Jakob Edelstein
Jakob Edelstein | |
---|---|
Jewish elder of the Theresienstadt Ghetto | |
In office 4 December 1941 – January 1943 | |
Preceded by | None |
Succeeded by | Paul Eppstein |
Personal details | |
Born | Jakob Edelstein 25 July 1903 Horodenka, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary |
Died | 20 June 1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau, German-occupied Poland | (aged 40)
Nationality | Czechoslovak |
Spouse | Miriam Edelstein nee Olinerova |
Children | Ariah Edelstein |
Parent(s) | Motl and Mattil Edelstein |
Residence(s) | Prague I, Waldhauserova 12 |
Signature | |
Jakob Edelstein (AKA Yacov, Yaakov, Jakub Edelstein or Edlstein; 25 July 1903 – 20 June 1944) was a Czechoslovak
Life and work
Jakob Edelstein was born into a devout Ashkenazi Jewish family in Horodenka, a city then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, nowadays in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine. His parents were Motl and Mattil Edelstein, and he had a sister called Dora.[1][2]
In 1915, during World War I, the family fled Horodenka to Brno in Moravia[3] to avoid the Russian army that incited a pogrom against the Jewish residents of Horodenka: nine Jews were hanged in the main street.[4] When his family returned to Horodenka after the war, Jakob stayed in Brno to finish his studies at a business school. After his graduation he left Brno for Teplitz in northern Bohemia to work as a traveling salesman.[3]
Edelstein became a fierce member of the Poale Zion movement and an activist in the Social Democrat Party. In 1927 he left the Party and was for two years only active in the Přátelé přírody, a (social democrat movement of nature friends).[1]
From 1926 Edelstein was involved in the
Jakob Edelstein married in 1931 and left Teplitz with his bride Miriam for Prague to work for the Palästina-Amt (Palestine Office of the Zionist movement). Beginning 1933 he acted as head of that office, he remained in this position until the office was closed right before the outbreak of the War.[3]
In 1937 he was for several months very active for the Keren Hayesod (a fund raising organisation) in Jerusalem.[1]
Before the war Edelstein and his family had the opportunity and the documents for immigration to
World War II
On 15 March 1939, Germany annexed what was left of Czechoslovakia and established the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Edelstein called for the Zionist leaders to head the Jewish community, and became the liaison between the Jewish community and the SS to deal with Jewish emigration.[5] For this purpose Edelstein travelled, with permission of the Gestapo, between 1939 and 1941 abroad to Bratislava, Vienna, Berlin, Trieste and Genoa.[2]
Edelstein and his substitute Otto Zucker visited England and the
On 18 October 1939 Edelstein, Friedmann and another thousand Jewish men were, due to the so-called
On 4 December 1941, by order of the head of the "Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Prague"
The camp commandant
Edelstein and his associates were determined to prevent further deportations to the East by organizing a self-sustaining, productive community that the Germans would find indispensable to their war effort."Jüdische Arbeit zur Rettung jüdischen Lebens" (Jewish work to save Jewish lives), was the idea behind Edelsteins policy.[2][8]
In January 1943 Edelstein was replaced as Judenältester by Paul Eppstein and became his first substitute.
At a count in the ghetto on 9 November 1943 a difference of 55 Jews between the registered and the actual number of inmates appeared. Edelstein was accused of aiding the escape of inmates and was arrested on November 11, 1943.[2][9]
On 15 December 1943, Edelstein was deported to the Auschwitz I concentration camp, where he was kept isolated in Block 11 for half a year. He was deported on Transport Dr. His wife, his son, and his mother in law were sent to the Theresienstadt family camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Biib. The family was reunited on 20 June 1944. Jakob Edelstein had to watch the murder of first his mother in law then his wife Miriam and his twelve-year-old son Ariel before he was shot to death in the crematorium of the gas chamber.[2][9]
In June 1947, on the three-year yahrzeit of Yacov Edelstein's death in Auschwitz, Max Brod wrote: "And so a Jewish hero left this world, a man who up to the end did everything he possibly could and never gave up.[9]
Literature
- ISBN 3-492-22700-7
- ISBN 978-3-89244-694-1
- Bondy, Ruth. Elder of the Jews": Jakob Edelstein of Theresienstadt, translated from the Hebrew 1989, ISBN 0-8021-1007-X
References
- ^ a b c d e "Sefer Horodenka, translator Harvey Buchalter". Yizkor Book Project. Former Residents of Horodenka and Vicinity in Israel and the USA. 1963. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f Jürgen Winkel (January 2007). "Edelstein, Dr. Jakub". Theresienstadt 1941-1945 Ein Nachschlagewerk (in German). Kulturverein Schwarzer Hahn e.V. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ a b c Frankl, Michal (5 August 2010). "Edelstein, Jakob.". YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
- ^ Dr. N. M. Gelber. "The History of the Jews of Horodenka". Jewishness. Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York, NY. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
- ^ Dr. Margalit Shlain. "Ghetto Leadership". Beit Theresienstadt. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
- ^ Jürgen Winkel (January 2007). "Friedmann, Richard". Theresienstadt 1941-1945 Ein Nachschlagewerk (in German). Kulturverein Schwarzer Hahn e.V. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ Brown, Kellie D. (2020). The sound of hope: Music as solace, resistance and salvation during the holocaust and world war II. McFarland. p. 86.
- ^ "Holocaust Encyclopedia". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ^ a b c Max Brod (1947). "The Heroes of Theresienstadt". Yizkor Book Project. Former Residents of Horodenka and Vicinity in Israel and the USA. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
External links
- Photograph of Jakob Edelstein United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives
- Edelstein, Dr. Jakub Das Theresienstadt-Lexikon
- Documents about Jakob Edelstein in the collection of the Jewish Museum Prague.