Independent Order of B'nai B'rith. Makabi-Loge, Konstanz
Stamp "Makabi-Loge U.O.B.B." and number “15” of the salvage office (Bergungsstelle) no. 15
In 2018, a book from the Independent Order B'nai B'rith Makabi Lodge (Unabhängiger Orden B'nai B'rith Makabi-Loge) in Konstanz was returned to B'nai B'rith International.
The Makabi Lodge, founded in Konstanz in 1922, was a German lodge of the international Jewish organisation Independent Order of B'nai B'rith (I.O.B.B. / Unabhängiger Orden B'nai B'rith, U.O.B.B.), which was founded in New York in 1843. The first German section of the organisation was founded in 1882, and by the mid-1920s there were around 100 lodges in Germany with ~15,000 members. Exposed to persecution and repression since Nazis came to power in 1933, all existing B'nai B'rith lodges in the German Reich were forced to disband in April 1937 by order of the Gestapo in Berlin, their property was confiscated and the leading members were arrested.
The Makabi Lodge in Konstanz was forcibly dissolved in 1937 at the latest. It was not re-established after 1945.
The book comes from a depot of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) at Eisenacher Str. 11-13 in Berlin Schöneberg. The RSHA had collected looted books from all over Europe there. Parts of these books were distributed by the salvage office (Bergungsstelle) to libraries in Berlin after the end of the war in 1945.