[MSN] A passionate quest for the Rome Synagogue library stolen by German troops during World War, a story which could easily become the script for an Indiana Jones blockbuster, might at last be on the right path.

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Hunt resumes for vanished Jewish library 
 
Rome, 6 giu (Velino) - A passionate quest for the Rome Synagogue library
stolen by German troops during World War, a story which could easily become
the script for an Indiana Jones blockbuster, might at last be on the right
path. And the 7,000 books, manuscripts and rare, centuries-old documents,
which formed the second most important Jewish library in the world after the
one in Jerusalem, could be lying somewhere in the immense territory of
Russia. Italian nvestigators acting on a mandate issued by a special Italian
Government committee that was created five years ago, have managed to follow
the steps of the stolen library up to a certain point. 
The library was loaded on trucks and then on trains on their way to Germany
on the night of October 14, 1943, by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg,
a special commando created in Third Reich with a precise task: to neutralise
Jewish culture and then destroy it. In order to do that, the Jewish culture
had to be studied in its details, so the library from Rome, like documents
from many other occupied countries in Europe, were to be transported to
Germany to be "analysed." It is known that thousands of books were shipped
to Frankfurt and other localities. Many of those were found and given back
to Jewish communities all over Europe. Together with those books, many were
found coming from another library, belonging to the Jewish Rabbinical
College in Rome, stolen the same night. But no trace was found of the
precious volumes from the Synagogue library. Many cases are known of rare
volumes of the same kind surfacing in this or that museum or private
collector around the world: but this did not happen for any of the books
stolen in Rome. 
Now Dario Tedeschi, a lawyer and director of the Italian Special committee,
has come to the conclusion that the 7,000 volumes were found by the Soviet
Army and taken back to Russia as a sort of war trophy, maybe without
realising what those books meant for the Jewish community. 
Now, with a donation of the Unicredit banking group, Mr Tedeschi and his
staff hope to be able to extend their search, hoping that the books have not
been dispersed, and they are still together in some underground depot in
some 
(Carlo Bassi) 

http://www.ilvelino.it/


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