Library of Congress spotlights Holocaust collection

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Library of Congress plans to highlight in a new "virtual library" a collection of books, some of them rare and historic, looted from Jewish Holocaust victims by Nazi forces, the library said on Wednesday.

The roughly 2,500 volumes, part of a much larger collection recovered by Allied forces after the Second World War and for which heirs were never located, were handed to the library after the war by a group led by Jewish refugee intellectuals.

But the books had lain little noticed in the library's stacks until recent research by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States, commission papers obtained by Reuters showed.

"Contrary to what was thought previously, many of the items received ... are important examples of Hebraica," one document said, citing Talmudic manuscripts, holiday prayer books and a historically significant Yiddish translation of Thomas Mann's novel "The Magic Mountain."

A letter from Librarian of Congress James Billington to commission Chairman Edgar Bronfman said the library was also planning to display selected titles in a permanent exhibition of international treasures in its collection that will open next year.

The library is also planning a special exhibition of the books in 2002, the 50th anniversary of the completion of work by the body that contributed them, the Jewish Cultural Restoration agency. Led by historian Salo Baron and including among its members philosopher Hannah Arendt, the group distributed some 158,000 "heirless" recovered books.

A Library of Congress spokeswoman said the online "library" would allow users to click on an icon to find a listing of titles in the collection, although the books would remain physically sorted by subject matter. She said she did not know of any such resource for other parts of the library's collection.

The commission noted that the Library of Congress had received 5,708 books and periodicals from the Jewish agency, 163 of which it defined as rare. More books donated by the agency might be elsewhere in the library, it said.

Executive Director Elan Steinberg of the World Jewish Congress commended the library, which was among several U.S. institutions to receive such books, for its efforts to spotlight the collection and its history.

"I think it has to be emphasized that these books were not improperly acquired by the Library of Congress. At issue here was the rediscovery that they were there, their identification and their proper acknowledgment," Steinberg said.

"What the library is undertaking is a shining example to other institutions as to how they should address this global issue of Holocaust assets."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Un-settling the Holocaust
August 29, 2000
Review: Contesting the Holocaust deniers
August 24, 2000
Review: Journeys through the Holocaust
July 26, 2000
Music and song bring to life tales of the Holocaust
May 6, 2000

Library of Congress
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.