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Rediscovered and Repatriated: UCLA Library’s Return of Nazi-Looted BooksMain MenuIntroductionHistorical Context: Nazi Ideology and World War IIHistorical Context: Jews in PragueJewish Museum in PragueLibrary of the Jewish Museum in PragueThe Books: RediscoveryThe Books: Prague to Los AngelesThe Books: Journey HomeTimelineBibliographyCurators and Collaborators
Ownership stamp from the Prague Jewish Religious Community (JRC) Library
1media/IMG_2831_thumb.JPG2022-04-20T10:39:02-07:00Gissel Rios7982c970d3b7dd4677d1e6c2c5ce83f7a22df399399844Page from Sefer Yesod More ve-Sod Torahplain2022-05-10T19:06:00-07:00Shannon Tanhayi Ahari9acf9da5ec89ddee5b91d49defd5a86373ce8e7e
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1media/IMG_2831.JPGmedia/IMG_2831.JPG2022-02-09T14:18:22-08:00Introduction131plain2022-05-08T12:47:36-07:00 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.
