ࡱ> Y[XM abjbj==&tWWvS( l^D222F 8D ` $F  RTTTTTT $T2 T22 i 2 2 R RR22R ϧ_-F ^RR0RRFF2222DARIO TEDESCHI Looting of the assets of the Jewish citizens in Italy: Results of work of two commissions in the post-war period. The looting of the assets of the Jewish citizens in Italy took place in two successive periods, and had a different form and scope in each of them. The first period commenced in 1938; during it, most Jews lost their sources of livelihood as they were expelled from all public service jobs and often also from the private ones, were not allowed to engage in professional activities (e.g. as lawyers, engineers, physicians), and their commercial and industrial activities were considerably limited. Jewish citizens were not allowed to own assets the aggregate value of which exceeded a specified level; the part of their properties considered to be in excess was expropriated by the State. Young Jews were deprived of their right to education, and they were forbidden from attending public and private schools and universities, with obvious implications for their future employability. The asset owners had tried from the very beginning to save at least a part of their possessions by selling them, often at low prices, or by registering them in the name of fake nominees who, however, did not always respect the agreements entered into. During this first period, the moral and material status of the Jewish citizens was lowered as the result of the deprivation of their civil rights, but their physical extermination had not yet started. The Jewish population managed to survive in relative freedom, although often in precarious conditions, or even poverty. The second period followed after the armistice declaration on 8 September 1943; German troops immediately occupied Italy and the Italian Social Republic was created. The Jews were declared to be aliens and were treated as members of an enemy nation, which resulted in arrests, murders and mass deportations perpetrated by the German forces and the Italian fascists. The Jews were not allowed to own any possessions anymore and a decree was issued against them saying that all their movable and immovable possessions should be seized immediately to be later confiscated to the benefitof the Italian Social Republic. The regulations in the first period were promulgated by the Italian Government of that time and had the form of laws, decrees and often even of ministerial circulars. As to the second period, besides the steps taken by the Sal Republic, other very serious measures were adopted directly by the German Commands. * A commission set up by the Prime Ministers Office of the Italian Republic in December 1998 investigated the looting in Italy and the underlying measures as well as the consequences of the restitution and compensation measures ordered after the end of the German occupation. This Commission (known as the Anselmi Commission by the name of its chairwoman, of which I was a member), finalized a summary report in April 2001, the text of which, which has already been translated to English, can be found on the website of the Prime Ministers Office. It is a structured report which informs namely on the difficulties and complexity of the investigations given the fact that the investigated events happenedalmost two-thirds of a century earlier, the wide range of measures adopted, and the broad range of authorities which ordered and subsequently implemented them. This situation highlighted the need to investigate archives of many authorities and agencies scatteredacross the Italian territory; it was not always possible to complete this research as in some cases, the underlying documents were destroyed during wartime. The access to public and private archives (such as e.g. private bank archives) was smooth. The report, although it states that a detailed reconstruction of the past events is impossible, provides information on the scope and scale of the looting, as reflected clearly in the hundreds and hundreds of both legislative and administrative measures, and almost eight thousand of confiscation orders issued by the Republic of Sal. According to the Commission, the confiscation orders list all types of assets; not only valuable objects such as the part of immovable assets which had not yet been confiscated, but also humble household objects and strictly personal effects - even toothbrushes! As early as in 1944, before the liberation of the entire national territory, the Government of the liberatedItaly introduced legislation governing the restitution and compensationmeasures which was completed in the years to follow. The Commission considered the measures taken to be mostly positive and it pointed outthat the legislation relating to the restitutions turned out to be sufficiently timely and comprehensive. The Commission also observed that in several cases the impact of these measures has not been satisfactory for various reasons of different nature which are listed exhaustively in the report; I must necessarily refer to the report here as well as I am referring to the conclusive reflections and recommendations included in the final report which relate to the archives, research, individual compensations, conservation of memoryand educational purposes. ** I think it is useful to remind here, taking into account the draft Terezin Declaration which is going to be submitted to the Plenary Assembly, and the assets seized from the Jews, that Italy has already introduced some of the measures proposed by the above Declaration. As early as in 1947 a provision was enacted as requested by the Union of Israeli Communities in Italy, which established that the inheritance of the Jews who had died as a result of racial persecution without heirs shall devolve to the Union of Israeli Communities, notwithstanding the law specifying that in case a person dies without heirs, his/her property shall escheat to the state. In fact, the enforcement of this Act is difficult for various reasons, one of which being the difficulty of establishing the existence of the assets already expropriated or confiscated which had not been claimed by their owners or their heirs. An Implementing Act promulgated in 1997, stipulates that the assets stolen from the Jewish citizens, or from persons regarded as such, for reasons of racial persecution, which could not have been returned to their rightful owners as the latter were missing or untraceable as well as their heirs, and which are still retained or held by the Italian state for any reason shall be assigned to the Union of Italian Jewish Communities who shall distribute them to the relevant Communities according to the origin of such assets and location from where they were stolen. This Law was applied at least in two important cases. The first one was related to the assets found in the immediate post-war period close to Klagenfurt, Austria, which had probably belonged by Jews deported from the city and the province of Trieste. These were personal effects some of which were valuable, such as gold watches, bracelets and other jewels stolen from the deportees. Only a very small portion of those assets could be returned to their owners or their heirs. The remaining portion, which was placed in five large bags, had been stored for decades by the Ministry of Treasury. In compliance with the aforementioned Act, which was expressly enacted on this occasion, these assets were allocatedin 1998 to the Union of Jewish Communities which, in turn, handed them over to the Jewish Community of Trieste, the territory of origin of the victims who had owned the assets in question. Another interesting application relates to an important collection of eighteenth-century German porcelain which was confiscated froma family of German origin which had fled to Italy and lived in Merano, at the moment when they were expelled from Italy and were crossing the border again to move to the United States. The AnselmiCommission has investigated this case and mentioned it in its final report achieving that the competent administrative authority recognised the substantial illegitimacyof this confiscation and therefore also the ensuing obligation of restitution. As all tracesof the Kaumheimer family appeared to be lost, the 1997 Act was applied and the collection was assignedto the Union of Italian Jewish Communities with a view of its subsequent allocation to the Jewish Community of Merano. Subsequently, the collection wasreturnedto the Kaumheimer family as the Union of Jewish Communities was finally able to find them. For reasons of completeness, please note that other measures were also taken; however, these do not necessarily relate to stolen assets, such as e.g. the life annuity, equivalent at least to the minimum social pension, which is granted to all former persecution victims. * During its work, the Anselmi Commission was dealing also with the destruction of the archives and libraries of Jewish communities. It was dealing mainly with the looting of the library of the Jewish Community of Rome, stating its importance in its final report. As I had the opportunity to mention at the previous conferences held at Vilnius, Hanover and Liberec, and as it is pointed out in the report itself, this library contained manuscripts, incunabula, soncinati, works printed in the 16th century by Bomberg, Bragadin and Giustiniani as well as early 16th-century publications from Constantinople and other 17th and 18th century publications from Venice and Livorno. Following the submission of the Report prepared by the AnselmiCommission, and in compliance with the recommendationsspecified in its final reflections, the Union of Italian Jewish Communitites submitted to the Prime Minister of the eraa memorandum containing a certain amount of requests. The Commission was asking the State above all to renew its commitment to continue the systematic researchof the Jewish Community Library in Rome and highlighted the enormous cultural value of the looted material besides its simple market value, stressing that its research was in the interest of the countrys cultural heritage in general. Thisappeal was received favourably, given also the considerable cultural importance the discovery and recovery of the Jewish Community Library could have for the Italian state. A new Commission was established under the Prime Ministers office with the mission of promoting further research in order to reconstruct the events relating to the bibliographic heritageof the Jewish Community in Rome which had been dispersed after the looting perpetrated towards the end of 1943 and, if this heritage or a part thereof is discovered, to outline the measures governing its recovery. I had the honour of being a member of this Commission which groupedhistorians and expert archivists as well as representatives of the Prime Ministers Office and of other relevant Italian Ministries (such as the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Cultural Heritage and of Justice). When the Commission accepted this mission, it was well aware of the enormous difficulties related to such a research, in particular because all traces of the library disappeared when it was sent to an unknown destination on railway wagons of which only the initialswere known as well as the fact they belongedto German Railways. As a result, no mention of the Library of Rome was found in the bibliography relating to the Nazi depredations despite its considerable extent. Towards the end of 2005, i.e. when this issue was raised in Italy and the details of the looting were spread among the experts thanks to the work of the Commission, Patricia K. Grimsted wrote about it in one of her documents. In relation to this, it should be mentioned that in the post-war period, parts of the looted archives and libraries were found in variouslocations controlled by the Allied troops and returned to the institutions or individuals to whom they had belonged. This relates to books belonging to the Library of the Italian Rabbinical Collegewhich were returned and during some time were considered to represent the entire contents of this library. However, in 2005, during a conference held in Hanover, the Commission delegation which participated in it received as a thrilling surprise a Pentateuch, printed in Amsterdam in 1680 and bearing the bookplate of the Italian Rabbinical College. This book, whose history would be too long to benarrated here, but which can be found in the Acts of this Symposium, is assumed to be a part of a group of books stolen by the Nazis which has not been found yet. The Commission learned later from an interview held during its work that a group of valuable incunabula belonging to this library had been lost. The Commission was then asked to include in its research not only the Jewish Community Library in Rome but also the so far undiscovered part of the Rabbinical College in Italy which had the same fateand was also of unquestionable importance. The research activities of the Commission took many directions and followed various lines of inquiry. These activities have beenamply described in the final report to which we must refer. It is possible to mention here just the fact that the research has been conducted not only on the basis of the study of publications relating to the Nazi looting of books and other assets but also due to the correspondence with experts in the relevant fields and above all due to visits to archives dispersed around the world which were supposed to keep the records related to the looting. The research was carried out in archives in Germany, the United States, and the Russian Federation as well as in other countries. The list (which is moreover just partial) of the missing books has been digitized to facilitate the search in the library catalogues. The copies of stamps and bookplates affixed to the missing books were also distributed. Despite this in-depth research, which had been strongly urgedby the Commissioners for quite a long time, the Jewish Community Library in Rome (and the still dispersed part of the library of the Italian Rabbinical College) have not been found. However, the activities of any commission are limited and in this case, apparently no further extension was possible of the already broad and engaging research performed by the Commission. However, some significant results have been achieved. Firstly, as mentioned in the final report, a certain amount of information and of documents has been acquired which throws light on the looting, thus potentially paving the way for further research. Secondly, the correspondence and personal contacts, the participation in international conferences and the publication of reports including the present one have attracted the interest of experts to a subject rarely dealt with until now. An interesting document was found in the Bundesarchiv in Berlin. It was a monthly report signed by Hans Maier who had been the head of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosemberg (ERR) group active in Italy informing the headquarters that the last shipment of books from the Synagogue in Rome was sent to Frankfurt on 23 December 194 . This confirms that, from various Nazi agencies dealing with the looting, many of which competed among themselves, the looting in Rome was accomplished by the ERR. This document thus provides an important clue which is useful also for the research purposes. The ERR report of November 1944 contains also a reference to the looting committed the previous year. In the Jewish National & University Library in Jerusalem, a hard-copy catalogue of books from the Italian Rabbinical College was found dating back probably to the thirties, as well as an application form for books to be consulted. The Commission obtained a microfilm copy of this catalogue and a photocopy of the form, but has so far been unable to establish how the catalogue got to this location. Apparently, this was the catalogue prepared by Fabian Herskovitz whichis well known to have been seized by the Nazi looters in 1943, shortly before the two Roman libraries were stolen. It is highly likely that the catalogue found is the document described as No 142 Collegio Rabinico Italiano. Rome. Italian manuscript (book index) in the Monthly Report prepared by the OAD as of 31 May 1947. As for the books, apart from the above mentioned discovery of the Pentateuch belonging to the Italian Rabbinical College, two manuscripts were found atthe Jewish Theological Seminary of New York, which belonged beyond any doubt to the Jewish Community in Rome as they bear the stamp of this community indicating that they were owned by it. The Commission obtained a microfilm copy but was unable to determine exactly whether these manuscripts formed part of the books looted. Finally, according to adocument written by Estelle Gilson, a manuscript and a cinquecentina which belong to the Jewish Community Library in Rome can be allegedly foundin the library of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. However, the Library has informed the Commission that they did not know the above documents existed. And, last but not least, we should mention the research conducted in Russia by the Russian State Libraryof Foreign Literature led by Ms Ekaterina Genieva. As early as in 2003, during an official meeting between Mr Mario Bondioli Osio, Minister Plenipotentiary, and M. Khoroshilov, Russian Deputy Minister of Culture, it was said that the possibility that the searched library could be located in Russia was far from being excluded. The Commission found also other indirect evidence which somehow corroborates this hypothesis, and which is amply illustrated in its final report. Among the various directions taken by the research, the Russian trackwas perceived as an alternative to the surveys conducted in the United States on the basis of another assumption, i.e. that the libraries of Rome ended up on the Anglo-American territory. Research was therefore conducted in libraries and archives in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The results have not been favourable; however, they cannot be considered to be completed as the research could not have been conducted on certain sites to which access was prohibited. The Russianparty proposed to explore other sites within the vast Russian territory; however, before starting this research which would be both costly and uncertain, it is necessary to complete the research on the sites in Moscow and Saint Petersburg which have not yet been visited. It is possible to conclude that, given the almost total absence of documents referring to the looting of libraries of the Jewish Community in Rome and of the Italian Rabbinical College, the Commission expended a long and tedious effort in order to trace back the journey of the libraries after being stolen from the place where they were stored, and to identify the Nazi organization responsible for the looting. Hope was expressed that, at some point in the future, the data obtained as a result of the Commissions work could be combined with other data obtained by other researchers, possibly as a result of exploration of the Russian archives which are not accessible at present, and thus enable to find an irreplaceable cultural heritage which should not have disappeared based on the qualified estimate of the Commission. As stated in the final part of the Commissions report, despite the fact that its efforts rendered only partial results, it is necessary to highlight again the importance and usefulness of further investigations. Even before the library is found, it is necessary to reconstruct the history of itslooting in the context of the ERR activities and the Nazi policy of plundering of works of art and of all documents relating to the history and life of Jews, which represented a substantial part of the German racial politics. The exact reconstruction of the ERRs activities in Italy, identification of the specialized staff directly involved in the operation, reconstruction of the passage and storage of the heritage, their activities, comparison of facts with the facts from other libraries and archives looted, dispersed, but sometimes found and returned to their rightful owners, are all important and significant aspects of a research project. This project has been launched but must be completed not only in order to reconstructthis specific event but also due to the light it can shed on the Nazi policies during the occupation of Italy and on the looting of cultural assets and libraries in other occupied territories. The Commission felt that its efforts helped to pave certain waysfor the research, which nevertheless requires a deeper, patient and careful investigation of archives given the fragmented and dispersed nature of the resources to be studied. As to the latter, the priority is to deepen the analysis of the documents kept in the archives in the United States and Germany,and examine the documents in the Russian archives, provided the constraints Commission had to face during its activities in Russia are overcome. The result of this effort should be the reconstruction ofa specific chapter of the history which can only be understood in the broader context of the events of the WWII and of the early years of the post-war period.  www.governo.it/Presidenza/DICA/beni_ebraici/index.html  Report (text), page 6; page 36; and the following.  Dlcps No 364 as of 11 May 1947, Gazzetta Ufficiale No 119 and 120 as of 27 and 28 May 1947.  Act No 233 as of 18 July 1997, id., No 171 as of 24 July 1997.  The Autonomous Province of Trento, La collezione Kaumheimer, Trento, undated.  Report, p. 146.  Report, p. 154.  D.Tedeschi, Research of the Roman Jewish Communitys Library Looted in 1943, in Jdischer Buchbesitz Als Raubgut, Klostermann, Frankfurt Am Main, 2006, pages 243-252.  Id.. The Libraries of the Jewish Community of Rome and the Italian Rabbinical College Looted by the Nazis: The work of the Commission set up for research by the Italian Government, in: Proceedings of the international academic conference held in Liberec on 24-26 October 2007, Prague, 2008, pages 114-122.  The members of the Commission were as follows: M. Dario Tedeschi (Chairman; Union of the Italian Jewish Communities); Ms Anna Nardini (Prime Ministers Office), Ms. Bruna Colarossi (Prime Ministers Office), Ms. Rosa Vinciguerra (Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities), Ms. Marcella Conti (Ministry of Justice), M. Michele Sarfatti (Director of the Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation), M. Mario Toscano (University La Sapienza in Rome), Ms. Filomena Del Regno (University La Sapienza in Rome), M. Lutz Klinkhammer (German Historical Institute in Rome), M. Sandro Di Castro (Union of the Italian Jewish Communities). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was represented successively by : Minister Plenipotentiary. Piergiorgio Cherubini, Minister Plenipotentiary Fabrizio Piaggesi, Minister Plenipotentiary Maurizio Lo Re, Minister Plenipotentiary Alessandro Pignatti, Minister Plenipotentiary Sergio Busetto and Minister Plenipotentiary Daniele Verga.  On this subject, see Hoogewoud F.J., Eine spate Ruckgabe, in Judischer Buchbesitz als Raugbut Zweites Hannoversches Symposium, Frankfurt am Main, 2006.  Letter of 21 January 1944 of the ERR Sonderkpommando Italien signed by Maier, BundesArchiv, NS30/32.  Report of 28 November 1944, Bericht ber den Besuch in Bad Schwalbach und Hungen, signed by Wunder, ERR - Stabsfhrung/I, Ratibor, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine de Paris, CXLI-150.  GILSON E., The fate of the Roman Jewish Libraries, in De Benedetti G., October, 16, 1943, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001.  Report on the activities of the Commission for the Recovery of the Bibliographic Heritage of the Jewish Community in Rome, looted in 1943: www.governo.it/Pr     PAGE 11 DE#$""#"N#O#''''''O(X(q(s(((((((G)M)..449>E>>>@@@@@@DDEFF"FFFPPvWwWxWWWWWWWWWWXXBXDXEXFXGX6]mH sH mH sH  j0JU H*mH sH 6]mH sH  >*mH sH j0JUmH sH mH sH 5\mH sH L7 lo56!o%&& $dh`a$ $dh`a$$ Tdh`a$ $dh`a$$d^`a$vWaa&&)+-16s:[<>@CEG[JL)NOPTUsWtWuWvWWWWW $dh`a$WEXXXXXYZZZZX]^^^C_D__p```aaaaaaaa$a$GXfXhXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX YHYYYYYZZ[ZaZZZZZZ [[W];^^^^^^^D_E_g________p`q`}```````````aaaa5\mH sH 6]mH sH 6]mHsH5\mHsHmHsH 6mH sH  6mH sH 6] j0JUmH sH 6]mH sH mH sH EaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamH sH 0JmHnHu0J j0JU jUaaaaaaaaa $dh`a$ hh]h`h&`$1hP. 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