Skip to main content

Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick

Two Restituted Books from his Library

restituted-book.jpg
These two books were restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick (1891-1965?) . LBI Library, r 1007 & r 1008.
Rabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac BickRabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick
Title page of <i>Midrash rabah ʻal ha-Torah </i>, a commentary on the Biblical book of Genesis, restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick. LBI Library, r 1007 v. 1-2.
Title page of Midrash rabah ʻal ha-torah, 1913, here the commentary on the Biblical book of Genesis, restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick. LBI Library, r 1007 v. 1-2.
Ownership traces of a book restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick. LBI Library, r 1007 v. 1-2.
Ownership traces of a book restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick. The book is stamped: “Dr. phil. J. Bick, Rabbiner u. Lehrer, Frankfurt/M.” Ink inscription: "Dr. Bick, Mittelweg 12." The text of the book plate translates as: "This book belongs to ... ; [Library] holdings which were delivered by the Gestapo to the Hamburg State Library in 1940-1943, presumably from Jewish property." LBI Library, r 1007 v. 1-2.
Limdu ʻIvrit = [Lernt Hebräisch], 1934, restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick. LBI Library, r 1008.
Limdu ʻIvrit = [Lernt Hebräisch] , 1934, restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick, title page with ownership marks. LBI Library, r 1008.
Limdu ʻIvrit = [Lernt Hebräisch], 1934, restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick. LBI Library, r 1008.
Limdu ʻIvrit = [Lernt Hebräisch] , 1934, restituted from the library of the Frankfurt Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick. LBI Library, r 1008.

In 2016, the State and University Library Hamburg restituted two books from their library collections to the heirs of their former owner as part of the library's Nazi Looted Assets Project. These books used to belong to Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick (1891-1965?), a scholar and rabbi in Frankfurt who also taught at the Philanthropin, a Jewish elementary school and gymnasium, between 1926 and 1939.

Rabbi Ignatz Isaac Bick, his wife Mira, and their daughter Inge emigrated to England in 1939, and shipped their possessions to the port of Hamburg. However, when the war broke out, nothing could be shipped any longer. The Gestapo confiscated the family’s belongings, auctioning off most of the items and send the extensive book collection to the State Library in Hamburg in October 1940. That year, the Bick family made their way to New York City via Canada. Inge Bick married Eric Isler in 1943 and the family moved to Greenwich in the mid-’60s.

Rabbi Bick’s grandsons Robert and Frank Isler decided to transfer the two restituted books to the library of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York.