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Help is requested to find the former owners
Genealogists are being asked for help in providing information leading to the original owners of a large collection of approximately 10,000 books so-called the “Stürmer or Streicher Library”currently in the possession of the Jewish Community of Nuremberg (IKG).
Remnants of the books were given to the city library on permanent loan by the Jewish Community in Nuremberg who are presently considered "owners and proprietors" of the collection.
As custodians, the Jewish Community has now begun the tedious task of finding the former owners of these books. "So far approximately 500 writings have been returned to approximately 150 persons or entities in nine different countries."
"The research of the provenance references in the writings in 25 languages has resulted in over 2,200 former owners from 550 places of origins in Europe and Overseas. Three geographical focal areas have been crystalized: Nuremberg, Franconia; Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorrain; and Vienna, Austria. The restitution of robbed cultural goods requires provenance research, yet it cannot be successfully featured without family research.
The acting representative of the city of Nuremberg for the collection of the Jewish Community therefore turns today to the genealogist and historians from the contributors and user circle at www.GenTeam.eu to request instructions, reference information, and research result for locating the former Austrian owners and their heirs or legal successors.
A document of mass robbery
Despite our greatest efforts, the published listing still contains so many inaccuracies and misattributions, many traces and fragments. It is a document of mass robbery that often led to mass murder-- how could it be any different? To get a better idea of the previous owners, pictures of the provenance entries were added to the search list.
Many years, actually decades have passed since this terrific raid; but it does not alter the iniquity and the suffering of the affected. Please examine whether you can shed some light in the dark so that in this way the victims will befall a just a little justice.
In advance, I would like to extend a whole-hearted thank you for your efforts and labor.
Any queries, contact leibl.rosenberg@stadt.nuernberg.de. This request is being made by ''Feliz Gundacker''.
- Looted Publications From Austria In The Collection Of The Jewish Community
- Sammlung der Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde
- Detailed list
For help on joining the project or other queries contact Charmaine Carstens
References:
- Wikipedia: Nazi plunder
- US News: Hitlers Records of Nazi Art Plunder Resurface
- Looted Art.com
- The New Yorker: What became of the Jewish Books
- Bloomberg.com: Nazi Looted Books Spell Decades of Labor for Librairies
- Der Spiegel: German Libraries Hold Thousands of Looted Volumes
- Article: Tracing the rightful owners: Nazi-looted books in the Central and Regional Library of Berlin
- Zentral und Landesbibliothek Centrum Judaicum: Berlin's Libraries and the Books of Persecuted and Murdered Jews
List of previous owners:
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Collection from Berlin:
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supplied by Jeffrey Meyerson, together with documentation.
Owner of two of the books confiscated in about 1942 from Kantor Hermann Helischkowski.
The other son of Hermann, Seigmund, living in Berlin, was never deported, as he worked throughout the war at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin. So the books didn’t come from him.
Landesbibliothek Berlin: centrumjudaicum.de
Queries and details contact Geni curator Jeffrey Meyerson