The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust

305 Pages·2015·5.05 MB·English

by  Lisa Moses Leff

T A T
HE RCHIVE HIEF
•

THE ARCHIVE THIEF
•
The Man Who Salvaged
French Jewish History in the
Wake of the Holocaust
•
LISA MOSES LEFF
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leff, Lisa Moses
The archive thief : the man who salvaged French Jewish history in the wake of
the Holocaust / Lisa Moses Leff.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978–0–19–938095–4 (alk. paper)
1. Szajkowski, Zosa, 1911– 2. Jews—Europe—History—Archival resources.
3. Jews—France—Strasbourg—Archival resources. 4. Archival materials—France—Strasbourg.
5. Theft—France—Strasbourg—History—20th century. 6. Manuscripts—Mutilation,
defacement, etc.—France—Strasbourg—History—20th century. 7. Jewish historians—Biography.
I. Title.
DS135.E83L36 2015
940.53'1807202—dc23
2014043507
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Ben and
to Adam and Meyer

Contents
•
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Szajkowski’s Passion 9
2. A Usable Past 23
3. A Salvage Operation 47
4. The Parachutist 75
5. Partisans of the Exodus 111
6. The Fact Collector 141
7. French Losses 163
8. The Buyers 179
Epilogue 199
Notes 205
Bibliography 245
Index 275

ACknowledgments
•
It Is a pleasure to thank the many people who helped me with my
research for this book. This project was built on conversations I had
with people kind enough to share their memories with me: fellow
Jewish historians; archivists and librarians in France, Israel, and the
United States; and other people who crossed paths with Szajkowski
or other parts of this story in one way or another. In many cases, they
provided me with documentation from their personal collections that
proved to be essential in putting together this story. Ironically, consid-
ering that this is a history of archives, my best “finds” were not archival
at all, but rather things that people handed to me, sent me, or told me.
Thank you to Phyllis Cohen Albert, Hadassah Assouline, Mordechai
Altshuler, Zachary Baker, Solon Beinfeld, Victor Berch, Jay Berkovitz,
René Bravmann, Gilbert Cahen, Vicki Caron, Richard I. Cohen, Claire
Dienstag, Judith Endelman, Todd Endelman, Simon Epstein, Joshua
Fishman z”l, Joel and Rivka Duker Fishman, Shaindel Fogelman,
Leonard Gold, Norman Gechlik, Nancy Green, Jonathan Helfand,
Paula Hyman z”l, Roger Kohn, Monique Lévy, Yvonne Lévyne, Hans
Loeser, Frances Malino, Emmanuel Mark, Michael Marrus, William
Meyers and Nahma Sandrow, Chana Mlotek z”l, Albert Moldovan z”l,
Gérard Nahon, Pierre Nora, Julia Rosenthal, Jonathan Sarna, Menahem
Schmelzer, Jerry Schwarzbard, Simon Schwarzfuchs, Judith Schlanger,
Michael Terry, Marek Web, Georges Weill, David Weinberg, Gabriel
Weinreich, and Steven Zipperstein.
ix