From the Archives: Lucy S. Dawidowicz and the Restitution of Jewish Cultural Property

• Published in: American Jewish history 2016-01, Vol.100 (1), p.117-147
• Main Author: SINKOFF, NANCY
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Archives & records; Culture; Diaspora; Dictionaries; Displaced persons; Education; Holocaust; Jewish Americans; Jewish people; Letters; Libraries; Noun phrases; Restitution; War
• ISSN: 0164-0178; 1086-3141
• DOI: 10.1353/ajh.2016.0009

While her official responsibilities for the JDc consisted of procuring supplies, such as textbooks, dictionaries, paper, theater props, writing utensils, and curriculum materials, for the DP camps' educational institutions, which included more than sixty schools,7 she soon found herself on the front lines of the haunting work of postwar Jewish cultural restoration.8 By a mixture of chance, intention, and fate, Schildkret's most enduring role as an educational worker for the JDc would be restituting the remnants of yiVo's library and archives from the offenbach archival Depot (oaD) and ensuring their safe shipment to New york in June of 1947.9 Schildkret's efforts helped to establish yiVo as a distinguished american Jewish research institution, and the New york city yiVo as a critical institutional link to the East European Jewish past. 10 an unsung "Monuments Woman," Schildkret became known for her role in salvaging yiVo's books only in 1989, when she published From That Place and Time: A Memoir, 1938-1947, which recounted her European experiences.11 This article will establish the context for Schildkret's work in the oaD and reprint in full one of the many memos she wrote about the issues she - and others - faced in restituting Jewish cultural property after the war, a deeply contested activity whose resonances can still be felt.12 Much more was at stake than merely ascertaining ownership of valuable books, religious objects, and art.