Julius Stargardter

In 2018, 13 books from the library of Julius Stargardter were handed over to the Medical Humanities library (Charité) at the request of the heirs.

Isidor Julius Stargardter was born on 19 February 1881 in Sępólno Krajeńskie (Zempelburg). Stargardter studied medicine and practiced as a pediatrician in Hagen/Westphalia. Dr. Stargardter was persecuted as Jewish, he took his own life on 30 November 1944 to avoid his imminent deportation.

How the books got to Berlin is unclear. It is possible that they were actually kept by one of Julius Stargardter's brothers. Henry/Henri Stargardter, born 24 June 1877 in Sępólno Krajeńskie, lived in Berlin. He was deported to Auschwitz in 1942 and murdered. Hermann Stargardter, born on 28 April 1879, also in Sępólno Krajeńskie, was the proprietor of a stocking wholesalers and a lending library in Berlin. He was deported to Minsk in 1941 and murdered.

The restituted volumes were acquired in 1943, when the Berlin City Library (Berliner Stadtbibliothek, BStB) purchased ~40,000 books which had been taken from the last apartments of deported Berlin Jews from the city's pawnshop. Some of the books, which were only accessioned after the end of the war, were listed as "gifts" - with the unclear indication of "Kulturamt" as the vendor - a common practice for the so called "J-Books". In two cases the Salvage Office ("Bergungsstelle") is named as the supplier, but without stating a number for the recovery. This suggests that these items were actually books already in storage at the library, which were assigned to the Salvage Office.