Prayer book
Archival History
The Book of Esther scroll was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014 by The George Washington University, which received the item as a bequest from the Estate of John P. Eden.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of The George Washington University and the Estate of John P. Eden
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
Commercially published miniature version of a Megillat, or Book of Esther, scroll with illustrations returned to Gisela Marx when she went back to Dülken, Germany, after the war. Gisela was sent to safety by her parents Edna and Leopold who placed her on a Kindertransport to England in August 1939. Erna and Leopold gave some of their religious items, including this scroll and a scroll of daily prayers (2013.476.10), and other valuables, such as jewelry, to a pastor in Dülken, to preserve them. He buried the materials in his cellar. The paster was later arrested and sent to a concentration camp for preaching anti-Nazi sermons. With the help of the Red Cross, the pastor located and wrote to Gisela in 1950. When she came to visit, he returned the items to Gisela, fulfilling her parents' request. He told Gisela that her parents had believed they were being deported to Theresienstadt. Gisela later discovered that they had been sent from Dusseldorf on December 11, 1941, to the Riga ghetto where they perished.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
1 roll ; ill. ; 10 cm. Commercially printed, miniature paper scroll with Hebrew text and a central 2 panel illustration in black ink. It is rolled on 2 wooden sticks, 5.625 in and 4.375 inch, with flat ends: the left stick has black paint at one end; the right has black paint on both ends.
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Dulken.
- Judaism--Liturgy--Texts.
- Bible. Esther.
- Jews--Germany--History--20th century.
Genre
- Books and Published Materials
- Object