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Investigators Track Nazis' Looted Books

A million plundered volumes are still on German library shelves

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 25, 2008 11:20 AM CDT

(Newser) – A handful of determined librarians are trying to reunite books stolen by the Nazis with their owners or their families, Der Spiegel reports. Experts believe at least a million such books are still on the shelves of libraries across Germany. Many carry a 'J' inscribed by Nazi-era librarians to indicate they were seized from the collections of Jews sent to extermination camps.

The investigators have had some heartening successes, but they say the vast majority of stolen books have yet to be uncovered, and their work is slowed by libraries unwilling to confront the past. Many libraries approach the issue "sluggishly and reluctantly," said the vice president of Germany's Central Council of Jews. "These books are sitting in the stacks like corpses in a cellar."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

Students study at one of the main libraries at the Freie Universitaet January 13, 2003 in Berlin, Germany. (Getty Images)

A group of Nazi troops and students gather seized papers and books to burn, in the Opernplatz, Berlin. (Getty Images)

Juergen Deile sorts books onto the shelves at the 16th-century rococo-style hall of the historical Duchess Anna Amalia library in Weimar, Germany, Monday, Oct. 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

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Documenting the paths and histories of books that were acquired in the Nazi period is a fundamental task for libraries, a question of ethics. - Librarian Arno Barnert

These books are sitting in the stacks like corpses in a cellar. - Salomon Korn of Germany's Central Council of Jews

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Investigators Track Nazis' Looted Books