Philipp Manes Collection

Philipp Manes was born in Neuwied in the Rhineland on August the 16th 1875. His family had lived in Neuwied for a long time, but his parents and he moved to Berlin via Luxembourg, when he was a boy of eleven.

As a young man Philipp Manes travelled nearly the whole of Germany and some other European countries for the New Photographic Society,interviewing and portraying many prominent people. He also worked in an administrative capacity for some time and in 1910 followed his father's invitation to join him in their family firm, Eduard Manes, Fur Agencies. Philipp Manes ran this fur business until he was forced to liquidate it in 1939.

During the First World War Philipp Manes was drafted to the Russian front where he was awarded the Iron Cross second class. For three years he started and managed a chain of soldiers book shops, thereby fostering a minimum cultural life behind the trenches.

All his life he was a compulsive writer, chronicling events. He wrote an unpublished history of the war book shops and many diaries, and published articles about the fur industry and many other subjects.

Until 1942 he lived in a small apartment in the centre of Berlin with his wife and his family. His four children all managed to leave Germany before the war broke out. In 1942 he was forced to work for a few months as a labourer in a Berlin factory. In July 1942 he was sent to Theresienstadt together with his wife Gertrud. In October 1944 they were both sent "east" with the last transport and they both died in Auschwitz.

During his years in the "ghetto" of Theresienstadt he was in charge of the "Orientation Service", a unit of elderly men originally set up to help prisoners who had lost their way in the maze of the camp, to ensure their safe return to their assigned quarters. Over time the service expanded and added various other service functions to its duties.

It was in his capacity as head of the Orientation Service, that Manes created the "lecture series", at one time also called Leisure Time Bureau, in fact the most amazing "cultural feast". This united, what must have been the educated elite of the camp in over 500 events. Topics of lectures covered most academic disciplines, from religion and history to the arts and sciences. Play readings often by professional actors and singers, especially the productions of Nathan the Wise, had their audiences spellbound. Variety evenings were staged to celebrate the New Year and special events. The names of lecturers and participants read like a Who's Who of the camp. They include Leo Baeck (who spoke at the 500th event), Victor and Fritz Janowitz, and many others.

The many testimonies to these events leave no doubt that in the harsh, cruel and depressing reality of Theresienstadt, the cultural evenings provided "spiritual nourishment", encouragement, mental escapism, relief and hope to all those who took part.

It is also apparent from the manuscripts that here was an island of humanity which was very much the personal creation of it's organiser Philipp Manes. As one inmate put it, Theresienstadt became quite "unthinkable" without him!

To top this amazing activity, which must have taxed the time and energy of any man living in the dismal, cramped conditions of a concentration camp, Manes found the time and strength to write a chronicle of altogether more than a thousand pages, which he intended for publication after the war and his return home to Berlin.

As if by a miracle, this manuscript has survived and was sent to one of Manes' oldest friends as he had directed. It has now been deposited at the Wiener Library by his daughter Eva, and the library is grateful and proud of this valuable loan.

Philipp Manes' chronicle of Theresienstadt contains a wealth of information and readers may want to study the booklets in the context of a variety of research projects:

These are probably the most detailed descriptions of daily life written by any inmate of any concentration camp, not as a memoir, but while he was there. The barrack quarters are measured and their furniture, equipment and facilities, or rather the lack of them, are listed. Daily food rations and the distribution of blankets etc. are described minutely, as are the medical and postal services and the working of the camp bakery and kitchens. Chapters are devoted to the policing of the camp and the ghetto court and to the many, often changing, and harshly enforced rules of behaviour. There emerges a vivid picture of life - and death - at Theresienstadt, mostly related in a dispassionate, rational way and quite often supported by statistics. A separate section is devoted to Manes' last days in Berlin.

Needless to say, the "Orientation Service" (O.D.) managed by Manes is described in special detail, probably worthy of it's own monograph. There are many stories, even case studies, of how it worked, the people who ran it and the people they tried to help, often with obvious success.

The most amazing story of all will be found in the organisation of the lecture series, which is documented with programmes and quotes. The author does not hide his pride and pleasure at this "cultural achievement" and the reader must be awed by this truly unique expression of German culture in an environment and atmosphere where one would hardly expect it.

While organising these events, Manes could draw on an impressive number of academics, artists, poets and writers among the camp prisoners and the list of names mentioned is long. There are many short and longer portraits of men and a few women, some of whom are well known, and some others that probably should be. Some of these were written after intensive interviews and constitute biographies as well as autobiographies in their own right. Manes does not spare praise or criticism and his acute observations will shed a new light on many personalities.

One such personality emerging as a truly great man from these pages, is of course Philipp Manes himself - both as a character of great strength, energy and wide interests, and as a proponent of a generation of educated German Jews. There are many passages in which he is highly critical of the Jews in the camp and extols what may be regarded as Prussian virtues. In some rather puzzling entries he even praises the camp command and is more than grateful for their benevolence. This may be a feature deliberately included to mislead any possible censor, or it may stem from Manes' belief (or hope) in a final return to Berlin after his time as a "prisoner of war" (Adler believes he was genuinely naive in his trust even in evil authorities). It may also be a mixture of both. Despite some despondent passages Manes never loses hope.

Finally we must mention the manuscripts in this collection which are written by other people. Apart from a few more incidental pieces, such as the beginning of a manual for pharmacists and the plan for a little house to be built after the war, there are three volumes of dedications to Philip Manes written by a large number of participants in his lecture series. They express their thanks in the form of letters, some serious memoirs and some lighter passages, in prose and in poems. See especially the humorous "Yellow Star" by Myra Strauss and the poem "As If" by her husband Leo, about life in Theresienstadt in an atmosphere of unreality (other poems, especially those from a poem competition in the camp, can be found in the diaries themselves). There is also a portrait sketch of Manes himself and some other charming drawings, which seem to hide the real nature of the place. Altogether these dedications reflect the achievements of Manes in Theresienstadt by the sincerity and literary accomplishment of their tributes.

Donor: Eva Manes