The «Breslauer Schriften» restoration project is taking shape

The «Breslauer Schriften» («Wrocław writings»), a collection of important books from the rabbinical seminary in Wrocław (Breslau in German), which was destroyed in 1938, are to be restored and made accessible to a wider public. The books are considered a cultural heritage of national importance. They were handed over to the SIG in 1950 and have been kept in the library of the Jewish Community Zurich ICZ since 2017. Options for the provision of financial support by the canton and city of Zurich are now being explored in a preliminary project. The preliminary project, led by the SIG, was commissioned by the Directorate of Justice and Home Affairs of the Canton of Zurich (JI). An expert opinion will also be prepared on the question of provenance and the history of the written material after the end of the Second World War.

The rabbinical seminary in Wrocław was destroyed by the Nazis

The Jewish Theological Rabbinical Seminary in Wrocław was founded in 1854. It promoted the values of the Enlightenment movement of a «science of Judaism». This focus is reflected in the library’s collection. In 1937 it comprised around 40,000 mostly Hebrew volumes and included Torah and Talmud literature, works of classical literature, philosophy, philology, astronomy and mathematics, as well as Christian writings. The collection is both living evidence of the thriving Hebrew culture that existed in German-speaking countries before World War II, and a testament to German-Jewish assimilation into mainstream German culture.

The Nazis closed the seminary and completely destroyed it in 1938. Some of the holdings located after 1945 – around 6,000 volumes – came to Switzerland in 1950 and were handed over to the SIG; the collection was temporarily housed by the three largest Jewish communities in Switzerland: the Jewish Community Basel, the Communauté Israélite de Genève and the ICZ. The holdings were finally brought together in the ICZ library in 2017.

The SIG and the ICZ are working to preserve the writings

The majority of the «Breslauer Schriften» are in need of extensive restoration. The restoration is a prerequisite for ensuring that public accessibility of the «Breslauer Schriften» is not only maintained, but also expanded and permanently secured in accordance with the significance of this cultural asset. In June 2022, the SIG and the ICZ submitted a letter of intent to the head of the JI Directorate, Jacqueline Fehr, and the Mayor of Zurich, Corine Mauch. In the letter, the SIG and the ICZ announced their willingness to preserve and care for the Wrocław writings in the ICZ library in Zurich as a cultural heritage of national importance, and to expand their public accessibility.

Funding options explored and an expert opinion drawn up in the preliminary project

The first cataloguing work was completed and rough estimates of the possible costs involved in restoring the «Breslauer Schriften» were obtained during initial preparatory work. The preparatory work was financed by the city of Zurich. The extended preliminary project which has now been initiated under the direction of the SIG aims to examine whether an application for funding can be submitted to the charitable fund of the Canton of Zurich in order to carry out such an undertaking, and what requirements must be met to do so. The preliminary project is being financed by the JI Directorate as client. The SIG and the ICZ have founded the «Breslauer Schriften» interest group for the possible submission of such an application.

A central component of the preliminary project is the commissioning of an expert opinion by the SIG from two experienced and proven experts – Dr Andrea F. G. Raschèr and lawyer Olaf S. Ossmann – who will examine the status of the «Breslauer Schriften», in particular from a legal, historical and political point of view. The aim of the expert opinion is to clarify the question of provenance and the circumstances of the handover to the SIG in 1950. The results of the study should be available by autumn 2024.

The «Breslauer Schriften» also have high symbolic value

The history and significance of the «Breslauer Schriften» entail a responsibility on the part of the SIG, the ICZ and society. Their restoration and wider accessibility will also heighten awareness of the importance of this extraordinary collection. To begin with, the collection holds rare individual volumes. Furthermore, the collection as a whole stands for the attempted destruction of European Jewry as well as for the successful reconstruction of Jewish culture in Europe. In the face of the Nazi aim to go beyond the genocide of the Jews and wipe out an entire culture, the relics of the once great library of the Wroclaw Rabbinical Seminary are also «survivors» of the Shoah. The fact that the canton and the city of Zurich are supporting the project underscores the status of the «Breslauer Schriften» as a cultural asset of national importance.