The collection
The library of HG Adler is a unique and important collection of printed material about the Holocaust and the history of the Jews in Eastern Europe. The collection comprises over 1,100 books, pamphlets and journals, many of them extremely rare, and was placed in the Foyle Special Collections Library by the writer’s son, Jeremy Adler, Professor Emeritus of German at King’s College London.
The collection comprises HG Adler’s reference library, used in the research for his Holocaust studies, Theresienstadt and Der verwaltete Mensch (1974), and representing the core of his life and work. It includes works in German, English, Czech, Polish, Dutch and Italian, among others, with a large proportion dating from the early 1930s to the 1950s. The books range from standard texts to rare wartime propaganda leaflets, from James MacDonald’s 1935 Letter of resignation to the League of Nations to Adler’s heavily-annotated copy of Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem (1964) and an early typescript of Jakob Robinson’s response, And the crooked shall be made straight (1965). Adler played an important part in the debate surrounding Arendt’s analysis of the Adolf Eichmann trial.
An undoubted strength of the collection lies in its many early first-hand narratives, personal accounts of persecution and survival which are essential sources for any study of the Holocaust. Numerous presentation copies from Gerty Spies, Jacob Robinson, Hans Buchheim, JC Odic, Heinrich Böll and many others testify to Adler’s wide-ranging and enduring friendships.
One exceptional rarity among the collection is the picture book, Bilder aus Theresienstadt (1944), containing eighteen hand-coloured lithographs by the Dutch artist Jo Spier, himself a prisoner of the ghetto. The book is believed to have been published as SS propaganda in 1944 in an edition of ten copies and just two other examples are known to survive.
The collection also includes a rare copy of Der Anti-Nazi, a handbook of facts and counter-arguments for refuting Nazi claims and antisemitic propaganda. Produced in 1930 by a secret organisation of German Jews, the handbook was published as a collection of loose leaves in a cardboard portfolio; the unusual format was designed for flexibility and ease of use during public meetings.
Another key work is Leo Baeck’s Der Rechtsstellung der Juden in Europa, an unpublished typescript of which no more than five copies were produced. A twelve-month cataloguing project by Foyle Special Collections has enabled all items in the HG Adler Collection to be added to the library's online catalogue, with the rarest and most physically vulnerable material continuing to receive appropriate conservation treatment.
Some items of interest from the collection
Der Anti-Nazi. Berlin: Max Lichtwitz, [1930] [HG Adler Collection DD256.3 ANT]
Hannah Arendt. Eichmann in Jerusalem: ein Bericht von der Banalität des Bösen. München: Piper, 1964. [HG Adler Collection DD247.E5 ARE]
Leo Baeck. Der Rechtsstellung der Juden in Europa, vornehmlich in Deutschland, von 1830-1930. Unpublished typescript. [HG Adler Collection DS135.G33 BAE]
James McDonald. Letter of resignation of James G. McDonald, High Commissioner for Refugees (Jewish and Other) Coming from Germany. London: [Printed by Headley Brothers], 1935. [HG Adler Collection JX1975.8.G3 MCD]
Jacob Robinson. And the crooked shall be made straight: the Eichmann trial, the Jewish catastrophe and Hannah Arendt's narrative. New York: Macmillan, 1965. [HG Adler Collection DD247.E5 ROB]
Jo Spier. Bilder aus Theresienstadt. [Theresienstadt: s.n., 1944?] [HG Adler Collection D805.5.T54 SPI]
Using Library Search
Records from all collections are available through King's Library Search.
Being signed in to Library Search gives the best functionality for searching and the homepage gives advice on how to narrow down your searches by using scopes and by filtering searches you have made. For full instructions please see both the Library Search homepage and also our 'Catalogues' webpage, available by scrolling down to the menu on the Special Collections homepage.
Using scopes
You can limit your search to Foyle Special Collections Library items by using scopes.
If you select the ‘Library Resources’ scope, only the print and ebooks, audiovisual material and journals held by the campus libraries and Foyle Special Collections Library will be retrieved in your searches
Using filters
For finding material related to specific collections or former owners, use the ‘Library Resources’ scope in the drop down menu and then filter by ‘Former owner’ in the Advanced search criteria to display records from a specific collection.
You can also use the Location drop down menu on the left hand side of the screen to identify items from specific named special collections.
Please do contact us for further advice on identifying material which will assist you with your studies.
Resources
The College Archives holds some of his papers. There are several collections of HG Adler's works in the public realm. He deposited his Theresienstadt Archive at the Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam. His literary estate is at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar. The Beinecke Library owns his letters to Herman Broch and has substantial holdings of printed materials. There is some related material in the archives of King's College London.
Further reading
HG Adler. “Dichtung in der Gefangenschaft als inneres Exil”, Literatur des Exils, heraus. von Bernt Engelmann. Munich: Goldmann, 1981.
HG Adler. Theresienstadt: das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2005 [HG Adler Collection D805.C9 ADL]
Jeremy Adler. “HG Adler is deported to Theresienstadt”, Yale companion to Jewish writing and thought in German culture, edited by Sander L. Gilman & Jack Zipes. New Haven: Yale University Press , c1997 [Maughan Library DS135.G3 YAL]
Seeing through “paradise”: artists and the Terezín concentration camp. Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts College of Art, 1991 [HG Adler Collection N8251.T37 SEE]