![]() ![]() “During the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Nazis used flamethrowers to set fire to buildings and razed most of them to the ground,” Shem Olam Director Rabbi Avraham Krieger told Israel Hayom. In addition, a small concealed shul with many ritual objects was discovered on the premises, reported Israel Hayom.Īt first the items were handed over to the Polish police, but Shem Olam officials operating in the country heard about the discoveries from their Polish contacts and managed to spirit them away to Israel. Several years ago, the attic of this section collapsed, hurling into the rubble the holy treasures concealed there. Oddly, an upper section remained intact, a left over from the war years. ![]() The building where the Books of Esther were found was one of the only structures to survive the war, and much of it was later torn down and renovated. Who has not seen the iconic picture of a terrified little Jewish boy with his hands in the air? That name itself conjures up harrowing scenes of ghetto survivors lined up against a brick wall, their backs a target for SS killers, and others being marched toward the trains to Auschwitz. They were part of a collection that included Pesach Hagaddos, siddurim and other sifrei kodesh.įor decades these holy books had lain in the dust and ashes of an old attic of a building that was once part of the Warsaw Ghetto. A number of years ago, in honor of Purim, the Shem Olam Institute for Holocaust Education and Research in Israel unveiled rare holy items which were in Polish possession for dozens of years, before being located and brought to Israel.Īmong these items was a Megillas Esther in its metal cylinder and two other Books of Esther, each about a hundred years old. ![]()
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