Vaad Hatzalah shel Ha-Sochnot Ha-Yehudim L'Eretz Yisrael (The Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency for Israel). Bulletin. August, 1945 & February (2), 1946 (2 ISSUES)
[Jerusalem]: Vaad Hatzalah (The Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency for Israel), 1946. Staplebound/ Loose Leaf. 8 1/4 x 10 1/2". Mimeographed stapled pages. Title, date, and table of contents on the initial unpaginated leaf.
Initiated in 1943 in Jerusalem, the 'Rescue Committee' of the larger Jewish Agency for Israel (originally titled 'the Committee for the Jews of Occupied Europe') was founded to rescue European Jews from Nazi persecution, at a time when the Holocaust was becoming even more apparent and brutal. Headed by Yitzhak Gruenbaum (1879–1970) the committee included members from across the political spectrum of Zionist entities in Mandatory Palestine and included representatives from many Jewish agencies, political parties, and immigrant associations. This represented and symbolized the wide-ranging support and united commitment to the the goals of the organization throughout the Jewish community in Palestine. Like other similar international Jewish organizations at the time, such as the similarly named 'Vaad Hatzalah' (the American organization), the activities of this Committee included at various times, diplomatic overtures to Allied powers, support for and communication with underground and resistance movements in occupied Europe, efforts to smuggle or legally get Jews out of Europe, raising funds from the international and local Jewish community, and the sending of food, supplies and medicine to Jews in Europe.
Published sporadically between the establishment of the committee in 1943, and 1947, these scarce issues of the organization's bulletins mainly focused on the plight of Jewish Holocaust survivors, refugees and displaced persons in Europe in the immediate postwar period. Included are reports from relief workers, collected statistical data, observations, excerpts from letters, correspondence and firsthand accounts from the period of the war and the postwar, which collectively paint a broad picture of the scale of the devastation of the Jewish communities of Europe in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
August, 1945 Bulletin. [1], 11pp. Content divided into 9 sections, presents a systematic survey of the condition of Jewish communities in Europe, following the direct aftermath of the war :
1) Polish Jews in Romania, 2) The Jews of Lodz, 3) A letter from a Dutch Jewish woman in Malmo, discussing the transportation of Jews during the allied advance, 4) Report on the economic situation of Jews in Belgium and the Netherlands, 5) A letter a Czech Jew in the Pilzen region, in the postwar American Zone, 6) Report on Jews in German DP camps, 7) Report on the Jews in Munich, 8) Report on the Jews in Hamburg from a British Army soldier, 9) Report on the suffering of the Jews of Czernowitz, Ukraine. None of these sections are credited to any author.
February, 1946 Bulletin. [1], 13pp. Content of the is divided into 7 sections:
1) A Letter from Vilna, 2) From a letter about the state of Jews in Poland, 3) A letter from Tarnopol, 4) the State of Jews in Vienna after the War, 5) The state of Jewish refugees coming to Austria, 6) A story from a member of the Jewish underground in France who was in the Gleiwitz camp (by Shlomo Mendelson), 7) In Transnistria (by Berel Ivanitzer).
First page of 1946 bulletin detached from the staple but present, with a few small holes along the vertical crease. Pages with folding creases, and some foxing. 1945 bulletin, with two-hole punches along the left edge, and some light foxing to the edges of pages throughout. Extremely scarce. Issues in good to very good- condition overall. g to vg-. Item #55013
The committee should not be confused with the more famous American-Jewish organization (Vaad Hatzalah) started by Rabbi Eliezer Silver. This is the 'Rescue Committee' of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Extremely scarce, with only two known institutional holdings for any of these bulletins worldwide, on OCLC.
Hebrew title: 1946 ,ביולטין, אוגוסט, 1945 ; ביולטין, פברואר (ב)
Author(s): ברל איבניצר, שלמה מנדלזון
Publication: ועדת-ההצלה של הסוכנות-היהודים לארץ-ישראל.
Price: $3,000.00