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On July 22, the United States Department of Justice announced the seizure of 17 Jewish manuscripts, funeral scrolls, and community records that were taken from Jewish communities in Eastern Europe during the turmoil of World War II.
Investigators said, “These Scrolls and Manuscripts contained prayers for the dead, memorial pages and/or the names of deceased members of the Jewish communities, operating rules of the society, society member payments, obligations, society regulations, the identity of society religious leaders, and, in some cases, the names of the society members who were deported by the Nazis to the Auschwitz concentration camp.”
An affidavit in the case concerning these documents includes the statement, "until they were recently discovered as being offered for sale at the Auction, the Manuscripts and Scrolls were believed to have been lost for all time."
These documents are from Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, and Slovakia. Their origins range from the mid-19th century through the Second World War.
One document that investigators found included ancestry records for members of a Jewish community who lived in the Romanian city known as Cluj-Napoca. Records that originate at the same time show that this document existed "shortly before the Holocaust had begun."
According to the affidavit, "The fact that there was no record of the memorial book being in the city of Cluj after the Holocaust, like all other movable property of the Jewish Communities during the Holocaust, indicates that it was stolen from its original owners and not located until it surfaced in the Auction.”
The Department of Justice found these items via an auction house in Brooklyn, New York that offered them up for sale. Law enforcement first learned of this occurrence in February. There are four additional items that have presumably already been sold. Three are believed to be in Israel; the final item is believed to be in upstate New York.
Peter C. Fitzhugh, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent-in-Charge, stated, “We are fortunate to be part of the team that is able to return these artifacts to their rightful Jewish communities … The HSI NY Cultural Property, Art & Antiques Investigations unit works tirelessly with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York … and will continue to bring to justice the individuals and transnational criminal organizations who profit from the trafficking of these cultural treasures.”
“The Scrolls and Manuscripts that were illegally confiscated during the Holocaust contain priceless historical information that belongs to the descendants of families that lived and flourished in Jewish communities before the Holocaust,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis.
