[Rarebooks] fs: A Jewish Museum of the Collected...

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

     "Although museums all over the world
      contain religious objects which have
      been taken out of their proper
      surroundings, the circumstances under
      which these Jewish objects from Bohemia
      and Moravia were collected during the
      Second World War were different. This
      process had been preceded by the
      'collection' of the human beings who
      had once owned and used them."


Volavkova, Hana. A STORY OF THE JEWISH MUSEUM IN PRAGUE.

Prague; Artia: 1968.

The original Jewish Museum in Prague was founded in 1906 by Dr. Hugo
Lieben and Dr. Augustin Stein. After the Nazi invasion the Museum was
closed, but when the Nazis began rounding up Jewish residents, closing
synagogues and confiscating all Jewish property, Dr. Stein managed to
negotiate to have special objects stored at the Museum under care of a
group of Jewish scholars.

After the War the Museum and its contents came under the control of the
Soviet government, but in 1994 it was returned to the Jewish Community of
Prague and has become an important and vibrant center for the preservation
of Jewish art and artifacts. This moving book deals with the Museum during
the Second World War, when its staff worked in a surreal atmosphere to
catalog and care for the incoming artifacts before they themselves were
taken away to the death camps. It is not so much a history as a collection
of reminiscences and vignettes, illustrated with period photographs as
well as new photographs of objects from the collection.

"Although museums all over the world contain religious objects which have
been taken out of their proper surroundings, the circumstances under which
these Jewish objects from Bohemia and Moravia were collected during the
Second World War were different. This process had been preceded by the
'collection' of the human beings who had once owned and used them. Into
this Museum were packed the earthly possessions of a large group of Jews
condemned to death. For a short time they were cared for by a smaller
group who were also destined to die. They spent their last days cataloging
the objects under the strictest supervision of the enemy, for a museum
whose primary object was to show them up in a bad light".

Hardcover. 9.5"x11", 344 pages, 166 illustrations, some in color; dj; a
very good copy with light wear. [04652] $85.00

Illustration-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/images/th-04652.jpg>

The Jewish Museum of Prague
<http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/aindex.htm>

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