Asculta Israele! (Listen Israel!)
[Bucharest]: Biblioteca Evreiasca, 1941. First edition. Softcover. Octavo. 56pp. Printed tan paper staple-bound wrappers with black lettering on the covers, protected by modern mylar.
This extremely scarce work is one of at least three known publications written in the period leading up to the Holocaust by Romanian-Jewish journalist Matias Grünberg (credited as "A. Willman"), aimed his fellow Romanian Jews. Here the author discusses the current state of anti-Semitism in the country, and proposes that Romanian Jews leave the country and be resettled elsewhere, as a resolution of the so-called "Jewish Question". It is interesting to note that the author does not see either Palestine or America as the solution to fulfill the premise of a Jewish state, and states that the Jews should even be willing to work with and accept support from Nazi Germany. This work was published as a follow-up to the author's work "Solutia Eroica a Problemei Evreiesti" (A Heroic Solution to the Jewish Problem, 1937).
Written in 1940, and published in 1941, this most certainly was the author's final individually published work, as pogroms and outright massacres of Jews by Romanian forces (including the Iron Guard), with the support from Nazi Germany, had already begun in the country, as of the beginning of the year. The infamous Iasi Pogrom, one of the deadliest single massacres of Jews in the country took place in June of 1941. In 1942 Grünberg was appointed as prominent member of the collaborationist Central Board of Jews in Romania, who did the bidding of the fascist Antonescu regime and the Nazis. The back wrapper contains an advertisement for the author's two previous 1937 works "Solutia Eroica a Problemei Evreiesti" and "Statul Federal al Evreilor" (Federal State of the Jews).
Text in Romanian.
Wrappers with some rubbing to extremities, with chipping and closed tears to the spine. Light stains to covers. Faint red ink stamp on the front cover. Pages lightly age toned, with a few instances of minor stains or smudges in the margins. Pages 9-16 with small tears along the edge, with no loss of text. Wrappers in good, interior in very good- condition overall. g to vg-. Item #52244
There are no copies on OCLC worldwide.
Matias Grünberg (aka Adolf Willman or Matei Grünberg-Willman, b.1893) was a Romanian-Jewish journalist and writer, who served as Director of the Gazeta Evreiasca (Jewish Gazette), from 1942-1944. This was the official press organ of the Centrala Evreilor din România (Central Board of Jews in Romania), which was the equivalent of the Judenrat (Jewish Council). The organization was initiated by Ion Antonescu's dictatorship in early 1942, to be the official representatives of the Romanian Jewish Community during this horrific period. Even other Jews who were part of the board or who collaborated with the regime, apparently viewed Grünberg as a Nazi asset, and it is likely the he was directly appointed by Nazi leadership, as he seemed to have semi-covert contacts with the Germans for some years. This council was responsible for helping to implement the plans of both the fascist Romanian regime and the Nazis, in the forced deportation and extermination of the Jewish community, during the Holocaust. Upon the liberation of Romania in December of 1944, the center was dissolved, and its notorious president Nandor Gingold (1905-1986), as well as Grünberg and other key figures in the organization, were convicted with collaborating with the Nazis, and sentenced to decades in prison.
Bibliographic references: Yad Vashem; Michael. Marrus (ed.), The Nazi Holocaust. Part 6: The Victims of the Holocaust. Volume 2; Slowakei, Rumänien und Bulgarien (Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945); Regime Changes, Public Memory and the Pursuit of Justice: The Case of German-Speaking Jews in Bukovina (1920-1960); Deletant, Dennis. "Hitler’s Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and His Regime, Romania 1940–44"; Marian, Boris. De 4000 de ani (2008); Hillberg, Raul. Ejecutores, víctimas y testigos (2022); Encyclopeadia Judaica, vol.14, p.407.
Price: $950.00