The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance

 

Today's nonfiction post is on The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance  by Anders Rydell. It is 352 pages long, including notes and index, and is published by Viking. The cover is an up close look at a stolen book and spine label that the Nazis put on it. The intended reader is someone who is interested in more obscure parts of World War 2 history. There is mild foul language, no sex, and descriptions of violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- A chronicle of Nazi book theft from its beginnings to the present-day struggle for restitution.
Some of the most resonant images of the rise of National Socialism are the photographs of the German Student Union setting fire to huge piles of books. And in the years that followed, the Nazis would go on to steal countless works of art from the countries they invaded. But in an expansive and often overlooked campaign, they also sought out and looted libraries all over Europe, public and private, large and small. The books they stole were collected for Nazi academies and research libraries, created to wage a war of letters to rewrite literature and history according to Nazi mythology. In this secret war, the libraries of Jews, Leftists, Freemasons, and other oppositions groups were appropriated for Nazi research and used as intellectual weapons against their owners.
But then the war was over, most of the books were never returned. Millions languished in warehouses with no owners to claim them, and many even found their wat into the public library systems, where they remain to this day. Only now are efforts being made to correct these injustices, with organizations across Europe working to repatriate looted books and libraries trying to track down their lost collections. As Anders Rydell tells the story of the Nazis' book theft he crosses the continent to meet the unsung heroes behind the restitutions efforts. After meeting a small group of librarians combing through Berlins public libraries to pick out looked books, Rydell himself is entrusted with a recently identified volumes to return to the family of its original owner. Taking readers on a journey across the continent, The Book Thieves show just how much a single book can meant to those own it. 

Review- An interesting read about another side of the thefts by Nazis during the war. Rydell promises and does take the reader from the beginning of the book burnings and theft all the way to a book being returned to the owners family. Rydell does connect this book to other books about Nazi art theft but he keeps the focus on the libraries, archives, and other important documents as the book goes on. The writing is excellent, following two narratives, one the present with the people trying to return stolen items and the other in the during following the course of the war. If you have read about the other books about Nazi art theft then you need to read this one too and if you haven't read about the Nazi thefts then this is a good place to start. 

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.