Restitution and Remembrance: Finding a Thousand Heirs

Some 20 years ago, over 9,000 books looted by the infamous Nazi officer Julius Streicher were handed over to the Jewish community in Nuernberg and are now held by the Stadtbibliothek there. The owners of more than 2,000 of them could be identified. An ongoing research project coordinated by Leibl Rosenberg in Nuernberg to identify descendants has resulted in the return of over 1,000 of them. Hundreds are still in the library collection awaiting return.

Karen enlisted assistance from LBI’s staff and volunteers, as well as volunteers from the Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage and a college intern, to review the list of books with heirs yet unidentified, and within a few weeks, the descendants of over a dozen original owners of the book had been located and notified. In this talk, Karen will discuss new case studies and demonstrate the research techniques she and the volunteers undertook to find the heirs.