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A mortuary of books : the rescue of Jewish culture after the Holocaust

Title: A mortuary of books : the rescue of Jewish culture after the Holocaust / Elisabeth Gallas ; translated from the German by Alex Skinner.
Author: Gallas, Elisabeth
Publication: New York : New York University Press, [2019]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 19-9613	Schwarzman Building - Dorot Jewish Division Room 111

Details

Additional Authors

Skinner, Alex

Description

x, 385 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.

Summary

In March 1946 the American Military Government for Germany established the Offenbach Archival Depot near Frankfurt to store, identify, and restore the huge quantities of Nazi-looted books, archival material, and ritual objects that Army members had found hidden in German caches. These items bore testimony to the cultural genocide that accompanied the Nazis' systematic acts of mass murder. The depot built a short-lived lieu de memoire--a "mortuary of books," as the later renowned historian Lucy Dawidowicz called it--with over three million books of Jewish origin coming from nineteen different European countries awaiting restitution. A Mortuary of Books tells the miraculous story of the many Jewish organizations and individuals who, after the war, sought to recover this looted cultural property and return the millions of treasured objects to their rightful owners. Some of the most outstanding Jewish intellectuals of the twentieth century, including Dawidowicz, Hannah Arendt, Salo W. Baron, and Gershom Scholem, were involved in this herculean effort. This led to the creation of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Inc., an international body that acted as the Jewish trustee for heirless property in the American Zone and transferred hundreds of thousands of objects from the Depot to the new centers of Jewish life after the Holocaust. The commitment of these individuals to the restitution of cultural property revealed the importance of cultural objects as symbols of the enduring legacy of those who could not be saved. It also fostered Jewish culture and scholarly life in the postwar world. --
"'A Mortuary of Books' explores Jewish culture after the World War II."--

Series Statement

The Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish History

Uniform Title

Leichenhaus der Bücher. English
Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish history.

Alternative Title

Leichenhaus der Bücher.

Subjects

Genre/Form

History.

Note

"Originally published as Das Leichenhaus der Bücher : Kulturrestitution und jüdisches Geschichtsdenken nach 1945, ©Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen, 2013."--Title page verso.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Language (note)

Translated from the German.

Contents

Confronting the present: the Offenbach Archival Depot -- Envisioning a future: American-Jewish politics of restitution -- Reconstructing Jewish culture: the new map of Jewish life after 1945 -- Building the new state: Israel and the European Jewish cultural heritage -- Taking action in dark times: the commitment of Hannah Arendt, Salo W. Baron, Lucy S. Dawidowicz and Gershom Scholem.

Call Number

JFE 19-9613

ISBN

9781479833955
1479833959

LCCN

2018047263

OCLC

1056201055

Author

Gallas, Elisabeth, author.

Title

A mortuary of books : the rescue of Jewish culture after the Holocaust / Elisabeth Gallas ; translated from the German by Alex Skinner.

Publisher

New York : New York University Press, [2019]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

The Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish History

Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish history.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Language

Translated from the German.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Added Author

Skinner, Alex, translator.

Research Call Number

JFE 19-9613

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