Holocaust "Dos Buch fun Lublin" Memorial Book of Lublin” Yiddish, 1st ed., Lithograph Illustr. Benn, 1952
Collection of studies and testimonies on the life of the Jews of Lublin and on their
extermination after the German occupiers during the years 1939-1944
Former Residents of Lublin in Paris: Paris, 1952, 685 pp.,
Hardcover. Size: 28×21 cm.,
Color lithographed frontispiece page by Benn ((Benn Rabinowicz), signed in the plate lower left
Richly illustrated by b/w photos and documents
Condition: Cover worn, rubbed, discolored, almost detached
15 first and 15 last pages (small blocks) almost detached too.
But the binding still tight
Soiling and damping stains to endpapers, frontispiece and title page
Some stains here and there
Moth Damages to edges of endpapers
WEIGHT: 2030 gr.
Benn Rabinowicz
Born in Bialystok, Poland. His full name is
Bension Rabinowicz. His grandfather was a Rabbi and his father was an
architect. In 1917, he spent two years in Diatvolo at his father’s sister
house, where he studied painting.
As he returned to Bialystok, he set- up a
workshop, where he worked between the years 1922-1924, during this time he
decided to found a painting academy in his family house. Between the years
1926-1930 he worked as a theater decorator. In 1927, he exhibited his first
solo exhibition in his hometown. In 1928, he presented his work in the
Salon in Warsaw. In the same year he participated in organizing the winter
exhibition in Bialystok. In 1929, his hometown granted him a scholarship to
study in Paris for three years. His future wife, Geurra, the one he will
marry in 1938, was against this move. But eventually she joined him to
Paris. In 1930, he attended the Fernand Leger modern Academy in Paris. He
fell in love with Paris and decided to accept the French Nationality. Benn
was never a part of any specific artistic style. Based on geometric
figures, his work always remained loyal to reality. During this time he
managed to establish his reputation as one of the great modern painters of
his time. In 1939, in the beginning of the Second World War, he became a
refugee, moving from place to place. In spite of this difficult situation,
he continued sending his works to the Fall Exhibitions in Paris. In 1941,
Benn and his wife were sent to the transition camp (a concentration camp)
in Beaune-La-Roland. They managed to be released thanks to the intervention
of the professors Marcel Brule and De Lo Duce. Under the protection of Jean
Paulhen, they hide for twenty- six monthes, in Paulhen cellar. During this
difficult time, they lived in fear of deportation. Back home, in Poland,
Benn’s parents were massacred in a death camp. After the war ended, they
came back to Paris and settled down for good. During the period after the
war, Benn dealt with biblical themes, mostly in small formats. This
interest in biblical themes was very common among Jewish artists that
survived the war and the holocaust. The holocaust caused many Jewish people
question the existence of god, some became atheists, and some became
stronger believers. One of his most notable works in this theme is the 126
illustrations of psalms that were presented in the Museum of Modern Art in
Paris, Museum of Lyon and many other places.