Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Orphaned Jewish Books: Sermon, August 21, 2009, Temple Israel, Boston

“I will not tolerate stolen books in our collection.”

These were the words of Barbara Schneider-Kempf, the Director General of the Berlin State Library-Prussian Cultural Heritage Center, as she addressed a group of Judaica librarians from all over the world at the annual conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries, held last month in Chicago. I was fortunate to attend Mrs. Schneider-Kempf’s presentation, called “Stolen Books: the Third Reich’s Exchange Center and the Prussian State Library, 1933-1945.” She spoke about her library’s study of books stolen by the Nazis and incorporated into German libraries and about efforts to return the books to the relatives of the original owners.

Until I heard Mrs. Schneider-Kempf’s talk, I knew nothing about what are called “stolen,” “plundered,” or “orphaned” Jewish books. In 1998 the Conference on Holocaust Era Assets, held in Washington, DC, focused mostly on unique and valuable works of art and museum pieces. The issue of stolen books has only come into focus more recently, in part due to the leadership of people like Barbara Schneider-Kempf.

Mrs. Schneider-Kempf’s research has turned up astounding –and disturbing--results: There may be as many as 150,000 stolen books in the holdings of Berlin's Central and Regional Library! Schneider-Kempf described how the stolen books got there, the difficulties involved in trying to identify and return what she calls “Nazi Loot” to the relatives of their original owners, and the efforts—only some of which have been successful--that have been made to do so. After WWII ended Berlin was divided. Berlin’s Prussian State Library also was divided into two separate libraries: the Berlin State Library and the Prussian Heritage Library. The East and West libraries didn’t get along any better than their corresponding governments, thus obstructing efforts to access not only materials, but also sources for investigating the materials.

In spite of the challenges, there have been some successes in returning books to their rightful owners. For example:

When Arthur Rubinstein and his family saw the writing on the wall and moved to the United States in 1939, the renowned composer left his library behind. The contents were seized by the Nazi agency Einsatzstab Reichsleter Rosenberg. Led by Alfred Rosenberg, this agency was charged with the task of confiscating Jewish property. The Rubinstein collection was first taken to Berlin. Later it was confiscated by the Soviets and, in 1958-59, taken to East Germany. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation was charged with returning identifiable materials to their rightful owners. 71 of Rubinstein’s scores were eventually discovered and returned to his family. In 2007, his children donated the collection to the Julliard School of Music.

Books and other documents belonging to Rabbi Leo Baeck, leader of Germany’s Jewish community during the Holocaust, and to German Jewish theatre critic Alfred Kerr, also were returned to family members just in the last few years.

I was riveted by Schneider-Kempf’s talk, first, because the subject was new to me; and second, I was fascinated by the fact that this German woman is dedicating enormous time and energy to this effort, which more often than not, turns out to be frustrating and fruitless. Beyond that, she is providing moral leadership in Germany and internationally. Her final comment in the presentation was, “The Berlin State Library is determined to confront its past honestly, even when it is at its most inglorious.”

After the conference, I emailed her to ask why she’d chosen to get involved with this project. Here is her reply:

Thank you for your kind e-mail and your interest in the reasons why I have chosen to address the issue of books and other cultural property looted as the result of Nazi persecution as one of my priorities. My reasons for drawing attention to the issue are quite unspectacular - I cannot name any particular personal encounter or experience as a decisive influence. I simply consider it to be both my civic and professional responsibility as a citizen of a free and democratic Germany and as an academic librarian to search for items in our collection that were acquired in violation of our present-day standards and to return these books and manuscripts to heirs, museums and memory institutions whenever this is possible. And I expect colleagues in libraries throughout Germany, if not worldwide, to act in the same manner.

As I was working on this sermon, a colleague who’d also attended Mrs. Schneider-Kempf’s session shared with me an article from the Malibu Times, about a survivor who’d been re-united with a childhood book. Rabbi Larry Seideman of Newport Beach, California, read a story on the German news source, Shpiegel, about stolen Jewish books in Berlin libraries. The article told of a children’s book that was found, called For our youth: a book of entertainment for Israelite Boys and Girls. Inside the book, there was a handwritten dedication: “For my dear Wolfgang Lachmann, in friendship, Chanuka 5698, December 1937.” Rabbi Seidman immediately picked up the phone and called his friend and neighbor, Walter Lachman, a survivor, who, sure enough, had changed his name when he came to the United States after the war. “That’s my book!” he said. The volume had been a gift from his Hebrew School teacher.

Lachman’s daughter, Deborah Valdez, traveled to Berlin to receive the book on her father’s behalf. The Berlin library officials held a ceremony, which Valdez described: “They found a suitcase belonging to one of the young girls who went to the camps. … In it, she had a list of all her favorite books. She couldn’t bring the books with her because when they were deported, they were told they could only bring one suitcase. So she made the list, instead, and at the ceremony, they read from portions of the books. Philosophy, books about movie stars. They were trying to bring her to life for us. Art might be priceless, but librarians know how important books are.”

Lachman said that he was “a little anxious” to see his book again. Asked what he will do with it, he paused. “Maybe I’ll read it again,” he said.

As you can probably tell, I found this topic of orphaned books to be very moving. I am proud that a fellow librarian has taken the lead in this effort, and encouraged by the fact that this she is a German and is continuing the work of many other Righteous Gentiles. May we all be inspired by her acts of social justice.


TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ORPHANED JEWISH BOOKS

RESOURCES USED IN PREPARATION FOR THE ABOVE SERMON:

1) “Stolen Books: The Third Reich’s Exchange Center and the Prussian State
Library in the Years 1933-1945. Lecture given by Dr. Barbara Schneider-Kempf, Director General of the Berlin State Library-Prussian Cultural Heritage
Center, and recorded as a pod-cast, July 6, 2009, at the Association of
Jewish Libraries’ Convention, Chicago, IL.

http://jewishlibraries.org/podcast/?p=326 (pod-cast)

2) Article in Malibu Times about survivor being re-united with childhood book.

http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2009/07/22/malibu_life/art1.txt

3) Jewish Cultural Reconstruction. Organization established in 1947 to deal
with the collection and redistribution of heirless Jewish cultural property

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10131.html


4) The Holocaust-Era Judaic Heritage Library in the Hebraica Collection of
the Library of Congress.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/hs/hscoll.html

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Librarian is interviewed on children's book pod-cast!

I recently attended the annual convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries, held July 5-8 in Chicago. In addition to the wonderful sessions, opportunities for networking, and wonderful setting (downtown Chicago), I was fortunate to meet, and be interviewed by Mark Blevis, of the children's book pod-cast, "Just One More Book!" Here is an excerpt of the interview - my debut on a podcast!

Ann Abrams, Librarian

http://www.justonemorebook.com/2009/07/13/exploring-jewish-books-and-literacy-programs-at-ajl09/