Talmud Display Honors Holocaust Survivors

NORFOLK, Va. — When World War II ended, the Army printed copies of the Talmud, a sacred collection of Jewish law and tradition, for Jews living in displaced persons camps in Europe.

Few complete sets of this 19-volume Talmud for Holocaust survivors remain. A volume from one of those sets is on display at the Chrysler Museum of Art and eventually will go on a national tour.

Despite the short supply of paper and ink, the Army published several hundred sets on a German printing press that had been used to print Nazi material.

The Talmud is printed in Hebrew; the title page of each volume bears a dedication in English that reads in part: “This special edition of the Talmud, published in the very land where, but a short time ago, everything Jewish and of Jewish inspiration was anathema, will remain a symbol of the indestructibility of the Torah.”