to Allied governments, dated 15 November 1942. The present edition is supplemented with three documents concerning the liquidation of the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw, the situation of the postal service in the Ghetto, and a firsthand report on the Ghetto Uprising. It was presented in Tel Aviv by the Representation of Polish Jewry (Reprezentacja Żydowsta Polskiego, RŻP) and intended to remain classified (“the current account is strictly confidential, intended only for personal use and not for publication in the press”) on 20 October 1943. The RŻP functioned as an international umbrella organization of Polish Jewish political parties engaged in relief efforts for Polish Jewry, operating mainly in Palestine as part of the World Jewish Congress and in connection with the Polish Government‑in‑Exile.

The November Report comprises four parts. The Hebrew translation is verbatim, although the chapter order differs. The first part, Liquidation of Jewish Warsaw (Likwidacja żydowskiej Warszawy), describes the Grossaktion Warsaw—the Nazi mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka II, the extermination camp north-east of Warsaw—between 22 July and 21 September 1942. The second section depicts daily life in the so-called residual ghetto after the operation. The third section surveys the extermination of Jews in the provinces. The fourth part, illustrated with the map, concerns Treblinka II.

This report constitutes the first comprehensive description of the Treblinka II extermination camp and is regarded as largely reliable and accurate. It records the camp’s location and size, describes its construction, reports on the Sonderkommando (Jewish work units), and documents the extreme conditions faced by prisoners, whose life expectancy was no more than two weeks (Arad, pp. 354–355). The report is based on testimonies of escapees who reached the Warsaw Ghetto and gave evidence to Oneg Shabbat. The map—showing the gas chambers and principal structures—was drawn by Abraham Jacob Krzepicki (1915–1943), a Warsaw Ghetto resident deported to Treblinka on 25 August 1942 who escaped eighteen days later and returned to the Ghetto to testify. This is the first eyewitness account of crimes committed in Treblinka; its manuscript is preserved in the Ringelblum Archive (RING. II/299; Mf. ŻIH—800; USHMM—55). After returning to the Ghetto, Krzepicki joined the ŻOB (Jewish Combat Organization) and fought in the Uprising; he was killed in April 1943. (Krzepicki’s map was later reproduced in Yankel Wiernik’s 1945 memoir A Year in Treblinka, which has led to frequent misattribution of the map to Wiernik.)

The original text of the November Report was transmitted from Warsaw to London via the Delegatura (the representative of the Polish government-in-exile in occupied Poland) on 6 January 1943 (Arad, p. 354). Details appeared in August 1943 in the London periodical Polish Labor Fights and were cited in The New York Times on 8 August 1943. The complete translation of the Treblinka chapter and additional details were published in The Black Book of Polish Jewry in mid-December 1943. The unedited Polish text was first published in 1951 in Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego; its most recent publication is in Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 11, doc. 68, pp. 330–387.

The sources of the three supplementary documents in the present edition, as well as any later publications of them, could not be traced.

As part of the Final Solution, the Grossaktion Warsaw entailed the deportation and mass murder of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto in Treblinka II. Between 23 July and 21 September 1942, approximately 300,000 Jews were deported and murdered there. When a further wave of deportations began in January 1943, many of the remaining Jews resolved to resist. The uprising began on 19 April 1943 and continued until mid-May. Approximately 13,000 Jews were killed during the fighting; the remaining ca. 42,000 Ghetto inhabitants were deported and almost all murdered. During Treblinka II’s operation, from 23 July 1942 to 19 October 1943, an estimated 700,000 to 900,000 Jews were killed in its gas chambers.

Oneg Shabbat (Oyneg Shabes/Shabbos) was a group of historians, writers, rabbis, and social workers in the Warsaw Ghetto, led by Emanuel Ringelblum, dedicated to collecting documents, testimonies, and reports to chronicle Ghetto life and to create an archive for future historians. Its holdings—ranging from underground press and official documents to diaries, drawings, ephemera, photographs, and statistical material—were buried in three caches before the Uprising; two were recovered after the war. The collection, known as the Ringelblum Archive and comprising some 6,000 documents, including drafts and copies of the November Report (RING. II/192; Mf. ŻIH—836; USHMM—67), is preserved at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

Extremely scarce. WorldCat locates only two copies worldwide (Library of Congress; National Library of Israel).

References: Apenszlak, J. (ed.): The Black Book of Polish Jewry. New York: Roy Publishers, 1943.; Arad, Y.: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 1987.; Bańkowska, A., Epsztein, T. (ed.): Archiwum Ringelbluma. Ludzie i prace "Oneg Szabat”. Volume 11. Warszawa: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma, 2013.; Bańkowska, A.: The anniversary of compiling „The liquidation of Jewish Warsaw" report. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.jhi.pl/en/blog/2013-11-15-the-anniversary-of-compiling-the-liquidation-of-jewish-warsaw-report; Kassow, S. D.: Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive. Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 2007.; Krzepicki, A.: Człowiek uciekł z Treblinek… Rozmowy z powracającym. Warsaw: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, 2017.; Shapiro, R. M., Epsztein, T. (ed.): The Warsaw Ghetto. Oyneg Shabes–Ringelblum Archive. Cataloge and Guide. Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 2009.

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Price: €12,000.00