BUDAPEST, Hungary—Generations after being looted by Soviet troops, a trove of religious and philosophical texts from the 15th-18th centuries has been returned to its rightful home.
Nearly 200 volumes, some of which contain original notes in the margin handwritten by Martin Luther, were restored to the Calvinist College in Sárospatak after a twelve-year effort supported by George Soros and the Open Society Institute. The books had spent the past six decades in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, where they were taken by Soviet troops on their return from Germany after World War II.
Their circuitous odyssey through wartime Europe has been a subject for debate. Some claim the Soviets snatched the books from German troops who raided the Budapest bank vaults where they had been transferred for safe-keeping in 1938. Others say the collection was never in Nazi possession.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the books had to get through the maze of Russia’s complex legal code before they were allowed to return to Hungary. Russia, which holds millions of books seized by the Soviet Union, passed a law in 1997 stating that artworks and books taken from the Germans during World War II should remain in Russia. The only exceptions are cultural items stolen from victims of the Holocaust, religious institutions, or charities, and the appeal for restitution must be made by other governments.
The effort to return the Sárospatak books was initiated by the Open Society Institute, which in 1997 published a detailed catalog describing all the volumes. Many of the texts were also put on the Internet, making them available to the world academic community.
Hungary, the first to take advantage of the restitution law, filed its official appeal for the books in 2001. The restitution process was completed in February, when Russian president Vladimir Putin signed over the books to Sárospatak and transferred the books to Hungary at a ceremony in Budapest. The books spent the next four months on display at the National Museum in the capital and in a traveling exhibition throughout Hungary.
“After years of intense efforts and political negotiations, the books are finally where they belong,” said Jekatyerina Gényijeva, who had directed the Open Society Institute-Russia and is now director of the State Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow.
“I am delighted that these important works have returned to their proper home,” said George Soros. “This is a successful conclusion to years of work.”