Looted Works Not Only from Austria in the Collection of the Jewish Community

On March 12, 1938 Nazi Germany brought Austria home into the Reich (realm) by annexing the country.  With it began a terrible history of suffering for the victims of the Nazis: Jewish people, free masons, Sinti and Roma, priests and believers of diverse Christian Denomination, representatives and exponents of the labor movement. They were disenfranchised, humiliated, persecuted, arrested, robbed, expelled, and assassinated. Favored objects of the new masters’ desires were the properties and cultural commodities of any kind: paintings, sculptures, images, manuscripts, writings, archival materials, art wares, tools and instruments, stocks, motor vehicles, furniture and usable items of any kind. One does not go wrong in the assumption that there had to have been about 600,000 art works and millions of publications confiscated from all over Europe.

A portion of the stolen books from 514 Austrian towns and other localities in Europe reached by still obscure ways into the ownership of the infamous Gauleiter (head of a Nazi administrative district) and so-called Frankenführer (Franconian leader) Julius Streicher in Nuremberg. Remnants of the books remain to this day in the collection of the Israeli Cultural Community-IKG (previously the collection was also known as the Stürmer or Streicher Library) in the Nuremberg city library at the Educational Campus. This collection of nearly 10,000 books is the property of the Israeli Cultural Community in Nuremberg and was given, years ago, on permanent loan to the city library. The Israeli Cultural Community, owners and proprietors of the collection, saw and see themselves as custodians, and they have begun, with great effort, the tedious task of finding the former owners and the restitution of the writings to their legal successors. So far, more than 700 writings were returned to approximately 170 persons or entities in ten different countries. This work is done pro bono; therefore, it is done free of charge for the previous owners, their families and rightful owners, and the city of Nuremberg will pay the postage to forward restored works.

The research of the provenance references in the writings in 25 languages has resulted in over 2,200 former owners from localities in Europe and Overseas. Three geographical focal areas have been crystalized: Nuremberg, Franconia; Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorrain; and Vienna, Austria.

The restitution of robbed cultural goods requires provenance research; in turn, it cannot be successfully made without family research. The acting representative of the city of Nuremberg for the Collection IKG therefore turns today, a good year after sending out the first search list, once more to the genealogists and historians from the staff and user circle at www.GenTeam.eu to request instructions, reference information, and research result for locating former owners and their heirs or legal successors. The list published here still contains some inaccuracies and misattributions, traces and fragments despite many of years of careful efforts to avoid errors. It is a matter of 879 former owners of 238 known cities throughout Europe. A list as this one, how could it be any different--a document of mass lootings that often lead to mass murders!

Many years, actually decades have passed since this terrific raid; but it does not alter the iniquity and the suffering of the affected. Please examine whether you can shed some light in the dark, so that in this way the victims will befall just a little justice. The first Search List with Austrian victims of these robberies at GenTeam.eu lead to the restitution of written works and to the clarification of dozens of former owners. For this and for the great and selfless helpfulness of our GenTeam friends is expressly and warmly thanked!

Leibl Rosenberg, M.A.
Beauftragter der Stadt Nürnberg für die Sammlung IKG
In der Stadtbibliothek im Bildungscampus Nürnberg
Egidienplatz 23, Zimmer 207
90403 Nürnberg
(0049)-(0)911-231-22588
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Last Update: 2020-11-08

© Leibl Rosenberg, Nürnberg: Österreichisches Raubgut aus der Sammlung IKG