‘Secret!’ Rare Nazi book mysteriously dropped off at Illinois library
I wonder who dropped that off?
A rare book by Nazi commander Hermann Goring is being studied at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, but it had a strange trip there.
The book, titled ‘1938-1941: Vier Jahre, Hermann Goring-Werke,’ was mysteriously left in the book drop at a suburban Chicago library, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
‘1938-1941: Vier Jahre’ detailed Germany’s steel industry, and was given to workers at state-owned steel mills during World War II. Goring was also largely responsible for managing the Germany economy leading up to World War II. ‘Vier jahre’ means four years, referring to the four year Nazi economic plan.
The inside cover was stamped ‘Secret!’ Between the pages was an envelope with Paul Pleiger, who managed factories for the Nazis, as the return address.
‘It’s a great mystery’ how the book ended up at LaGrange Park Public Library, director Dixie Conkis said.
It sat at the library for weeks until employee Ursula Stanek, who grew up in Germany, noticed the ‘Geheim!’ stamp, meaning ‘Secret!
A short time after she noticed the stamp, Stanek toured the Holocaust Museum and learned the significance of the book.
The Museum only had a reprint of ‘1938-1941: Vier Jahre’ from the 1990s, but now it has an original.
‘We received a very nice letter from the Holocaust museum,’ Conkis said. ‘They were just thrilled to have it.’