{"id":26698,"date":"2017-11-10T03:40:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T11:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=26698"},"modified":"2017-11-10T22:12:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-11T06:12:51","slug":"retribution-and-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/11\/10\/retribution-and-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Retribution and restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hidden in the spine of a 1947 edition of Anne Frank\u2019s The Diary of a Young Girl<\/em>, in its original Dutch, is a piece of paper with the German words, \u201cDie Vergeltung<\/em>,\u201d or retribution. (photo by Shula Klinger)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I ran into Richard Smart in North Vancouver in early September. It was at Urban Repurpose, a nonprofit store that sells used building materials and an eclectic mix of donated household items. Many of these items are vintage and, if you\u2019re interested in local history or looking for artistic inspiration, it\u2019s also a treasure trove.<\/p>\n

Employing skills handed down over three generations of his family in England, Smart restores and sells antique books using tools that have \u201cbarely changed for centuries.\u201d And, since a homeschooling mom never misses an opportunity to educate the children, I asked him if we could come by the Old English Bindery to see him at work. In mid-October, he invited us to see how a broken book could be repaired.<\/p>\n

Smart showed us book presses, tools for applying gold leaf to the bindings of books, piles of ancient, beautifully decorated papers and, of course, the books themselves \u2013 travel writing, fiction, nonfiction, massive tomes of human anatomy, bigger than any book you\u2019d see in print nowadays. He also applied gold leaf to the kids\u2019 index fingers, which delighted us all.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Het Achterhuis<\/em>. Anne Frank\u2019s The Diary of a Young Girl<\/em>. (photo by Shula Klinger)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just before we left, Smart showed me a small, bubble-wrapped book. I looked down as he held it out. Its title: Het Achterhui<\/em>s. Anne Frank\u2019s The Diary of a Young Girl<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a first edition,\u201d he said. There was a pause, to let this information seep in. He pointed to the front left edge. \u201cI only did minor repairs on it, here.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stared at my hands, holding this 1947 edition of The Diary of a Young Girl<\/em>, in its original Dutch. Looking down, just breathing. Thinking about how, a mere two years before this book was published, Anne and her sister Margot were still alive. In captivity, but alive. Anne was still writing, contemplating the nature of the human soul.<\/p>\n

A moment later, Smart pointed to the inside of the spine, where it had separated from the contents. \u201cLook at that,\u201d he said, and pointed to some words in German: \u201cDie Vergeltung<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked it up,\u201d he said, and here he became animated. \u201cIt means retribution. Or payback.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was already choking back the emotion of holding this 70-year-old edition of The Diary<\/em>, but now this?<\/p>\n

I asked how the text had gotten there, when the book had come apart, if it had been placed there during the original binding.<\/p>\n

\u201cBookbinders often used scraps of paper to pad the inside of a spine,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut to choose this particular piece of paper? Just think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

By then, my head was full of questions, all competing for my attention. Unfortunately, my two children were also competing for my attention. The little one was extremely curious about the book presses, but the big one was edging toward the door. Also, as interested as they are in world history, this wasn\u2019t the time to tell them about the Holocaust, so we left.<\/p>\n

Over the next few days, I learned more about the book\u2019s earlier life and Smart\u2019s plans for its future. \u201cThis book needs to go back to its community,\u201d he said. When asked if it there had been any fanfare at the Dutch auction, he said, \u201cIt was just an ordinary estate sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the original dust jacket was missing, Smart has made a case for it. Working to match it to the cover\u2019s original colour, he chose a pale blue leather inlay for the lid and patterned, or \u201cpaste,\u201d paper for the sides.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
In the spine of this 1947 edition of The Diary of a Young Girl is a piece of paper with the German words, \u201cDie Vergeltung,\u201d or retribution. (photo by Shula Klinger)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also wrote to Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Gertjan Broek replied, saying, \u201cThere are still a few mysteries around the first edition of Anne Frank\u2019s Het Achterhuis<\/em>.\u201d He agreed that \u201crandomly available\u201d pages from other books were often used to pad spines \u2013 \u201cpaper was a scarce resource in those years,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

This was probably the case with the page used in Smart\u2019s edition of Het Achterhuis<\/em>. Die Vergeltung<\/em> was published in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1941 and reprinted in 1944. In Broek\u2019s view, the typefaces were a match. Broek didn\u2019t know if this was true for all of the 3,000 books in this first run, but he said he\u2019d ask his colleagues.<\/p>\n

A few days \u2013 and a good deal of anxious email-checking \u2013 later, Broek wrote again. \u201cThree experts in book restoration have told me they have never seen a first edition copy of Het Achterhuis<\/em> with this kind of print.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that is where the story rests, for now. I would love to paint a more detailed picture of the bookbinder at a workbench in 1947. I picture hands cutting out a page of that German book, laying it into the backbone of Anne\u2019s book. Was the bookbinder just doing a job, or taking a degree of satisfaction in leaving a deliberate, but hidden, commentary inside this now-iconic piece of work?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another layer to the tale.<\/p>\n

In an age where people are rushing around permanently plugged into an online world, bookbinders like Smart have an unusual job. Every day, instead of racing ever forwards, he steps into worlds that have passed, touches books first purchased by people who haven\u2019t lived for centuries. As he preserves their books, it\u2019s as if he offers a passage between their time and ours.<\/p>\n

Amid all of these remarkable works, Anne\u2019s stands out as a beacon. \u201cBooks like Anne\u2019s make this work worthwhile,\u201d said Smart, who is keen to sell his copy of Het Achterhuis<\/em>, but to an organization, not a private individual. \u201cI had an offer on it but I refused it,\u201d he said. \u201cI have my heart set on it going into an institution that will display the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, in preserving precious books, Smart is doing far more than simply offering a service, repairing material goods. He is acting as a guardian of history.<\/p>\n

Smart also wonders about the binder of this copy of copy of Het Achterhuis<\/em>, \u201cthe moment of looking for a spine liner and putting that particular one in. What was going through his mind, in 1947?\u201d On reading this in Smart\u2019s email, I replied that, really, the book was priceless.<\/p>\n

Later that day, he emailed again. \u201cThis one copy is priceless, as you say. Not financially but historically. Just imagine the story told by everyone that sees this book in a museum. It would bring people in, just to see this, and talk about it. That is worth so much for everyone in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to my expression of gratitude for his professional conscience, he said, \u201cFaith is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shula Klinger<\/strong> is an author, illustrator and journalist living in North Vancouver. Find out more at niftyscissors.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hidden in the spine of a 1947 edition of Anne Frank\u2019s The Diary of a Young Girl, in its original Dutch, is a piece of paper with the German words, \u201cDie Vergeltung,\u201d or retribution. (photo by Shula Klinger) I ran into Richard Smart in North Vancouver in early September. It was at Urban Repurpose, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[1290,53],"class_list":["post-26698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-anne-frank","tag-holocaust"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}