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Introduction
From the early 1930s to the end of World War II in 1945, the Nazi Party looted millions of books from libraries, universities, and other public and private collections across Europe. As part of their planned annihilation of Jewish people and culture, many books were destroyed in massive public bonfires. Others were stockpiled for future study and intended as proof of the inferiority of the “un-German” (1). Today, many libraries and museums are attempting to rebuild what remains of their ransacked collections.
This exhibit presents the story of six books. Looted by Nazis during World War II and rediscovered decades later at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), we contextualize the books’ histories, investigate their international journey from Europe to the United States, and describe UCLA Library’s process for returning the books to their rightful stewards at the Jewish Museum in Prague, Czech Republic.