Exceptionally large and wide-ranging collection comprising hundreds of publications – most of them printed by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and its various branches, dating from the time of the Six-Day War, and including orders, official statements, information sheets, battlefront notices, leaflets issued by individual combat units, song sheets, official documents, and other material. Israel, June 1967 (several items from earlier and later periods). English and Hebrew.

Some 750 printed items of ephemera, including:

• Daily order informing readers of the imminent launch of the war, hand signed by Major General Avraham Yoffe, commander of the 31st Armored Division, along with a handwritten comment: “Written and distributed to the soldiers on June 4, 1967” (a day before the outbreak of the war). Additional handwritten notations appear on the reverse side; in all likelihood, these were jotted down in the actual course of battle, and they include the names of various military units along with reports on their respective condition, and additional notations.

• Official statement from the day of the liberation of the Western Wall (June 7), issued by IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren (Hebrew): “I speak to you from the plaza of the Western Wall… The dream of all generations has been realized [here] before our eyes… you have today fulfilled the oath of generations, ‘If I forget thee O Jerusalem may my right hand forget its cunning’”. In addition, the collection includes two official statements, one issued by Rabbi Goren on the Sabbath Eve prior to the outbreak of the war, and the other on the actual day the war began.

• A wide range of publications issued by the various commands and major IDF branches, specifically the Central Command, the Southern Command, the Air Force, and Navy.

• A wide variety of combat leaflets issued in strictly limited editions, including issues of the journal of the Harel Brigade; issues of “Chativon”; issues of the army magazine “Machanayim”; Issue No. 2 of “Tashbetzahal” (“IDF Crossword”); the magazine “Kidon UShlof”; issues of “Dorbanei HaPladah”; and numerous other publications of all kinds.

• Hundreds of issues of “Press Bulletin” (English) and “Yediot LaItonut” (“Press Releases”; Hebrew), two types of breaking-news bulletins released by the Israel Government Press Office, providing the earliest available documentation from the battlefront; proclamations on behalf of the official bodies; speeches delivered by senior officials; and more (leaflets in English, leaflets for the benefit of the Hebrew-language media, and maps).

• “Israel Defense Forces, Bulletin No. 1” (Hebrew and Arabic), the first statement of its kind to be issued by the Military Government in the Occupied Territories, listing eight orders to be followed by the local population.

• The first printing of the lyrics to the song "Yerusahalayim shel Barzel” [Jerusalem of Iron], famously written by Meir Ariel, a combatant in the Paratroopers Brigade, after Neomi Shemer's "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" [Jerusalem of Gold]. Published by the “Temple Mount Press” of the brigade command on June 12, 1967 – just a few days after the lyrics were composed.

• Ten “battle sheets” of the Tel HaShomer Hospital (precursor to today’s Tel HaShomer Medical Center) providing IDF guidelines to the hospital’s medical staff (Hebrew); apparently, these were the only pages to be printed.

• A double-sided game board, produced by the IDF Education Corps, one side intended for checkers and the game “Tachanot”, and the other side meant for “Catch the Infiltrator, ” a game to entertain soldiers specially devised by the IDF.

• And more.

Some 750 items of ephemera. Size and condition vary. Overall good condition. Creases, stains, punch holes, and minor tears. Several items in multiple copies.

A diverse collection including letters, manuscripts of literary works, and a signed portrait photograph, by German-Jewish author Jakob Wassermann; sent to his literary agent in the United States, Nathan Ausübel. Austria (and other locations?), 1920s-30s. German.

The collection includes:

1. "Yellow Coat" (Gelbmäntelchen) – screenplay by Jakob Wassermann, typescript with handwritten notes; a story about an angel sent to Earth to touch the soul of "the most indifferent man" (the screenplay is based on Wassermann's short story "Jost", published in the anthology Der Wendekreis [Berlin, 1920]). To the best of our knowledge, this work was never filmed.

[1], 18, [2] leaves. 34 cm.

2. "The Jew as an Oriental" (Der Jude als Orientale) – essay by Jakob Wassermann, typescript, based on a letter to Martin Buber; in the essay, Wassermann addresses the question of defining Judaism, describing Eastern Jewry as a positive alternative, rooted in its origins, to European Jewry (the essay was published in the literary journal "Daimon" [Vienna 1918], alongside articles, poetry and prose excerpts by Max Brod, Ernst Weiss, Franz Werfel, and others).

5 pages. 27.5 cm.

3. Fragments from a literary work by Wassermann, in his handwriting (the novel Christian Wahnschaffe?); thirteen pages in Wassermann's small and elegant handwriting, with corrections and deletions, eight of them written in German Kurrent script, and five in regular German script (Latin letters). The fragments may be taken from the manuscript of the novel Christian Wahnschaffe (1919), mentioned in one of Wassermann's letters to his agent in the USA, featured in the present lot (the novel was published in English as The World's Illusion).

[13] leaves (numbered 156-160, 330, and 339-341; irregular pagination). Approx. 21-25 cm.

4-22. Nineteen letters by Wassermann, signed in his hand, addressed to his literary agent in the USA, Nathan Ausübel. Some are handwritten, occasionally on official letterhead. Among the topics discussed in the letters: the power of attorney Wassermann granted Ausübel for publishing his writings in the United States (July 10, 1924); the publication of the novels Das Gänsemännchen, Die Masken Erwin Reiners and Christian Wahnschaffe, by the publisher Harcourt Brace and a screenplay to be sent to Ausübel (apparently the draft screenplay in present lot, August 28, 1924); the death of Wassermann's friend, composer Ferruccio Busoni (August 28, 1924); notice of sending the proofs of the novel Faber oder die verlorenen Jahre, along with a copy of a letter sent to the publisher Harcourt Brace, and mention of Wassermann's friend, German-Jewish author Ludwig Lewisohn (September 8, 1924); an update that Wassermann received an inquiry from Fox Film studios regarding the production of a film based on one of his novellas, and negotiations with an English publisher on publishing the novel Die Juden von Zirndorf (September 18, 1924); mention of Thomas Mann and author Werner Hegemann (December 17, 1931); and more.

Number of pages varies, approx. 12-29 cm. Some letters are accompanied by the original envelope in which they were sent.

23. Portrait photograph of Jakob Wassermann, inscribed and signed by him, to Nathan Ausübel (the inscription is dated July 9, 1924, Altaussee).

Approx. 15X11 cm. Mounted on cardboard.

Jakob Wassermann (1873-1934) was one of the most important and successful German-Jewish authors of the 20th century. Born in Fürth (Bavaria) to a middle-class Jewish family. In 1897 he published his first novel, "The Jews of Zirndorf" (Die Juden von Zirndorf), which achieved immediate success and established his reputation in Germany as a promising author. Among his notable works: "The Maurizius Case" (Der Fall Maurizius), "Caspar Hauser" and "The Goose Man" (Das Gänsemännchen). In 1921 he published his book "My Path as a German and a Jew" (Mein Weg als Deutscher und Jude), in which he directly confronted the conflict between his identity as a German and his Jewish cultural heritage.

Despite his literary success, Wassermann suffered from the growing antisemitism in Germany. With the rise of the Nazis to power in 1933, he was expelled from the Prussian Academy of Arts, his books were placed on the "black list" and banned from publication in Germany, and many copies were burned in book burnings. Wassermann died in 1934 in the villa where he resided in Altaussee, Austria.

Condition varies.

Provenance: Sotheby's, London, April 1982, Lot 496.