One in a Thousand – Diary of a Doctor in Bergen-Belsen by Valeria Stark, published by “Neo-Graphics” Tel Aviv 1950 – first edition in Hebrew translated from the Hungarian manuscript, hardcover with the rare illustrated original dust jacket with the drawing of syringe behind the barbed wire fence designed by Pesach Ir Shai.
Diary of an inmate, a Jewish physician in Bergen – Belsen, born in Fryszów (Czechoslovakia). After participating in rescue operations in Budapest during the war years, she was taken to the Bergen-Belsen camp in 1944 and survived thanks to her role as a physician. She began writing her diary about two years earlier in 1942, and she also scrolls over its pages those two years under German attacks and occupation. When a large part is devoted to the months she spent in the camp. The first description that appears during her stay in the camp is of a selection made when she arrived. Valeria was taken to a clinic in the camp because the Nazis already knew she was a doctor. Her job was to treat the pregnant women who had come to Bergen-Belsen from Auschwitz. In her diary, she describes harsh scenes of whipping by an SS officer who abducted the women when they arrived at the hospital. Those women arrived at the camp exhausted after months of starvation in Auschwitz. In her work as a physician she would lie dozens of times regarding the diagnosis of women in order to save their lives. As the months of pregnancy progressed, the prisoner received more food, and so each time Valeria added months to the women’s pregnancies so that they could receive more food. The book also contains harsh descriptions of German sadism, and of the women’s constant attempts to survive the harsh conditions of the camp, and her own efforts to help them. Valeria even worked as a midwife and participated in many births in the camp. The chapters of the painful memories that came out as a book in the publication before us appeared in the Hebrew newspaper “Davar” as chapters in sequels in the years 1946-1947.
The author Dr. Valeria Stark was born in Prisov (Czechoslovakia), on May 3, 1918. To her father g. Stark who was an engineer and director of the city electricity company, and her mother Deborah, daughter of Yitzchak Langel – both were well-known activists in the Jewish community. Her father founded a workshop for the Joint, where the pioneers received their training before immigrating to Eretz Israel. Her mother was the founder of the Zionist women’s organization “Deborah” in their city. Valeria graduated in medicine from the University of Prague (Czechoslovakia). In 1935 she married Dr. Oscar Weiss. From 1935 she was active in the Zionist movement in Czechoslovakia. During World War II she participated in rescue work in Budapest. She was deported to Bergen-Belsen and worked as a doctor in the camp. She survived the Holocaust and in 1945 managed to reach Switzerland, from there to Italy, and immigrated to Eretz Israel to the shores of Haifa. For several years worked in a medical practice in Tel Aviv. In 1952, she was sent by the Physicians’ Organization as a representative of Israeli physicians to the United States for medical work at a New York hospital.
The designer of the dust jacket of the book Pesach Ir-Shi [1896 – 1968] was a graphic designer, Cubist painter and Israeli-Hungarian typographer. He is one of the leading graphic artists in the country, created an innovative modern design style, contributed greatly to Eretz Israel graphics in its infancy and designed the font of the modern Hebrew letter, “Haim”. Among other things, he designed posters of the Yishuv leadership and state institutions, company logos, advertisement and propaganda posters and more.
[1] 202 p. 18 cm. Very good condition.
