{"product_id":"a-mortuary-of-books-the-rescue-of-jewish-culture-after-the-holocaust-9781479833955","title":"A Mortuary of Books: The Rescue of Jewish Culture After the Holocaust","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWinner, 2020 JDC-Herbert Katzki Award for Writing Based on Archival Material, given by the Jewish Book Council\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe astonishing story of the efforts of scholars and activists to rescue Jewish cultural treasures after the Holocaust\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn March 1946 the American Military Government for Germany established the Offenbach Archival Depot near Frankfurt to store, identify, and restore the huge quantities of Nazi-looted books, archival material, and ritual objects that Army members had found hidden in German caches. These items bore testimony to the cultural genocide that accompanied the Nazis' systematic acts of mass murder. The depot built a short-lived lieu de memoire--a \"mortuary of books,\" as the later renowned historian Lucy Dawidowicz called it--with over three million books of Jewish origin coming from nineteen different European countries awaiting restitution. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA Mortuary of Books tells the miraculous story of the many Jewish organizations and individuals who, after the war, sought to recover this looted cultural property and return the millions of treasured objects to their rightful owners. Some of the most outstanding Jewish intellectuals of the twentieth century, including Dawidowicz, Hannah Arendt, Salo W. Baron, and Gershom Scholem, were involved in this herculean effort. This led to the creation of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Inc., an international body that acted as the Jewish trustee for heirless property in the American Zone and transferred hundreds of thousands of objects from the Depot to the new centers of Jewish life after the Holocaust. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe commitment of these individuals to the restitution of cultural property revealed the importance of cultural objects as symbols of the enduring legacy of those who could not be saved. It also fostered Jewish culture and scholarly life in the postwar world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGallas, Elisabeth:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eElisabeth Gallas\u003c\/b\u003e is chief research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture--Simon Dubnow in Leipzig, Germany.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSkinner, Alex:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eAlex Skinner \u003c\/b\u003eholds a first-class MA in Scandinavian Studies and German from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in social anthropology from the London School of Economics. He has translated more than twenty books from German to English in the humanities and social sciences.","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50338191212818,"sku":"9781479833955","price":42.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_47223c7e-e667-4018-a396-cc028ccf1055.jpg?v=1727978001","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-mortuary-of-books-the-rescue-of-jewish-culture-after-the-holocaust-9781479833955","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}