Austria Apparently Has 186,000 Books
Looted by Nazis
Austrian libraries and other institutions still hold 186,000 books the Nazis stole from Holocaust victims, according to Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress.
Steinberg said documents found in Austria’s archives show that on November 18, 1951, the government, claiming that the books the Nazis had taken from Jewish libraries, institutions, schools, and individuals could not be returned to their owners, appropriated them and distributed them to educational and cultural institutions.
Some 128,000 volumes went to the national library and university libraries, Steinberg told Reuters in an interview published March 29. Others were sent to the Parliament’s library, the chancellor’s library, and the Albertine Museum in Vienna. The works cover a wide range of subjects, from religion to sports.
“We are now seeking to determine which, if any, of the books that were redistributed or appropriated in the 1950s have been returned [to their owners],” Steinberg said.
Posted April 3, 2000.
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