Möbelaktion: Correspondence and papers

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 1556 WL 544
Held at	: Wiener Library   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/ ›
Full 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 & 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.

Finding aids:

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.

Archival Information

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

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
October 2007