“Fasting, Weeping, and Mourning.” A rare poster calling for a day of fasting, prayer, and awakening throughout the Jewish Diaspora in the Land of Israel and abroad, to plead for mercy on behalf of European Jewry being led to annihilation. “The Assembly of Rabbis of the Holy Land, including members of the World Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel, has declared Wednesday, the 23rd of Kislev 5703, a day of fasting, weeping, and mourning over the calamities that have befallen the millions of our brethren dwelling in the countries of Europe…”. Issued by the Executive Committee of Agudath Israel World Organization. 22 Kislev 5703 (December 1, 1942). Printed by Shraga Winfeld Press, Jerusalem.
In the month of December 1942, when the global day of prayer took place, the extermination operations in Europe intensified—based on trains and gas. Deaths in gas chambers and mobile Aktion units increased, and the pace of murder reached its peak, alongside horrifying forced labor conditions and outbreaks of disease that claimed additional victims among camp populations. By the end of 1942, Operation Reinhard was still underway, this was the central stage of the systematic extermination of Jews from the ghettos of Poland, carried out on the outskirts of the extermination camps in the Lublin district: Bełżec, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka. The killing was executed mainly through gas chambers, mass deportations (Aktions), and trains transporting victims directly from ghettos to the camps. At that time, all four “main extermination camps” of Operation Reinhard (Bełżec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Majdanek) were operating at full capacity, with thousands of Jews being murdered every day in a systematic fashion. Dozens of tightly packed trains carrying Jews from ghettos and Jewish population centers, such as Łódź, Warsaw, and Kraków, were sent each week to the camp terminals, where selections determined their fate: life or death. From late 1942, the first reports of the scale of the extermination began reaching Jewish underground networks and escape routes, which in turn led to the publication of appeals and materials in Palestine and abroad.
48×32 cm. Fold mark. Tear with loss at the center of the poster (affecting the letter “מ”). Good condition.
