Forms for recording testimonies of the deaths of women and men – large collection of over 200 signed forms containing testimonies used to permit agunim and agunot to remarry after the Holocaust, signed by dayanim. [Various Hungarian cities, mostly Budapest, 1946-1959]. Hebrew, Yiddish and Hungarian.
Forms printed on both sides, with details filled in by hand and signed by the witnesses, and signed and sealed by the dayanim of the Beit Din, noting the place and the year. The forms were apparently printed on the authority of the special Beit Din established in Budapest after the Holocaust under the Central Bureau of Orthodox Communities in Hungary for the purpose of permitting agunim and agunot to remarry.
The present forms contain eyewitness testimonies of those who were murdered or perished in the German concentration camps and death camps. Each form contains various questions and clarifications on the origin and birthplace of the woman or man, the manner they were murdered and who witnessed it (questions such as where they knew each other from, where they were sent from and when, who was together with them, whether they brought children with them, which side they were sent to in Auschwitz, whether they saw them in the shower, whether they came back from labor, time of death, whether they were seen or said to have been burned).
Most of the present forms contain signatures of rabbis and heads of the Special Beit Din for Agunot in Budapest at various times: R. Yaakov Segal Leibowitz [the Rabbi of Kopish (Kaposvár)]; R. Yisrael Welz; R. Shimon Yisrael Posen, Av Beit Din of Sopron; R. Gavriel Yehudah Elowitz; R. Yehoshua Lerner, Av Beit Din of Volovets; R. Moshe Dov Wallner; R. Moshe Natan Schick; R. Yitzchak Tzvi Panet; R. Tzvi Hirsch HaKohen Katz, Av Beit Din of Derecske; R. Avraham Eliezer Citron, Av Beit Din of Hajdúdorog; R. Chananya Dov HaKohen; R. Naftali Rubenfeld; R. Shraga Shmuel Schnitzler; R. Asher Babad; R. Yehudah Aryeh Pilap; R. Yerachmiel Yaakov Dushinsky, Av Beit Din of Rákospalota; R. Moshe Blau; and more.
Some of the forms contain rabbis’ signatures and Beit Din stamps from various cities in Hungary, who collected the testimony in their cities, including: R. Yochanan Sofer, Av Beit Din of Eger (Erlau) and court; R. Moshe Stern, Av Beit Din of Debrecen [author of Be’er Moshe] and court; R. Betzalel Stern [author of BeTzel HaChochmah] and court in Pápa; R. Shemayah Schwartz, dayan and posek in Nyíregyháza and court; R. Shlomo Dov Wieder in Nyíregyháza; R. Chizkiyah Feivel Rosenberg, dayan and posek in Debrecen and court; R. Amram HaLevi Jungreis; R. Yaakov Tzvi HaLevi Jungreis, Av Beit Din in Fehérgyarmat and court; R. Amram Tzvi Grünwald, Rosh Av Beit Din of Ujhel (Sátoraljaújhely) and court; R. David Moskowitz, Av Beit Din of Bonyhád and court; R. Baruch Tzvi HaKohen Moskowitz and court in Paks; R. Tzvi Aryeh Schick, Av Beit Din of Sărmaș and court; R. Yekutiel Mordechai Schick, Av Beit Din of Miskolc, and Rosh Av Beit Din R. Chananya Yom Tov Lipa Grossman and court; R. Aharon Wieder, dayan and posek of Munkacs and court in Munkacs and Kleinwardein (Kisvárda); R. Yekutiel Yehudah Heilprin, Av Beit Din of Hajdúnánás; and many other rabbis signing as the dayanim who collected the testimonies – in addition to the signatures of the witnesses, including rabbis and famous persons.
Over 200 forms, printed and written on both sides. Most forms 29.5 cm. most in very good condition.
