The LBI archives are full of references to scholars who escaped the Nazi threat with the aid of foreign benefactors. The political philosopher Hannah Arendt, the sociologist Werner Cahnman, and the writers Franz Werfel, Hans Sahl, and Lion Feuchtwanger are among the hundreds saved by the American journalist Varian Fry working in Marseille. The list of over 330 scholars placed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in an effort helmed by Edward R. Murrow resembles a list of LBI archival collections. Illustrator Hugo Steiner-Prag landed at NYU, a position was found in Berkeley for historian Ernst Kantorowicz, and the art historian Hermann Gundersheimer took a position at Temple University. Today, another generation of benefactors is continuing this work through some of the same institutions.

In March 2017, LBI celebrated the launch of the Edythe Griffinger Art Catalog, a new way to search LBI’s unique art and objects catalog online. LBI News spoke to two staff members who played a key role in developing this unique resource. Here is the interview with Chris.

David N. Myers is professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he holds the Sady & Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History. He was recently named President & CEO of the Center for Jewish History in New York. As he wrote in this essay originally published in the Jewish Week, his personal connection to Germany and its past is one of deep ambivalence.