Review: The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance

The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance by Anders Rydell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I (along with another Adult Services Librarian) chose this title for one of our book discussion groups. The book was extremely interesting but was too academic in reading for most of the group's tastes. They preferred more of a narrative throughout the work to better tell this story.

I very much enjoyed this book. It was tough to get through due to the subject matter. I learned more about the Holocaust than I knew before. This is a story that I don't believe most people are aware of and it should be heard more. Books keep the history of a culture, of a people, of people's lives and the Nazis systematically destroyed (or attempted to destroy) both the majority of the history and the integrity of the people themselves. There are a lot of parallels to modern times in this book which all lead down dark dark paths. It is important to know about this history to better prevent it from repeating itself. I hope we can stop those that attempt this foolery (for lack of a better word) again.

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