Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin - New List of Rightful Owners of Books in its Collection

5 July 2012: On 10 November 2011, the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (the Central Library of Berlin) published a first list of the names of the rightful owners of looted books in its collection identified through signatures, stamps, inscriptions and notes found in the books - all of which have been photographed by the Library. Names in the books include those of the rightful owners, also the names of donors dedications, previous owners from the period before 1933, and, in some cases, the names of the Nazi perpetrators. While many of the books were forcibly stolen by the agencies of the Third Reich or were taken as a result of discriminatory laws, others had to be sold by the persecuted either for their flight or to allow them to survive.A minimum number of 1,920 of the books were acquired by the Library in 1943 from the municipal pawnship and these come exclusively from the private collections of the Jews of Berlin who were deported and murdered. The Library is seeking the rightful owners to that they can return the books to them.

As a result of the first list of names being published on lootedart.com on 3 January 2012, the Library received many enquiries from families whose names were listed.

On 5 July 2012 the Library provided lootedart.com with a new updated list of names. Every week 10 to maybe 50 new names are added by the Library as a result of their research. At present more than 4,700 books containing 8,100 marks of provenance are online. This is still just a fragment of the looted books that are in the stock of the Library. Click here to check the list of names and for all details of the research.