Prayer book
Archival History
The prayer book was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 by Miriam Halberstam, the daughter of David Halberstam.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Miriam Halberstam
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
Prayer book belonging to David Halberstam in which he inscribed dates and information about his and his first family's capture and experiences. David was originally from Gorlice, Poland, and survived multiple concentration camps. His wife and his father were deported and killed at Belzec killing center. After the war, he emigrated to North America.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Black leather prayer book with handwrrttien inscriptons on teh frot adn back inside covers; 11 cm.
inside front and back cover, handwritten : Hebrew text [On September 9, 1942, the Gestapo took my mother from the hospital to the garden and they shot her, according to the testmony of Yitzchok Wald.] inside front and back cover, handwritten : Hebrew text 18. X 1949 [On the Sabbath, August 15, 1942,when we came out of the cellar, they caught me and my wife and my father and they took us to the Gestapo. They then took us, together with hundreds of other Jews, to a shoe factory and there we were under the heavy watch of the SS. We had no bread or water, the heat was oppressive and we were tightly squeezed together until Monday afternoon, August 17. Then then took us to work. They looded my wife and my father on a train to a place of death and burning - Belsitz. It was establsihed that their souls left their bodies on 21 of August which is Chet b'Elul.]
Subjects
- Judaism--Prayers and devotions.
- Siddurim--Texts.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Personal narratives.
- Concentration camp inmates--Biography.
Genre
- Books and Published Materials
- Object