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Art plunder
by the Nazis always attracts a lot of interest. Restitution requests on visual
art as well. But the Nazis stole much more, such as books, archives and ritual
objects. This publication discusses the plunder of books. Books? Is that
important? Yes that is important. If only because for Jews books are essential
to Jewish culture. They are the connection with the troubled Jewish past, their
religion, their culture. They define the group and lay the foundation for the
future. The Nazis put a violent end to that.
The Nazis
believed that Jews, along with Freemasons, were plotting to take over world
domination. And that had to be verified and stopped. That is why the Nazis
founded 'academic' institutes for, among other things, as they euphemistically
called it, 'the study of the issue of the Jews'. Book plunder was an integral
part of the Final Solution, the destruction of the Jewish people. It was not
just about the physical holocaust, but also about a cultural holocaust. The
same applies to all groups that did not fit the Nazi ideal: socialists,
communists, Sinti and Roma, Jesuits, friendly societies such as the Rotary and
the Odd Fellows, and esoteric movements such as Rosicrucianism, Theosophy and
Anthroposophy.
This book describes
for the first time how, when and by whom the literary landscape in the
Netherlands was razed to the ground. All kinds of branches of the civilian Nazi
government preyed on the books. The focus in this book is on the Einsatzstab
Reichsleiter Rosenberg, which initially limited itself to the theft of books
and archives, but from March 1942 also gained control over the so-called
'Möbel-Aktion': the plunder of all household goods of deported Jews and other
'subversive' groups.
In the
Netherlands, millions of books have been robbed, stolen, auctioned, dragged,
squandered, destroyed and transported to Germany. The Nazis were helped by a
range of Dutch people with varying degrees of collaboration. Mapping the paths
of the plunder may ultimately make it possible to find out where the books
went, ultimately making restitution possible.
This bookis the Dutch version. An English version will be published on the website of
the Claims Conference, together with a chart of names of institutions and
persons, which are mentioned in the ERR reports.