Owners sought :

Names of owners of looted books in the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin - heirs now being sought

On  10 November 2011, the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (the Central Library of Berlin) first published a list of the rightful owners of looted books in its collection identified through signatures, stamps, inscriptions and notes found in the books - all of which have been photographed by the Library. Names in the books include those of the rightful owners, also the names of donors dedications, previous owners from the period before 1933, and, in some cases, the names of the Nazi perpetrators. While many of the books were forcibly stolen by the agencies of the Third Reich or were taken as a result of discriminatory laws, others had to be sold by the persecuted either for their flight or to allow them to survive. A minimum number of 1,920 of the books were acquired by the Library in 1943 from the municipal pawnship and these come exclusively from the private collections of the Jews of Berlin who were deported and murdered.  

The Library is seeking the owners so that they can return the books to them.

The list was last updated by the Library on 23 January 2015. Full details and the list of names is reproduced on this site here.