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Nicholas Courtman

Since 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has allowed former citizens, whose citizenship was revoked by the Nazis due to their Jewish faith or ‘race’, to reclaim it. Yet, over the past 75 years, there have been significant changes regarding which German Jews – and which descendants – can enjoy that right. This talk tracks those developments, from the restrictive, often antisemitic decisions made in the 1950s, to attempts to uphold those regulations in the following decades, through to the 2021 reform of the German Nationality Act that finally redressed such exclusions.

27-03 17:30 - 27-03 18:30
Erin Hochman

Due to the horrors of the Third Reich, we have come to think of German nationalism as inherently antisemitic, racist, antidemocratic, and violent. This talk challenges this conventional interpretation. It shows how the defenders of the Weimar and First Austrian Republics used the großdeutsch idea, the notion that Austria should be part of a German nation-state, to create a democratic nationalism. Unlike their conservative and right-wing opponents, these republicans did not view democracy and Germany, socialism and nationalism, or Jew and German as mutually exclusive categories. As…

22-05 17:30 - 22-05 18:30
Lisa Pine

This event is also the LBI Summer Lecture 2025

Hitler and the history of the Nazis remain extremely popular topics and ones that never cease to attract people’s interest, even fascination. It is crucial to comprehend the nature of Mein Kampf, the mindset of its author, Adolf Hitler, and the ideology he espoused that brought untold tragedy to millions of people – death, destruction, genocide and war. The book presents a dangerous set of ideas, regrettably ones that still have followers today, one hundred years after Mein Kampf was originally penned…

10-07 17:30 - 10-07 18:30
Frank McDonough

Writing on the Wall: The Unfolding Persecution of Jews 1933 to 1939

This lecture looks at the response of Jews to incidents of persecution and humiliation from Hitler coming to power in 1933 through to the outbreak of the Second World War. It will argue that while the Holocaust could not be predicted the level of persecution escalated during the period.

 

Professor Frank McDonough is an internationally renowned expert on the Third Reich. He was born in Liverpool, studied history at Balliol College, Oxford and gained a PhD from…

23-10 18:30 - 23-10 19:30
Christine Schmidt, Laura Jockusch, Bea Lewkowicz, Natalia Aleksiun

Join us for the inaugural Eva Reichmann Lecture: 

Eva Reichmann: Witness, Historian, Legacy

This special event celebrates the legacy of Dr. Eva Reichmann, a pioneering historian whose groundbreaking work continues to shape our understanding of Nazi persecution and Holocaust historiography.

 

Programme

Welcome & Introduction 

Dr. Joseph Cronin (Director, Leo Baeck Institute London) and Dr. Toby Simpson (Director, The Wiener Holocaust Library) will open the evening by reflecting on Eva Reichmann’s…

06-11 18:30 - 06-11 20:00

LBI News

We’re marking our anniversary with a new short film! Discover our mission, our history, and why our work remains vital today.

Position: Programme and Development Officer (3 days/week)

Salary: £35,192 pro rata (one-year fixed term, with the possibility of extension)

Start Date: May 2025

The Leo Baeck Institute London has recently acquired a significant piece of German-Jewish cultural history: a plaster bust of Dr. Lazarus Goldschmidt, the renowned scholar who translated the Babylonian Talmud into German.

The Leo Baeck Institute London, in collaboration with Birkbeck, University of London, and The Wiener Holocaust Library, announces the Call for Papers for the Eighth International Multidisciplinary Conference on Survivors of Nazi Persecution.

Conference Details:

For the academic year 2025/26, the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes is once again awarding up to ten doctoral scholarships to doctoral students working on a dissertation in the field of German-Jewish Studies.

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Library of Lost Books

The Leo Baeck Institute’s Library of Lost Books project continues to uncover fascinating historical insights through its various research initiatives. Recently, a workshop was held at the Martin-Buber-Institute for Jewish Studies in Cologne, organised in collaboration with Germania Judaica. This event brought together experts in provenance research and Jewish cultural heritage.
Clara Koser, former LBI London ARSP volunteer and representing the Leo Baeck Institute, presented an overview…
Exciting news! The Library of Lost Books website is now optimised for mobile devices.
Explore the history of Nazi book looting in English, German, Czech, and Hebrew, all from your smartphone.
Discover stories of stolen books, their owners, and recovery efforts with just a swipe.
This mobile-friendly update makes this important chapter of Holocaust history more accessible than ever.
https://libraryoflostbooks.com/