IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 544
Held at: Wiener Library
Title: Möbelaktion: Correspondence and papers
Date(s): 1940-1958
Level of description: Collection level
Extent: c 350 frames
Name of creator(s): United Restitution Office
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The United Restitution Office was founded in 1948 by an initiative of the Council of Jews from Germany. This organisation persuaded the main representative organisations of Jews in Britain, USA and France to set up offices in their respective countries to deal with claims for restitution from the German government especially from poorer claimants who were without the means to do it alone.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
The copy correspondence and papers in this collection document the systematic theft of Jewish property following the ransacking of Jewish lodges, libraries and archives; the subsequent confiscation of all art works in Jewish hands throughout Europe and their dispatch to Germany in special trains; and the plunder of the homes of Jews deported to the East collectively known in Germany as 'Möbelaktion'.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: German
System of arrangement:
The material was gathered chronologically together in one volume and paginated. The legibility of many of the documents is poor.
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Physical characteristics:
Microfilm
Finding aids:
Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
A report dated 22 July 1958, filmed at the beginning of the collection, states that the material was gathered under the supervision of J.J. Jacobson of the American Joint Distribution Committee in Paris.
Immediate source of acquisition:
United Restitution Office
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Wiener Collection, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.
Date(s) of descriptions: October 2007