This illuminated Hebrew manuscript was a witness to World War II in Germany. How did it escape? At the back of the manuscript is a sheet recording the two readers who requested it for study at the Frankfurt library in the WWII period. First is Rachel Wischnitzer, who saw the manuscript on November 19, 1936 (exactly 84 years ago today). She was a curator at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Fortunately, she escaped from Nazi Germany in 1938 and became an art history professor in New York. The second signature dates from November 5–6, 1941, and belongs to Dr. Fritz Zschaeck, who supported the Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe by gathering looted Hebrew manuscripts. In 1950, the manuscript was part of an exchange between the German government and a Jewish family for land in Frankfurt that had been seized during the war. Getty welcomed it into the collection in 2018. . . . 🏷: #HiddenHistory #StoriesBehindtheArt #BackofArtworks #Getty #GettyMuseum #Manuscripts #IlluminatedManuscript