File:Offenbach Archival Depot (12307297654).jpg

English: The Offenbach Archival Depot was the central collecting point for sorting and organizing the millions of books looted from European libraries by the forces of the Third Reich. These items were originally housed in the Rothschild Library in Frankfurt, but that location proved to be inadequate to house the numbers of books that needed to be inventoried and returned to their rightful owners. In 1946, MFAA relocated their book inventory operation to the I.G. Farben building in Offenbach en Main; I.G. Farben was the chemical company who manufactured the poison gas used in death camps such as Auschwitz. At Offenbach, the books were inventoried, stamped with the Offenbach stamp, and then sorted for return or routed to new homes. Colonel Seymour Pomrenze was the first director of Offenbach; he was succeeded by Captain Isaac Bencowitz. It is estimated that between 1946 and 1949, the MFAA returned over three million books and Judaica artifacts through the Offenbach depot.

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 here The digitized scrapbooks are available here and here.


For more information on this project check the Center’s blog: 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 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, Reference Services Research Coordinator, and Melanie Meyers, Senior Reference Services Librarian for Special Collections, for managing and creating the digital map; and Reference Services Intern Ilya Slavutskiy for his work on translating and mapping.

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