Library Record
Images
Additional Images [5]
Metadata
Object Identification Number |
1996.023.001 |
Object Name |
Book |
Donor |
Lerno, Bent |
Summary / Description |
Hardcover prayer book. Black covers, off white pages with black text. The book contains both Hebrew and German text. On one cover (traditionally in the U.S., it is the one considered to be the back cover) there is in gold "Fest-Gebete / der / Israeliten". Both covers have raised geometric borders and designs. On the spine in gold is "fest Gebete / der Israel / 2". This book had an Alps edelweiss and a four-leaf clover pressed inside it. (See accession file for these.) DIMENSIONS: 5 1/2W x 7 5/8L x 1 1/16D PROVENANCE: The donor received this piece from his mother Martha Lerno who had hidden it among the personal things she took with her when she was liberated from a Nazi concentration camp. In 1943, Martha was captured in Denmark, along with her sister and brother-in-law, after being betrayed by a long-time friend who was a Nazi sympathizer. They were taken by cattle car to a concentration camp known as Theresienstadt located in the city of Terezin, in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. While imprisoned, Martha was a cleaning lady in the storage area where the Germans kept all confiscated goods, and also stacked books and did other odd jobs. When the white busses came on April 16, 1945 to pick up Danish Jewish prisoners, Martha remembered seeing the prayer book and robe, and could not bear to leave them behind in enemy hands. She hid them and took them home to Denmark. The donor visited his parents in 1956 for their golden wedding anniversary. It was then that she gave them to Bent, and he cared for them until 1996 when he donated them to the museum. Martha was born May 5, 1885, and lived in Copenhagen. She married Herman Lerno on October 10, 1906, and the two had seven children, the youngest of which was Bent, the donor, in 1927. Martha died at the age of 86 in 1971. |
Language Of Material |
Hebrew/German |
Title |
Machsor Die sammtlichen Festgebete der Israeliten mit bestgeordnetem Texte und deutscher Uebersetzung |
Author |
Stern, S.G. |
Publication Date |
1929 |
Publisher |
Jos. Schlesinger Buchhandlung |
Publication Place |
Austria/Vienna |
Associated People |
Lerno, Martha Lerno, Bent Stern, S.G. |
Search Terms |
Festgebete der Israeliten WWII World War II Lerno, Martha Lerno, Bent prayer book religion Hebrew German Stern, S.G. concentration camp liberation |
Date Received by the Museum |
02/14/1996 |
Images |
274\1996023001-3.JPG |
Accession number |
1996.023 |