Shred XLIX: And then the North Koreans attacked

It’s really interesting the values of old world atlases- the data in them is outdated at times, but it can be nostalgic, and sometimes, well just plain tragic.

Story time! A couple of months ago I was in this lovely coffee/ book shop in Central Tel Aviv called in English “the Book Worm”, where there were more than few vintage/plain old books to buy and stick my nose to. I fell upon an old world atlas with absolutely beautifully detailed flags of each of the different flags. I assumed it was pretty old as the U.S.S.R. was there and everything. It was the moment I got to Poland’s flag when things got interesting. There was on the side facts about the country. Population, area, and such. And then the big shock was when I got to a stat called “Jewish population”: 3,300,o00. The book was made by a Jewish/ Hebrew publishing in Israel before WWII. It was as if the ground was falling under me. Lithuania, Jewish Population: 300,000. U.S.S.R., Jewish population: 5,000,000. It was a world seemingly untouched by the future- that’s because it wasn’t touched by the future! But it’s so hard for me to picture it. A world unaware of the tragedies about to unfold. Though the book didn’t having anything about Germany so the logical assumption is that the book was written 1933-1939, but still who could’ve predicted the things to come?

The facts of this atlas were certainly very sadly, outdated, but the fact that they were simply, well, there, unhindered by our modern history still gives me chills.

a little thingy I posted in Rabbit Rabbit Radio when the topic of making visual art out of books and whether it's right or wrong came up