The 1936 Olympics in Berlin were an international event which Hitler used as an awesome spectacle. He wanted to show off Aryan Germany rising from the ashes, with its crowds giving the Nazi salute and shouting “sieg heil”. Yet still, Jewish athletes participated in competitions, and a delegation was even invited from Mandatory Palestine, which would be allowed to march under the Jewish flag. How did the Nazis attempt to legitimize the 1936 Olympics? What did the Germans really want? And how was the Nazi invitation received back home in the Land of Israel?
When the Nazis Stole Lea Goldberg’s Doctoral Thesis
What did the famous Israeli poet Lea Goldberg have to do with medieval translations of the Torah? Why did her doctoral thesis focus on this subject? And how did it fall into Nazi hands before eventually ending up at the National Library of Israel?
The Wehrmacht’s Jewish Soldier
How did Walter Dirr, born to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, come to be drafted into Hitler’s army? Clues from a family archive
Living the Good Life in a Nazi Death Camp: The SS at Sobibor
These photos reveal the leisure activities of the SS members who lived on the grounds of the Sobibor extermination camp
What’s It Like Being a Nazi Hunter? The Files of Tuviah Friedman
Tuviah Friedman never forgot nor did he forgive. He dedicated his life to finding and capturing fugitive Nazis, as part of the effort to bring them to trial for their crimes. He was the first to obtain credible information that placed Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. Looking through his archive files preserved at the National Library of Israel offers a glimpse into the day-to-day work of a Nazi hunter…
Maya the Bee in the Service of Germany’s Soldiers
The beloved children’s book about the brave little bee who saves her beehive became one of the most popular books among German soldiers during the First World War. What led them to carry this book about the adventures of a small bee with them onto the battlefield? Does it contain hints of the devious ideology that would cause global devastation only a few decades later?
“Vienna of the Sewers”: A School for Dictators
In 1907 a young man from a small provincial town in Austria arrived in Vienna, the European art capitol of the era, with hopes of enrolling in the art academy. His rejection led him to roam the streets of “the other Vienna,” which many historians viewed to be a “school for the future dictator.”
Stolen by the Nazis: A Book’s Rediscovery in Jerusalem
The long journey of a book of Leviticus that was hidden in a Vienna basement during the Nazi era, before eventually making its way to the National Library of Israel’s Conservation and Restoration Lab…
Heinrich Himmler’s Books at the National Library of Israel
Even a mass murderer can have a personal library. Some of the books from Heinrich Himmler’s private collection, containing his signature, can be found today at the National Library of Israel. How did they get here?
“The Jews were in shock…” – A Nazi View of Kristallnacht
Reports and books written by senior members of the Nazi regime deposited in the National Library of Israel reveal chilling texts describing “The Night of Broken Glass” from the Nazi perspective…
