Huge Collection of Books of She'erit Ha'Pleta, including a Complete Set of the Munich Talmud 1949

A. Huge collection that includes about 150 religious books, which were printed during the years 1945-1948 in the Displaced Persons Camps in Europe: Fernwald, Munich and more. Some of the books were printed in New York for She'erit Ha'Pleta. The collection includes most of the religious books that had been printed by and for She'erit Ha'Pleta. Such a comprehensive and variegated collection has never been seen in auctions!
The collection includes many books which do not explicitly note that they have been printed by She'erit Ha'Pleta and which so far had not been listed by various catalogues as publications of She'erit Ha'Pleta. However, based on hard evidence (including special inscriptions and stamps), it can be determined with certainty that these books had been printed by She'erit Ha'Pleta. Before us, therefore, is a bibliographically important collection.
A few books (about five) are almost certainly attributed to She'erit Ha'Pleta, based on various assumptions.
B. Babylonian Talmud – a complete set, 19 volumes. Munich-Heidelberg, 1949. "Published by Va'ad Agudat HaRabbanim in the American zone of Munich" for She'erit Ha'Pleta.
Before the Holocaust, Rabbinic literature had been the heart of the Jewish house. It was no accident that the burning of Jewish books in Germany in 1935 was the point of departure of the horrific days to come. During the Holocaust, the religious books of the Jews of Europe were burnt and lost and the Holocaust survivors remained bookless. "How great were the longing and thirst for a book. Yeshivas were formed, but they had no book to learn from. The Batei Midrash had no book to study. The books overseas took time to arrive and when one arrived, hundreds of hands reached out to it" wrote those days Rabbi Shmuel Ya'akov Rose, one of the remnants of the Slabodka Yeshiva. New editions of religious books had to be reprinted.
The survivors took the initiative and established one of the most interesting and symbolic enterprises of She'erit Ha'Pleta in Germany: the printing of various religious books. In improvised printing presses, they printed Chumashim and prayers books, commentary and Midrashim, books of the Rishonim and Achronim, Mussar and Hassidism books and of course, Halacha books, which were used daily. The publication process was usually similar: the initiative was of the survivors themselves and the funding was of Va'ad Ha'Hatzala of the Rabbis of America. There were also survivors who personally funded the publication and dedicated the books – already there in Germany – to the ascent of the souls of their beloved. The books that were printed were given and sold to individuals and to the Torah institutions that were established at the Displaced Persons Camps.
The crowning glory of this printing enterprise at the Displaced Persons Camps was the printing of the Talmud. "Va'ad Ha'Hatzala" of Agudat Ha'Rabbanim in the USA, headed by Rabbi Rose and Rabbi Shmuel Abba Snieg, initiated a reprinting of the Babylonian Talmud, funded by the JOINT and the American Military Rule. The rabbis saw it as an operation of the greatest Jewish importance: to return the study of the Talmud to its central place in Jewish life.
The tragedy of the loss of the religious books was manifested in the fact that they did not have even one complete copy of the Talmud that could serve as a source for reprinting a new facsimile edition. Only in 1949, the complete set of the Talmud was reprinted in nineteen large volumes. Before us is a complete set of this special edition.
At the bottom of the title pages of the tractates there is an illustration of a Nazi Labor Camp and the inscription "A Labor Camp in Ashkenaz in the days of the Nazis". The illustration presents the evilness of the Nazis. Above the illustration, the verse from Psalms 119: 87 is cited: "They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts", which expresses the survivors' feelings. The illustrations on the title pages were by an artist named G. Rosenkratz, as he signed at the margins of the title page.
At the beginning of each volume, an introduction by Rabbi Snieg and Rabbi Rose was printed, emotionally describing the Nazis' efforts to burn all the Jewish religious books. They also stress the importance of the reprinting all the religious books by Va'ad Agudat Ha'Rabbanim.
The Munich Talmud was studied by yeshiva students in Israel and abroad and became a symbol of the spiritual revival of She'erit ha'Pleta.
(Some of the information is taken from Esther Farbstein's essay "Lo Tzame Le'Mayim", in "Be'Seter Ra'am", Jerusalem, 2002, pp. 579-597).
On the volume of the Shabbat tractate there is a signature and long inscriptions in the handwriting of Rabbi Yitzchak Shlomo Unger, the rabbi of the Chug Chatam Sofer Community in Bnei Berak, who after the Holocaust was at the Displaced Persons Camp of Bergen-Belzen.
Condition of the collection of books: Varying. General Condition: Good. Many of the books have their original covers.
Condition of the Babylonian Talmud: Good. Slight wear of single pages due to their being studied. In two volumes, the illustrated title page is detached. Non-identical covers. Library stamps.