Vanished World, The.
[Judaica]. Abramovitch, Raphael, editor. The Vanished World. Forward Association: New York, 1947.
Long 8vo.; very light browning and foxing throughout, mostly not affecting photographs; red cloth, pictoral label on front, spine rubbed. Housed in a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition of a remarkably comprehensive pictoral history of pre-war European Jewry, with the first appearance of many pictures by noted photographer Roman Vishniac. The photographs give “a cross-section of the multi-colored Jewish life as it was in Eastern Europe, a cross-section that portrays truthfully the real physiognomy and daily life of the Jewish population of that world which is now a ‘vanished world’” (pp. 11-12). In order to obtain as representative a collection as possible, the editors chose 530 photographs from the several thousand examined. Most of them were taken by correspondents (and readers) of the Forward, or from the archives of the American Joint Distribution Committee, the Yiddish Encyclopedia, and YIWO. They are arranged by region, with borders and names labeled as they were before the war. Each section is introduced by a short history and description of Jewish life in that country, and all the text is in Yiddish and English. Together, text and photographs achieve what the Forward Association hopes for in the introduction: “to reflect on the past, to experience it emotionally, to record and interpret it, so that future generations may learn from it. Thus we shall erect a dignified monument to it and at the same time render a service to the future” (pp. 10-11). A great, enduring and poignant work.
(#3530)
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