Work in progress: Die langen Schatten der NS-Vergangenheit

摘要

In 2003, the Austrian National Library launched a project to identify the stolen goods from the Nazi era still stored in its collections. After two years of research, 52,403 works were classified as questionable acquisitions and have since been handed over to the heirs of the victims in accordance with resolutions of the Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board. The process of returning the works is well advanced and more than 49,000 items had already been restituted.In addition, the Austrian National Library endeavours to achieve the greatest possible transparency with regard to its Nazi past: two exhibitions and numerous publications on the subject as well as a complete indexing and opening of the in-house archive present a picture of what happened during the Nazi era, the restitutions in the postwar period and current research, thus giving the public an insight into a dark chapter of the national memory institution.