Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books

340 Pages·2016·5.319 MB·English

by  Rabbi Mark Glickman

Stolen Words
Burnt Pearls
It is not just because my words quiver
Like broken hands grasping for aid,
Or that they sharpen themselves
Like teeth on the prowl in darkness,
That you, my written word, substitute for my world,
Flare up the coals of my anger.
It is because your sounds
glint like burnt pearls
discovered in an extinguished pyre
and no one— not even I— shredded by time
can recognize the woman drenched in flame
for all that remains of her now
are those grey pearls
smoldering in the ash.
— Abraham Sutzkever, Vilna Ghetto, July 28, 1943
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln
Stolen Words
(cid:55) (cid:49) (cid:51)
(cid:43)(cid:40) (cid:36)(cid:61)(cid:44) (cid:47)(cid:56)(cid:49)(cid:39)(cid:40)(cid:53) (cid:50)(cid:41)
(cid:45) (cid:37)
(cid:40)(cid:58)(cid:44)(cid:54)(cid:43) (cid:50)(cid:50)(cid:46)(cid:54)
(cid:48)(cid:68)(cid:85)(cid:78) (cid:42)(cid:79)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:78)(cid:80)(cid:68)(cid:81)
The Jewish Publication Society
Philadelphia
© 2016 by Mark Glickman
All rights reserved. Published by the University of Nebraska
Press as a Jewish Publication Society book.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Thanks to Dr. Ben Outhwaite for assistance with photo 8.
Many thanks to Anne Graham, senior computer specialist
of the University of Washington Libraries Digital Initiatives
Program, for scanning images for figure 10.
Thanks to Gisele Levy and Carlo di Cave of the Unione delle
Comunità Ebraiche Italiane for their cooperation in getting photo 17.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Glickman, Mark, 1963- author.
Stolen words: the Nazi plunder
of Jewish books / Mark Glickman.
pages cm
“Published by the University of Nebraska Press as a
Jewish Publication Society book”- Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978- 0- 8276- 1208- 2 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 978- 0- 8276- 1276- 1 (epub)
isbn 978- 0- 8276- 1277- 8 (mobi)
isbn 978- 0- 8276- 1278- 5 (pdf)
1. Jewish libraries— Europe— History— 20th century.
2. Libraries— Destruction and pillage— Europe— History—
20th century. 3. Libraries and national socialism. I. Title.
z675.j4g55 2016
027.04— dc23
2015031831
Set in Minion Pro by L. Auten.
Designed by Rachel Gould.
For my parents
Ron and Sharon Glickman,
Harriet and Joel Katz,
and Vicki Nelson,
who have taught me to bask in the
paradise of books.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Loading the Jewish Bookshelf 15
2. Antisemites and the Jewish Written Word 53
3. From Bonfires to Bookshelves 73
4. Talmud Scholars, Hebraists,
and Other Nazi Looters 95
5. Pillage 119
6. Resistance 151
7. Rescue 185
8. Restitution 195
9. Looted Books in the New Jewish Landscape 223
10. Jewish Cultural Reconstruction 251
11. Where Are They Now? 279
Afterword 295
Notes 299
Index 315

Acknowledgments
During the months I’ve spent working on this book, I have been blessed
with support from many wonderful individuals, and I’m grateful to
them all.
I thank Phil Hanrahan, an editor with the uncanny ability to look
into the mire of my early drafts and find within them the stories I want
to tell and the ways I want to tell them. The faults of this book are,
of course, my own, but its merits bear the indelible imprint of Phil’s
incredible handiwork.
I am also grateful to Rabbi Barry Schwartz, director of The Jewish
Publication Society, whose early enthusiasm and ongoing support for
this project were indispensable in bringing this book to publication.
Thanks also to jps managing editor Carol Hupping for her invaluable
guidance and unending forbearance; to Ann Baker, managing editor of
the University of Nebraska Press and project editor of this book; and
the amazing copy editor Debra Corman, without whose keen eye and
skilled craftsmanship this book would never have become ready for print.
There were also many individuals who willingly shared their time and
insights with me and without whose contribution this book would not
have been possible. Heartfelt thanks to Michael Strong, my good friend
and invaluable guide to all things books; Robert Ericksen, of Pacific
Lutheran University; Devin Naar, of the University of Washington; Aaron
Lansky, director of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst ma; Chaya and