The despoiled libraries
Millions of pounds were stolen by the Nazis throughout Europe from their Jewish owners. The Mémorial de la Shoah makes available to the public a database that lists the spoliations of libraries by private individuals and associations in France.
The analysis of the files of the Sub-commission on books within the Commission for artistic recovery set up after the Liberation, active from 1945 to 1949, preserved in the National Archives and the Diplomatic Archives, helped identify the importance of spoliations from private or associative libraries. In France, at least 5 million pounds were snatched from their owners, mostly Jews, stored in garages or taken to Germany. These spoliations concerned several thousand private libraries and several hundred associative libraries.
The database of despoiled libraries, accessible through a search engine, was created by Martine Poulain, author of the book Livres pillés, lectures surveillées. Les bibliothèques françaises sous l'Occupation (Gallimard, NRF Essais, October 2008, 587 p., rééd Folio Histoire, nov. 2013) with the support of several institutions.
It allows a query by name of person or institution despoiled, name of the potential representative, profession of the despoiled, place of residence, number of restitution request files, etc.
These two sets of information are grouped in a database accessible by a search engine.
Download the databases of despoiled people and institutions:
despoiled people
despoiled institutions
