Book
Archival History
The prayer book was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Irma Cohn Clemens, the daughter of Artur Cohn.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Irma Cohn Clemens
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Jewish prayer book containing pressed flowers brought with Arthur Cohn when he escaped from Breslau, Germany, with his wife Johanna and 18 year old daughter Irma in May 1940. The appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in 1933 led to increasingly harsh persecution of the Jewish population. Arthur was out of town during the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, when the Gestapo searched his home and arrested the other Jewish males in the building. They told Johanna that Arthur could not leave the home when he returned. But when they searched the building again the next day, they did not search the Cohn's. Johanna's uncle, Dr. Leo Nast, had emigrated to the US in 1934. He sponsored the Cohn family's visa applications and they left for New York in May 1940.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Block separated from spine, with loose pagesksing tape with many loose and torn pages. It also contains pressed plant material. 16 cm. ; 660 p.
Subjects
- Judaism--Prayers and devotions.
- Siddurim--Texts.
- Judaism--Liturgy--Texts.
Genre
- Books and Published Materials
- Object