Ministère des Affaires étrangères (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Since 2017, 15 books from the library of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministère des Affaires étrangères) could be returned to the Archives diplomatiques Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères.

The books were identified in unprocessed stock of the Berlin City Library (Berliner Stadtbibliothek, BStB). Their acquisition by the BStB was verifiably traced to after the end of the war in 1945 via the Salvage Office for Scientific Libraries (Bergungsstelle für wissenschaftliche Bibliotheken), salvage mission 15 (the ‘Library of the SS Reich Security Main Office’). The Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) had collected looted books from all over Europe in a confiscated masonic lodge building at Eisenacher Strasse 11-13 in Berlin-Schöneberg. The aim was to build up an ‘enemies library’ (Gegnerbibliothek). After the end of the war in 1945, some of these books were distributed by the Salvage Office to libraries in Berlin, in particular to the BStB.

In 1939/40, the library of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Quai d'Orsay in Paris comprised approximately 200,000 volumes. After the German invasion of Paris in June 1940, the occupying forces confiscated archives and, in some cases, libraries belonging to strategic ministries such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Although the library had already been evacuated in September 1939 in accordance with an existing emergency plan, it was not possible to relocate the entire collection due to its sheer size. The rarest and most valuable books were deposited in the vaults of the Banque de France. The archives and library holdings most necessary for day-to-day work were transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' remaining operational services at the Château de Rochecotte (in the commune of Saint-Patrice, near Tours). However, the majority of the library remained at Quay d'Orsay in Paris.

While most of the library survived the war in occupied France, an unknown number of books were looted, for example by the Sonderkommando Künsberg, and taken to Berlin. The German Foreign Office is known to have been the recipient, but the exact route by which the books entered the RSHA library has not yet been traced.

The first restitution took place during the conference "Où sont les bibliothèques spoliées par les nazis? Tentatives d'identification et de restitution, un chantier en cours / Where are the libraries looted by the Nazis? Efforts at identification and restitution, a work in progress" in Paris.

The ZLB would like to thank the CIVS (Commission pour la restitution des biens et l’indemnisation des victimes de spoliations antisémites / Commission for the Restitution of Property and Compensation of Victims of Anti-Semitic Spoliations) for its support in this case.