Survivors ' Talmud The Survivors ' Talmud ( also known as the U . S . Army Talmud ) was an edition of the Talmud published in the U . S . Zone of Allied - occupied Germany on behalf of Holocaust survivors housed in displaced persons ( DP ) camps . It was the first and only known edition of the Talmud to be published by a government body . While the project was approved in September 1946 , delays in acquiring a complete set of the Talmud to work from , as well as obtaining printing materials , pushed off publication until 1949 – 1950 , by which time most of the survivors had emigrated from Europe . Extant copies of the Survivors ' Talmud are now collector ' s items . Background . At the end of World War II , 250 , 000 to 300 , 000 Jewish survivors remained in Western and Central Europe , housed in DP camps . These survivors , and the schools and yeshivas that sprang up to educate them , were in desperate need of " sefarim " ( Torah books ) , " siddur im " ( Jewish prayer books ) , and " machzor im " ( High Holy Days prayer books ) . The Vaad Hatzalah , an Orthodox rescue organization founded in 1939 to save rabbis and yeshiva students in Poland and Lithuania , printed hundreds of thousands of copies of these and other religious books to meet the survivors ' needs , including 10 , 000 pocket - size editions of individual tractates of the Talmud . At the same time , a group of rabbis led by Samuel A . Snieg , chief rabbi of the U . S . Zone , and Samuel Jakob Rose , both survivors of the Dachau concentration camp , conceived the idea of printing an entire , full - size Talmud in Germany as a sign of the Jewish people ' s survival despite efforts to annihilate them . Snieg connected with Rabbi Philip S . Bernstein , a New York Reform rabbi who served as adviser on Jewish affairs to General Joseph McNarney , Military Governor of Occupied Germany , and Bernstein arranged for the rabbis to meet with McNarney . Bernstein summed up the rabbis ' request in a memorandum : " [ Would the army provide ] the tools for the perpetuation of religion , for the students who crave these texts spring from the strongly Orthodox element ? . . . A 1947 edition . . . published in Germany under the auspices of the American Army of Occupation , would be an historic work " . The general approved the request . The signed agreement , titled " Agreement Between the American Joint Distribution Committee and the Rabbinical Council , U . S . Zone Germany , Regarding the Printing of the New Edition of the Talmud " and dated 11 September 1946 , called for the project to be supervised by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ( the " Joint " ) and the U . S . Army , and for expenses to be covered by the Joint and the German government . According to the agreement , 3 , 000 copies of a 16 - volume set of the Talmud would be printed within one year . The Talmud project would be managed by a team of government and military staffers . Project history . Before printing could begin , a complete set of the Talmud had to be found to use as a prototype . In the 1930s and early 1940s , the Nazi government had stolen , looted and burned many of the religious books belonging to German Jews , and not one complete set of the Talmud could be located in Western Europe . A complete set was difficult to find in America , too , since yeshiva students had relied on editions printed in Poland . Finally , two complete sets were found in New York and sent to Germany by the Joint . The U . S . Army acquisitioned the Carl Winter Printing Plant in Heidelberg , Germany , which had produced Nazi propaganda literature during the war . However , the sheer size of the project – which required " millions of sheets of paper , tens of thousands of meters of bonds and strips of linen paper , cord , typesetting , cardboard , photoengraving equipment , and a permit for electricity use " – made the army rethink its commitment . In February 1947 the project was scaled down from 3 , 000 sets to 50 sets . ( Later , the Joint financed the printing of several hundred additional sets . ) Another delay ensued when a material called collodion , which enables the transfer of page images to zinc photographic plate s , was found to have been banned during the war and was only available in the city of Zwickau in the Soviet occupation zone . As the Cold War had begun , Zwickau was unreachable , so the collodion had to be ordered from America . Meanwhile , Germany ' s currency crisis delayed the German ' s government ' s funding of the project until the implementation of economic reforms in spring 1948 . When printing began , it became clear that the original projection of 16 volumes per set was inadequate , so 19 volumes were planned for each set . The first copies were finally printed in May 1949 . In a moving ceremony on 13 May 1949 in the Berlin headquarters of the U . S . Army , Rabbi Snieg presented the first copy of the Talmud to General Lucius Clay , Military Governor of the U . S . Occupation Zone in Germany , with the words , " I bless your hand in presenting to you this volume embodying the highest spiritual wisdom of our people " . Chaim Weizmann , first president of Israel , also received a copy . The final run was completed on 16 November 1950 . Approximately 500 sets were printed . Title page and dedications . The title page of each volume depicts a Nazi slave labor camp surrounded by barbed wire . Above it are palm trees and scenes in Israel . These images are connected by the Hebrew words : " From bondage to freedom , from darkness to a great light " . In the first volume of the Talmud , this dedication appeared in English : In 1946 we turned to the American Army Commander to assist us in the publication of the Talmud . In all the years of exile it has often happened that various governments and forces have burned Jewish books . Never did any publish them for us . This is the first time in Jewish history that a government has helped in the publication of the Talmud , which is the source of our being and the length of our days . The Army of the United States saved us from death , protects us in this land , and through their aid does the Talmud appear again in Germany . Each volume of the Talmud also included this dedication in English : This edition of the Talmud is dedicated to the United States Army . The army played a major role in the rescue of the Jewish people from total annihilation and after the defeat of Hitler bore the major burden of sustaining the DPs of the Jewish faith . This special edition of the Talmud published in the very land where , but a short time ago , everything Jewish and of Jewish inspiration was anathema , will remain a symbol of the indestructibility of the Torah . The Jewish DPs will never forget the generous impulses and the unprecedented humanitarianism of the American forces , to whom they owe so much . ( Signed ) Rabbi Samuel A . Snieg , Chief Rabbi of the U . S . Zone Distribution . By the time the Survivors ' Talmud was printed , only 10 , 000 to 15 , 000 Jewish survivors remained in Germany . The Joint and the German government decided to keep 40 sets in German libraries and other institutions , and to send the rest of the printing to Jewish communal organizations and libraries around the world . In the United States , a committee headed by Rabbi Leo Jung of Yeshiva University was responsible for choosing recipients ; it sent complete sets of the Talmud to some religious and secular institutions in the U . S . and Canada , and single volumes to others . It also gave volumes to Holocaust survivors and people who had been involved in the Talmud project . Because of its limited printing , the Survivors ' Talmud became a collector ' s item . Few complete sets of the Survivors ' Talmud are still extant . In 2001 , one volume was exhibited at the Chrysler Museum of Art and thereafter went on a national tour . Also in 2001 , the American Jewish Historical Society , in conjunction with the Tidewater Jewish Foundation of Norfolk , Virginia , prepared a traveling exhibition for U . S . military bases around the world , telling the story of the Survivors ' Talmud and the role of the U . S . Army in its publication . In 2005 , a copy of the Survivors ' Talmud was part of a Yeshiva University Museum exhibition entitled " Printing The Talmud : From Bomberg To Schottenstein " .