For reasons unknown to me, there were 2 different title pages I found on copies of אויף קידוש השם printed by Rachmil Bryks, published in New York in 1954.
"Kiddush Hashem tells of the hope and desire that fill the minds of those being transported in a crowded train to what they hope will be just a labor camp in Vienna. Instead, the trickery and deceit of the Nazis is revealed to the Jews when they arrive at Auschwitz. Husbands and wives are brutally separated, infants are snatched from their mothers, and Dr. Mengele immediately commences with his selections. Bryks's descriptions of the horrors are explicit and vivid. He does not cut corners in his graphic depictions of the torture inflicted upon the inmates. Hope, however, does not die easily among the inmates of the camp. Engel relates that "they [the Nazis] failed ultimately in the spiritual plane where they hoped to pull down their victims to their depths of depravity."
One version of the title page states that the book's publishing did not receive any funding from the German Government, and one title page omits the claim. Were there perhaps 2 different editions, one with funding and one without?
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| Title page with the disclaimer |
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| Title page without the disclaimer |
hat-tip: Menachem Silber
My father Rachmil Bryks was a man of principle, even in the Lodz ghetto.
ReplyDeleteHe never forgave the Germans for their murderous work.
He refused to apply for "Wiedergutmachung", compensation from Germany
as he felt it was tainted, dirty money although the monthly checks would have made
his life, our family life much more comfortable.
He boycotted the first edition of the Lexicon of Yiddish Writers as it was published
with German money.
He refused to take financial support from any fund fnded by German monies.
I remember there was a rubber stamp at home which my father added
to the first page of this book. He emphasized it by underlining it in red
with his pen.
My belief is that he added this statement perhaps when someone remarked
or criticized, my father decided to add this statement
to point out that it is not published with "blood money".
In conclusion, there was only ONE third edition.
Bella Bryks-Klein
bellabryksklein@yahoo.com