New publication on Nazi Library Practice in Europe

The renowned journal Bibliothek und Wissenschaft has published an anthology edited by Claude D. Conter and Jean-Marie Reding entitled Banned, Confiscated, Looted. Nazi Library Policy and Practice in Europe. The volume contains 15 contributions on Nazi library policy and practice in Europe, which stemmed from a conference organised by the National Library from 27 to 29 October 2022.

While the library landscape in the ‘Third Reich’ has already been extensively analysed, a European perspective on the library landscape in the territories annexed, occupied, and governed by Nazi Germany is still lacking. Results on this topic are now available, spanning from France to the Ukraine and from the Baltic states to Greece.

Three contributions focus on Luxembourg: Michael Knoche explores the question of how the Deutsche Bücherei attempted to record Luxembourg’s ‘undesirable’ literature during the National Socialist era; Claude D. Conter analyses the transformation process of the National Library (“Landesbibliothek”) during the Second World War and Jean-Marie Reding describes the Luxembourgish library landscape between 1940 and 1944.

The volume has been published in open access and can be viewed free of charge.