Desecrated Torah scroll recovered postwar by a Polish Jew
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 41.000 inches (104.14 cm) | Width: 20.750 inches (52.705 cm)
Archival History
The Torah scroll was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1991 by Jerome D. Lipowicz.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jerome D. and Fryda Z. Lipowicz
Scope and Content
Desecrated Torah scroll recovered in Pultusk, Poland by Jerome Lipowicz after the war in the former ghetto. Jerome had lived in Pultusk prior to 1940. After the end of the war in May 1945, he relocated to Szczecin and lived there with family. He and his father-in-law, Abraham Zielinski, traveled to Pultusk together in search of Jerome's family Torah. While in Pultusk, they were approached by a non-Jew who offered to sell them a scroll. The man claimed that it had been used as the backdrop for executions of Jews in a courtyard in Pultusk. It is not known how the man knew this information. Jerome and his father-in-law bought the Torah and brought it back to Szczecin where Jerome's wife Fryda kept it, permitting no one to touch it. When the family immigrated to the United States in 1960, the Torah was brought with them. It remained wrapped and hidden in their home until she died in 1989.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Five fragments of a Torah scroll with exportation stamps on the back of one fragment.
Subjects
- Jewish ghettos--Poland--Pultusk.
- Torah scrolls--Sacrilege--Poland--History--20th century.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Religious aspects--Poland--Pultusk.
- Holocaust survivors--Poland--Biography.
Genre
- Object
- Jewish Art and Symbolism