Overdue Books
Subtitle: Returning Palestine's "Abandoned Property" of 1948
By: Hannah Mermelstein
Publisher: the author
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Brooklyn, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 18
Subjects: Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949; Destruction and pillage; Palestinian Arabs; History; Cultural property; Books
Description: Hannah's zine is based on her library school thesis project on books taken by Israeli librarians and soldiers from Palestinian homes in 1948, and how the books are still in Israeli libraries marked as "Abandoned Property." Many of the AP books have the owners' names still in them, and Hannah includes a story of being able to help return one book to its original owner. There is an interview with Mohammed Batrawi, a Palestinian prisoner of war. Hannah addresses parallels with the story of the Theresienstadt concentration camp library, and the Nazi seizure of Jewish books.
Notes: Cover title.

Gift of the author, donated via email pdf in 2014.

Most content reprinted from author's master's thesis, an article in Jerusalem Quarterly and a series of posts on the Desk Set blog.
Table of contents: title: Background; title: Mohammad Batrawi; title: Exploring the AP books; title: A book returned; title: Photo spread; title: Nazi looting: a historical parallel; title: Next steps; title: Further resources