In the course of a joint restitution of Nazi-looted property from a total of 14 German libraries and archives, the heirs have also received 36 volumes from the collection of the Jewish writer Raoul Fernand Jellinek-Mercedes (1888-1939) from Saxony. According to the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library (SLUB), they and the rest of the 41 works in the collection were subsequently purchased for the respective collections. Provenance researchers identified three books in the SLUB, one in the Chemnitz City Library, 15 in the German National Library in Leipzig and 17 in the Leipzig City Library.
Since 2011, the SLUB has been systematically checking its holdings for illegally acquired books from the National Socialist era as part of third-party funded projects and publishing any such finds. Where possible, the rightful heirs are identified and the works restituted. So far, this has been the case more than 30 times, and over 300 proven cases of Nazi-looted property have yet to be investigated.
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