Dispossessed

Dispossessed. Personal Stories about the Plunder and Restitution of Jewish Cultural Property.

How does it feel to have everything taken from you? Not only your rights, freedom and dignity, but your belongings as well? Dispossessed examines the history of the looting of art and Jewish books and ritual objects under the Nazi regime in the Netherlands during the Second World War. Eight personal stories make palpable the emotional impact of the theft of Jewish cultural property as part of a process of dehumanization. For objects are more than material things. They reflect someone’s identity and have emotional meaning.

This book is also about the battle that survivors and descendants of murdered Jews have had to wage in order to recover their possessions. Their stories make clear that the restitution of Jewish cultural property is a form of legal redress that is still relevant today.