Biblioteca della Comunità Israelitica

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The Biblioteca della Comunità Israelitica in Rome was the most important Jewish library in Italy. Shortly before the deportation of the Roman Jews on October 13, 1943, it was confiscated by the Germans and sent to Germany in two railroad cars. The collection of around 7,000 works was located on the upper floor of the Great Synagogue and was brought here from earlier synagogues in the Roman ghetto at the beginning of the 20th century . It included invaluable manuscripts , incunabula and Soncino prints. A catalog did not exist and it is estimated that a quarter of Soncino's prints from the 15th and 16th centuries were in the library's collection.

Since then, there has been no trace of the collection and part of the stolen collection from the rabbinical college in Rome, which was sent on the same train. A commission was set up in 2002 with the aim of tracing the bibliographical heritage of Rome's Jewish community. During its search, the commission came across a report that was sent to the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg - Sonderkommando Italy in Berlin on January 21, 1944 and is kept in the Federal Archives. This document begins as follows:

“Monthly report December 1943 - Due to a special mission in Rome, the rest of the library of the synagogue there was loaded into a wagon and sent to the Institute for Research on the Jewish Question in Frankfurt / M. given up. Further book material from Jewish possession can no longer be recorded in Rome. "

This obviously relates to the last book delivery from the synagogue in Rome, which took place on December 23, 1943.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NS 30/32
  2. ^ Activity Report of the Commission for the Recovery of the Bibliographic Heritage of the Jewish Community in Rome, looted in 1943
  3. ↑ Erwin Lewin, Maria Vassilikou: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . De Gruyter, 2017. p. 266

literature