Jewish camps in Cyprus. Folio of 30 woodcuts.

This is a folio of twenty nine prints executed in the German expressionist style. They were created in 1948-9 by Jewish internees at the Caraolos deportation camp in Famagusta. Over fifty thousand Jews on their way to Israel were kept for some time in Cyprus by the British authorities between 1946-1949. Despite their meager means, each one of twenty six internees printed one representation of their lives within the camp. All representations were circulated in twenty six copies, one for each of the artists. In the first pages of the folio, the following is printed: The cover of the folio portrays Jews arriving at the camps and is titled “Coming off the boats”. Page 1: In exile in Cyprus. If we want or do not want We are brothers in strife, We shall understand that, And we will be brothers for life, Creation, activity, and construction. (From the will of the late Pinhas Rottenberg).* * Pinhas Rottenberg was a Zionist leader in 1930-40s and late director of the Electricity Company. Page 2: Cyprus is one stop on the path of misery To the land of Israel. The Jewish meaning of this station Is wires, inactivity and a sentence to paralysis. Even under these circumstances we remain alive. The stories told in this book are from friends Who stayed in the ‘Israel Deportation Camps in Cyprus’. On a different page, the titles of the twenty six prints are listed.