[CPProt.net] Ancient book returned to Rome's Jewish community

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

Ancient book returned to Rome's Jewish community

associated press, THE JERUSALEM POST  May. 23, 2005 

A 17th-century book was returned to Rome's Jewish community on Monday, one
of thousands Jewish volumes seized by the Nazis in 1943. 

The pocket-size religious book, published in Amsterdam in 1680, belonged to
the library of the Rabbinic College of Rome, which was looted during the
Second World War. Most of the library's books were later returned by the
Americans in 1946. 

"We thought the collection had been returned in its entirety, but it
evidently isn't true," said Dario Tedeschi, head of the Italian Commission
for the recovery of Jewish bibliographic heritage who returned the book to
Rome's current chief rabbi. The government commission has been investigating
the status of the seized volumes since 2002. 

It was given the book in Hanover, Germany, earlier this month, by a Dutch
scholar who received it from a German family, Tedeschi said. It contains the
first five books of the Bible as well as the Prophets, and, while some pages
are missing, it is in good condition. 

Part of the looted book collection is still missing. 

"We have lost track of the whole library of the Roman Jewish community,
which is the most precious," he said. 

Both libraries, kept in Rome's synagogue, were seized in 1943 by the
Einsatzstab Reichleiter Rosenberg, or ERR, a Nazi unit, which took the
volumes to Germany. The commission estimates that more than 7,000 volumes,
including ancient manuscripts, were raided. 

In trying to track down information about the volumes' fate, the commission
has visited archives and libraries in Berlin, Germany, and in the United
States, including the Library of the Congress, Tedeschi said. The commission
plans to travel to Russia and Israeli as part of its search for information.


The library of the Rabbinic College was founded in 1826 in Padoa, northern
Italy. It was later transferred to Rome, where it stayed until 1939 when
Benito Mussolini's fascist regime closed it down.