Have you seen this book?
Frankfurt is set to host a groundbreaking exhibition that brings with it a powerful message of cultural recovery. From November 15, 2024, to January 31, 2025, the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library will showcase the “Library of Lost Books.” The exhibition traces the scattered remnants of a once-renowned Jewish library collection, now dispersed across the globe following its plunder during the Holocaust.
The story behind these books begins with the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin, an institution that, before World War II, was one of the world’s leading centers for Jewish studies. Its library contained tens of thousands of books on Jewish history and culture, a treasure trove that was looted during the Nazi regime. Today, these books are dispersed worldwide, with many volumes’ whereabouts unknown. But, through “Library of Lost Books,” the Leo Baeck Institutes in Jerusalem and London, alongside their supporters, have initiated a global effort to find and reclaim this invaluable cultural heritage.
Following displays in Berlin, Prague, and London, “Library of Lost Books” now arrives in Frankfurt, where further missing volumes have surfaced. The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the cultural significance of these rediscovered works and their return to the Jewish scholarly heritage.
Further insights into this global search and the history of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums can be found at libraryoflostbooks.com, a multimedia website honored with the Grimme Online Award for Culture and Entertainment. The exhibition is a collaboration between Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library, the Leo Baeck Institutes, and Goethe University Frankfurt’s Buber-Rosenzweig Institute.
Exhibition Opening Event
The “Library of Lost Books” opens with a vernissage and reception on November 14, 2024, at 7 p.m. in the Central Library foyer, Frankfurt’s Bockenheim district. The opening will feature remarks by Dr. Irene Aue-Ben-David, Director of the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, and Prof. Dr. Christian Wiese, Director of Goethe University’s Buber-Rosenzweig Institute.
Following the opening, the exhibition will run at the Central Library from November 15, 2024, to January 31, 2025. Visitors can view the exhibit at Freimannplatz 1, Frankfurt, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9:20 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more on exhibitions and events at the University Library, visit www.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/veranstaltungen/.
