Silver Megillat Esther Holder

Silver Megillat Esther* Holder from the Lodz ghetto.

Four inmates of the Lodz ghetto presented this silver case to the controversial figure Mordechai Rumkowski, who was head of the Judenrat, in honor of his birthday.  The case bears the following engraved inscription:

“An everlasting memento for His Royal Highness, Prince Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, on the occasion of his birthday….Litzmannstadt ghetto, Purim 1941.”

On the basis of the markings and the quality of the silversmith’s work, we surmise that the case was made by a silversmith before the war and brought to the ghetto, and that only the dedication itself was engraved inside the ghetto.

*The scroll of the Book of Esther is read on the Jewish festival of Purim