The Sunday New York Times includes an obituary notice for Col. Seymour J. (Sholom) Pomrenze, a heroic figure for Judaica librarians and archivists. As an Army captain in the American zone of occupation in postwar Germany, Seymour Pomrenze played a pivotal role in setting up the Offenbach archival depot, the distribution point for looted Judaica treasures - including books and archival materials - that were restituted either to their rightful owners (individuals and institutions) or to institutional repositories of Judaica (in cases where the materials had effectively become orphaned during the Holocaust). Col. Pomrenze was a professional archivist who, if memory serves, subsequently worked for the National Archives, in Washington, and for UJA-Federation, in New York City. Of particular interest to members of the Association of Jewish Libraries was the Myer and Rosaline Feinstein Lecture that he delivered at AJL's 2002 convention in Denver. The link to his lecture, which bore the title "The Restitution of Jewish Cultural Treasures after the Holocaust," can be found here: http://www.jewishlibraries.org/main/Events/PastConventions/FeinsteinLectureSeries.aspx. Col. Pomrenze took justifiable pride in his participation in the restitution effort, and received the National Humanities Award for this in 2007.
Yehi zikhro barukh, Zachary Zachary M. Baker Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 E-mail zba...@stanford.edu --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@osu.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
