Today’s New York Times the article highlighted the fate of books stolen by the Nazis. Tens of millions of books were taken from the Rothschilds, other prominent Jewish families, and Jewish Academic organizations Strangely enough some of these great collections ended up in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
We need to remember that being a member of the upper class, one participated in salons. At these events one was expected to discuss philosophy, science, religion, politics, etc.
In order to converse on these wide variety of subjects, one needed to read voraciously. Thus, the participants, some of whom were Jewish, had large libraries of first editions.
The article starts with Victor Basch, a French Jewish intellectual. The Nazis seized his book when he fled Paris. He was subsequently shot to death by Vichy officials. Lucy Dawidowicz, who wrote The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945 was very critical of Vichy regime. She felt that our desire to build back the prestige of France following World War II led to a whitewash of French complicity with the Nazis.
According to Holocaust experts, the Nazis stole tens of millions of books from Jews and other victims. In 1945 many of these books were sent to Minsk, where they remained for 42 years. Unlike books they ended up in Frankfurt and were returned to the Jewish survivors the books going to Minsk stayed under Communist control until the fall of Communism.
In recent years there have been conferences to get a return of the books to France, but the process has been slow.
Because books do not have the value of art, there is not the same emphasis to make restitution.
Originally published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
