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.