May 24, 2005

Religious book seized by Nazis returned . . .

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“A 17th-century book seized by the Nazis was returned to Rome’s Jewish community on Monday,” reports an Associated Press wire story. “The pocket-size religious book, published in Amsterdam in 1680, belonged to the library of the Rabbinic College of Rome.” The Nazis looted the collection in 1943; many were subsequently returned but numerous still-missing volumes have led investigators archives and libraries in Germany and the U.S., including the Library of Congress. This volume was returned “in Hanover, Germany, earlier this month, by a Dutch scholar who received it from a German family.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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