Gershon Knispel (3 results)

In Hebrew. 170X245 mm. 479 pages. Gilt hardcover. Cover and spine slightly worn and stained, slightly bumped at edges and corners. Yellowing pages. Else in good condition. The book is in : Hebrew.

SIGNED BY ARTIST. PORTUGUESE, HEBREW AND ENGLISH EDITION. 32x23.5 cm. 239+133 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. In good condition. The book is in : Hebrew English Portuguese.

First Knispel-illustrated edition, signed limited issue, number 65 of 250 copies signed by the artist. This is a presentation copy, inscribed by the artist above the dedication in Hebrew "To Zisi Stavi cordially" (translated) - the recipient is an Israeli poet and literary critic. Knispel was born in Germany in 1933 and moved to Israel in 1935. He became a leading representative of the social realism trend in Israeli art and focused on illustrating Holocaust survivors and their testimony. The author, Yehiel De-Nur, was a Holocaust survivor from Poland. He wrote numerous books based on his experiences, published under the pseudonym Ka-Tzetnik 135633, his prisoner number at Auschwitz. He famously collapsed during his testimony against Eichmann at the 1961 trial. De-Nur's text was first published in Hebrew in 1960 as Kohav Haefer. It was published in English as Star Eternal in 1971. This edition has the text in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish, and is the only edition to be illustrated. "Here is a searing, grim, and at times almost lyric lament for those who were forced into the horrors of Auschwitz. It obviously has a strong autobiographical basis as the narrator relates the loss of his parents and sister in the crematoria. The plot begins and ends on the same street on January 9: the first in 1939 and the last in 1945. The story describes the horrors of the camp and how mere physical survival can become the sole and all-consuming objective regardless of the brutality and inhumanity of the surroundings" (Taylor, p. 489). Desmond Taylor, The Novels of World War II: An Annotated Bibliography, 1993. Oblong quarto. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, patterned endpapers. With 18 lithographs, each with captioned tissue guard. Text in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish. Discreetly recased, light bowing and rubbing to boards, some tissue guards with tiny chips at extremities. A very good copy.