Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Pages from a damaged Machzor, a Hebrew prayer book for the High Holidays, found by Miriam Novitch at Auschwitz concentration camp sometime after the war ended in May 1945. The prayer book was presumably owned by a Jewish man deported from Germany to Auschwitz in 1943. Miriam, a member of the Communist resistance, was interned in German occupied France from June 1943 until liberation in fall 1944. After the war and for the rest of her life, she dedicated herself to the research and preservation of Holocaust related materials.
- Title
- Modlitewnik
- Geography
-
found:
Auschwitz (Concentration camp) postwar;
Oświęcim (Poland)
publication: Germany
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Miriam Novitch
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Books and Published Materials
- Category
-
Books and pamphlets
- Object Type
-
Judaism--Prayer books (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Separated section of book ; in fragile condition; 11 cm.
- Materials
- overall : paper, ink
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The Hebrew prayer book was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1986 by Miriam Novitch.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Record last modified:
- 2022-07-28 17:44:44
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn24
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Also in Miriam Novitch collection
The collection consists of two scrip of the type issued in Łódź (Litzmannstadt) Ghetto and a damaged prayer book relating to the experiences of Miriam Novitch after the Holocaust in Europe.
Date: approximately 1943
Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 1 mark note, found postwar
Object
Scrip, valued at 1 mark, distributed in Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto, and found at the site of Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in Czechoslovakia by Miriam Novitch after the war. The scrip was issued in the German-controlled Łódź ghetto from June of 1940 to its liquidation in the fall of 1944. The scrip was issued in denominations of: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 mark notes; 5, 10, and 20 mark coins; and 50 pfennig notes and 10 pfennig coins. Miriam Novitch was living in France, working in a factory and giving Russian and German language lessons when Germany invaded the country in May, 1941. During the occupation Miriam joined the Resistance. At first, she brought printed materials into Paris and handed them out for distribution in different parts of the city. Later, Miriam worked as an intelligence agent, gathering information from German soldiers that she went out with or gave language lessons to. She also rescued fellow Jews by obtaining fake papers for them and hiding them in resistance safe houses. On June 10, 1943, Miriam was arrested by the Gestapo after being betrayed by a friend. She was interrogated multiple times and spent two months in a prison cell before she was transferred to Vittel internment camp. She remained in Vittel until the end of the war. After the war Miriam traveled widely, gathering Holocaust related materials and testimonies. She was one of the founders of the Ghetto Fighters Museum at Kibbutz Lohamei Hageta'ot, and its first art curator.
Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 2 mark note, found postwar
Object
Scrip, valued at 2 marks, distributed in Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto, and found at the site of Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in Czechoslovakia by Miriam Novitch after the war. The scrip was issued in the German-controlled Łódź ghetto from June of 1940 to its liquidation in the fall of 1944. The scrip was issued in denominations of: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 mark notes; 5, 10, and 20 mark coins; and 50 pfennig notes and 10 pfennig coins. Miriam Novitch was living in France, working in a factory and giving Russian and German language lessons when Germany invaded the country in May, 1941. During the occupation Miriam joined the Resistance. At first, she brought printed materials into Paris and handed them out for distribution in different parts of the city. Later, Miriam worked as an intelligence agent, gathering information from German soldiers that she went out with or gave language lessons to. She also rescued fellow Jews by obtaining fake papers for them and hiding them in resistance safe houses. On June 10, 1943, Miriam was arrested by the Gestapo after being betrayed by a friend. She was interrogated multiple times and spent two months in a prison cell before she was transferred to Vittel internment camp. She remained in Vittel until the end of the war. After the war Miriam traveled widely, gathering Holocaust related materials and testimonies. She was one of the founders of the Ghetto Fighters Museum at Kibbutz Lohamei Hageta'ot, and its first art curator.
