Books by Anders Rydell

"A most valuable book." —Christian Science MonitorFor readers of The Monuments Men and The Hare with Amber Eyes, the story of the Nazis'' systematic pillaging of Europe''s libraries, and the small team of heroic librarians now working to return the stolen books to their rightful owners. While the Nazi party was being condemned by much of the world for burning books, they were already hard at work perpetrating an even greater literary crime. Through extensive new research that included records saved by the Monuments Men themselves—Anders Rydell tells the untold story of Nazi book theft, as he himself joins the effort to return the stolen books. When the Nazi soldiers ransacked Europe’s libraries and bookshops, large and small, the books they stole were not burned. Instead, the Nazis began to compile a library of their own that they could use to wage an intellectual war on literature and history. In this secret war, the libraries of Jews, Communists, Liberal politicians, LGBT activists, Catholics, Freemasons, and many other opposition groups were appropriated for Nazi research, and used as an intellectual weapon against their owners. But when the war was over, most of the books were never returned. Instead many found their way into the public library system, where they remain to this day. Now, Rydell finds himself entrusted with one of these stolen volumes, setting out to return it to its rightful owner. It was passed to him by the small team of heroic librarians who have begun the monumental task of combing through Berlin’s public libraries to identify the looted books and reunite them with the families of their original owners. For those who lost relatives in the Holocaust, these books are often the only remaining possession of their relatives they have ever held. And as Rydell travels to return the volume he was given, he shows just how much a single book can mean to those who own it.

Nazisterne plyndrede tusinder af biblioteker og stjal millioner af bøger over hele Europa i løbet af Anden Verdenskrig. SS-lederen Heinrich Himmler og nazi-ideologen Alfred Rosenberg konkurrerede om at underlægge sig Europas litterære arv. Himmler samlede ind til et enormt bibliotek om rigets fjender, mens Rosenbergs plan var endnu mere ambitiøs. Han ville grundlægge et helt nyt nazistisk uddannelsesvæsen, hvor Det Tredje Riges fremtidige lederelite skulle fremelskes. Alt sammen for at retfærdiggøre erobringer og folkemord på politiske modstandere, romaer og jøder.I Bogtyvene rejser Anders Rydell i tyvenes fodspor på jagt efter de forsvundne biblioteker for at finde ud af, hvor de stjålne bøger blev af, og hvem de mennesker var, der engang ejede dem. "Det er en fascinerende og delvis ufortalt fortælling om historiens største bogtyveri."Dagens Nyheter"Anders Rydell har skrevet en fascinerende, støvet papirsduftende, kulturhistorisk skildring af det Tyskland, som forvandledes fra Goethe og Schiller til Nürnbergdage, Krystalnatten og masseudryddelse."Aftonbladet"Bogtyvene er en personlig, velskrevet og meget informativ bog med et udførligt noteapparat og klart biledmateriale. Den udfylder et stort forskningstomrum, og man kan håbe, at den, ligesom Plundrarna, bliver oversat til mange sprog."Svenska DagbladetAnders Rydell (f. 1982) er svensk forfatter og journalist. I 2013 fik han sit internationale gennembrud med den anmelderroste bog Plundrarna om nazisternes tyveri af europæiske kunstskatte. Bogen var nomineret til Augustprisen som bedste faglitterære bog. Bogtyvene er hans seneste bog.