International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of National Socialism

Tor des ehemaligen nationalsozialistischen Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Es steht symbolisch für den Holocaust und den Völkermord, der dort stattfand.

On 27 January, people around the world commemorate the victims of National Socialism. The occasion is the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. At the University of Mannheim, this day is also dedicated to remembrance and scholarly investigation: the provenance research carried out by Mannheim University Library examines traces of expropriation and persecution that can still be found in its collections today.

When the NSDAP came to power in 1933, the National Socialists began to gradually deprive unwelcome organizations and individuals, especially Jewish citizens, of their rights. In the course of persecuting and exterminating people, the Nazi state also enriched itself with their property – including their books.

Since 2024, Mannheim University Library has been systematically examining part of its historical holdings for this type of cultural property that was confiscated from Jewish citizens during the Nazi era. Research has led to the discovery of two books, for example, which at first glance appear rather inconspicuous. Autographs by Elsa Gumberich were found in both of them.

Books of the nurse Elsa Gumberich in the holdings of Mannheim University Library

Elsa Gumberich was born on October 12, 1885, in Baiertal (Kreis Heidelberg) and worked as a nurse in Mannheim. In 1931, she became head nurse at the Jewish nurses' home, which had existed in Mannheim since the beginning of the 20th century. When the nurses' home merged with the newly built Israelite Hospital, she moved to Collinistraße 47 together with three other nurses. During the Nazi era, the hospital and retirement home complex became one of the central locations for the deportation of Mannheim's Jewish population.

On October 22, 1940, Elsa Gumberich was deported to the Gurs internment camp on the edge of the French Pyrenees and later sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. After arriving in Auschwitz, 62 women and 233 men out of a total of 1,007 deportees from Gurs were classified as fit for work on the infamous ramp; only 11 survived until 1945. The trail of Elsa Gumberich is lost at the railway tracks in Auschwitz – she was a victim of the Holocaust.

Provenance research at Mannheim University Library

Elsa Gumberich is one of several Jewish women and men whose possessions can be found in the university library. With the help of provenance research, such suspected cases are to be recorded, made visible, and returned to their rightful owners or their descendants.

Further information on the provenance research project can be found on the University Library website.

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