File:Central Jewish Library of the State (23630857726).jpg

English: On April 1, 1919 the Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR issued a decree that transferred control of numerous historical and cultural institutions, including libraries, to the People’s Commissariat of Education. Shortly thereafter the various Ukrainian libraries that had previously been considered “public” libraries were officially made “state libraries.” While these decrees changed the status of numerous long established institutions in Ukraine they also provided for the establishment of several new libraries based on nationalized book collections – these included the creation of a Central Jewish Library of the State which was located in Kiev. The library was named in honor of the Yiddish writer and socialist leader Morris Vinchevsky – and its location in Kiev was reflective not only of the city being Ukraine’s capital but of the fact that Kiev was home to a very large Jewish community. In 1940 there were more than 22,000 libraries in Ukraine but by 1945 less than 5,000 remained – many of those libraries were completely destroyed by the Nazis while others were sent back to Germany.

This book stamp is from a book looted by the Nazis and sorted by Colonel Seymour Pomrenze, one of “the Monuments Men,” at the Offenbach Archival Depot.
There are two scrapbooks of archival markings from the books sorted at the Offenbach Depot in the Seymour Pomrenze Collection held by the American Jewish Historical Society (Call number P-933) There is a finding aid for the collection http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1463157 The digitized scrapbooks are available http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=1666403 and http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=1665570.
For more information on this project check the Center’s blog: http://16thstreet.tumblr.com/tagged/Offenbach-Depot
Dr. Mitch Fraas, Acting Director of the Digital Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries' Special Collections Center is working on a similar project for the German book stamps based on NARA microfilm of the volumes the American Jewish Historical Society currently holds. See http://viewshare.org/views/mfraas/offenbach-bookplates/
The Center for Jewish History would like to acknowledge the following: The American Jewish Historical Society, who graciously allowed the use of their archival materials and digital content; Mitch Fraas, Acting Director of the Digital Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries' Special Collections Center, for his data and technical assistance in this project; David Rosenberg, Senior Manager for Communications, and Melanie Meyers, Senior Reference Services Librarian for Special Collections, for managing and creating the digital map; as well as Reference Services Librarian Zachary Loeb and Reference Services Assistant Ilya Slavutskiy for their work on translating and mapping.

For copyright information, click http://copyrights.cjh.org