Buy this book on-line

Elina, Odette : SANS FLEURS NI COURONNES

Bourges: Editions J. F. Boulet, 1948

1st edition, original portfolio wrappers, 8vo. 53 pages, plus many blank and unnumbered pages. Illustrations throughout. In French. Title translates as, “Without Flowers Nor Crowns.” This book is told “in the first person, in a succession of scenes, impressions, portraits, thoughts, reflections and emotions that, in chapters very brief and titled, make up a devastating panorama about Elina’s experience in Auschwitz.” (elcultural.com 2018). "When I returned from Auschwitz in 1945, I felt what I had just experienced with such acuteness that it was impossible for me to keep it to myself. I recorded it in notes and drawings. This constituted ‘Without flowers nor Crowns.’ I do not regret having written these notes as soon as I returned from camp because, over time, memories become distorted, they become watered down or dramatized, but always move away from the truth. (...)" Odette Elina (1910-1991) was a “painter, was deported by the Gestapo to Auschwitz-Birkenau in April 1944 as a communist, but above all and above all because she was Jewish. In 1940, she entered the French Resistance network, she had had an initial function to establish the liaison between the writers residing in the South zone (notably Mauriac, Aragon and Julien Benda) before entering the Secret Army in 1942. We actually know very little about the biographical career of Elina before and after her deportation, apart from her exacerbated desire on leaving the Camp to testify to her life in the Camp. ‘Without Flowers nor Crowns’, [was] originally published in 1948 in the wake of the first testimonies…on the Holocaust that appeared in the post-war years..." (Isabelle Dumont).  SUBJECT(S): World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German. Guerre mondiale (1939-1945) -- Camps de concentration -- Récits personnels. Französin. Elina, Odette. Auschwitz (Concentration camp). Konzentrationslager. OCLC: 58452978 (2005 edition by later publisher, with the OCLC record incorrectly listing the original 1st edition as 1947 instead of 1948).  OCLC lists no 1948 (or 1947) copies online. Pages are loose as issued, in an illustrated portfolio. This book is one of 270 numbered copies. Illustrated with 12 inset drawings, one reproduced on the cover; the title page mentions 13 drawings (?), but there are only 12, the same number as reproduced in the 1982 reissue [and also in the other copy of this first edition we examined], so "13" would seem to be incorrect or possibly counting the repeated drawing on the cover. Portfolio is slightly rubbed with short closed tear at lower front inside fold and spine has some creasing, else Very Good Condition. Important and exceedingly rare (HOLO2-141-27-IIIXX)

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.