Rare Carved memorial plaque made by Jewish internee in Cyprus, 1948, Holocaust

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Rare Carved memorial plaque made by Jewish internee in Cyprus, 1948, Holocaust:
$3800.00

Up for sale is this super rare and historic example of Cyprus stone carving, made by jewish holocaust surviver that was Detained at the Internmentcamps in Cyprus, just 3 years after the holocaust. this piece is very unusual, most of this carvings shows us aspects of living in the Refugee camps or zionist views of israel, sometimesthey even made judaica objects like menorahs Or Candlesticks, but its rare to find memorial plaques such as the example in front of us, the plaques was Damaged In the way to israel and two pieces from the upper section were broken off, the middle part of the Plaque shows a Scroll shaped memorial plaque with the inscription : "for the dead who died on the name of god" In red color, the middle has a yellow star carved and painted, just like the yellow star jewish people were forced to Wear on the holocaust, under this inscription there are 5 yiddish names and near them the passing dates, first 3 Has the exact dates but the last two has just the name of the hebrew month (most of the survivors did not know There family members exact date of death in the holocaust) .

the back side has a scratched inscription in hebrew "cyprus 1948" in hebrew ״קפריסין 1948״

On the right side there is a carved candle on top a carving which is now missing and was broken off. The most important and touching part of this plaque is the lower part:

On the right there is a writhing in hebrew that says "past" ״עבר״ and the carving of acrematorium with an electric Fence in the background, the crematorium looks exactly like the one that was used in the Buchenwald death Camp so maybe the carver made it from his memory, on the top of the building there is a big chimney and from it There is a big smoke line going out, inside this smoke there is the number 6000000, for the six million jewish lives Murdered by the nazis in the holocaust. (this is one of the earliest depictions of this number, we know now that the Number was set around 1945, just at the end of the war)

In the middle carving it is written "present" ״הוה״ and we can see the actuall cyprus internment camp, there is a small hut or a tin building and a big guard tower on top, its important to see that the fence is conecated to the fence of the death camp to the right, this shows us that the people held in the camp by the british army felt like they are moving from one camp to the next one.

the last carving says "future" ״עתיד״ and there we can see the plowed field and a house on a hill, with some trees and again a tower, but this time the tower is a water tower, which Symbolize life, the first tower was the chimney that took part in the murder of our people, the second tower was used by the english army to keep us far from our home last ISRAEL, but the last tower is a water tower, which gives life and his built on top of the plowed hill of what look like a kibbutz.

condition is like stated, the plaque is in its original found condition, upper part is missing, some defects to the remaining part, a latter is missing to the lower section, a lot of scratches. but this artifact came from a very hard time in history and every scare on it brings us a part of history, museum quality object.

Size :

Height : cm: 18.5 / inch 7.2

Width : cm: 15 cm / 5.9 inch

As waves of refugees from World War II made their way to the Land of Israel, the British were forced to find a solution for the influx of immigrants. The detention camp in Atlit was filled to capacity. As a result, additional camps were built in Cyprus, also under British control at the time, in 1946 and 1949. There, tens of thousands of Jews awaited government approval to enter the Land of Israel. A dream, which would eventually come true.

TheCyprus internment campswere camps maintained in CYPRUSby the British government for theINTERNMENTofJEWSwho had immigrated or attempted to immigrate toMANDATORY palestingin violation of British policy. There were a total of 12 camps, which operated from August 1946 to January 1949, and in total held 53,510 Jews.

The British understood that they could not treat the Jewish refugees as ordinary prisoners and, therefore, allowed the detainees a certain level of autonomy. With the help of large donations from the Land of Israel and Jews across the world, the Jewish leaders in the camps tried to create a semblance of normal life for the refugees. Part of setting up this new order was the creation of jobs and societal roles within the camps.

Within the confines of the barbed-wire fences, cultural, welfare, educational and religious activities were established and organized in an attempt to recreate routine, daily life. Naturally, nurturing the children of the camp was at the center of community priorities and values.

An expression of what life was like in the camp for the children which also tells us something about their mindset, can be seen in this stone carving. There was no shortage of stone available in the Cyprus camps, and it was soon utilized in the children’s educational frameworks, which included the art of stone carving.