Leslie I. Poste
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Leslie Irlyn Poste (1918–1996) was a
librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...
in the
Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit (MFAA) was a program established by the Allies of World War II, Allies in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II. The group of about 400 service membe ...
at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and was active in the preservation, conservation and restitution of books, scrolls, manuscripts and reports accumulated by the German government from the occupied countries.


Early life

Having studied at
Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...
, Poste received his bachelor's degree in
Library Science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...
from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
.


Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Program

"Like so many
Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit (MFAA) was a program established by the Allies of World War II, Allies in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II. The group of about 400 service membe ...
officers, Leslie Poste's military career began with his induction as a private soldier because his vision problems nixed his application to Officers' Candidate School. By 1943 he had just earned his Master's degree in
Library Science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...
and was serving as an acting librarian at Columbia College when the Army called him. With their usual placement skills they put Poste into a General Service Engineers Regiment like mine. His regiment landed in
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
, England, and built the same sort of temporary encampments our regiment had constructed. During a cold and miserable winter, Poste was nearly buried alive when a ditch his unit was digging collapsed upon them. The accident sent him to a hospital near Oxford for thirty days, during which time he started a war-time library of paperback books. At the end of his stay the hospital wanted to keep him because he could type and spell medical terms. Still in need of physical therapy for a crushed knee he wanted to stay, but the army sent him back to his regiment. They needed typists too, but could not keep him for long. His librarian's training had finally been spotted and he became the first enlisted man to join the Library Branch of Special Services in London. From then on Poste rose through the Army's staff school programs which needed libraries for their instruction. After two and half years in the Army he won his commission as a first lieutenant in June 1945. Poste remained in England until he was sent to
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
15 October 1945 to become a MFA&A officer with the Seventh Army. On arriving, he was interviewed by my boss, Captain
James Rorimer James Joseph Rorimer (September 7, 1905 – May 11, 1966), was an American museum curator and former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was a primary force behind the creation of the Cloisters, a branch of the museum dedicated t ...
. Jim never failed to be impressive on first meeting and Poste was awed by his stories of MFA&A's preservation missions on behalf of looted art. On the other hand, virtually nothing had been done about looted libraries: "It's up to you," Rorimer said and then inquired if Poste could drive a car. He could not. The same afternoon he received a half hour's instruction. Thus prepared, Lt. Leslie Poste set out to rescue some of the finest libraries of Europe."


Offenbach Archival Depot

Lt. Poste was assigned to work at the
Offenbach Archival Depot The Offenbach Archival Depot was a central collecting point in the American Sector of Germany for books, manuscripts and archival materials looted, confiscated or taken by the German army or Nazi government from the occupied countries during World ...
in 1945. His job was to scour the countryside for locations of books stored by the Germans in remote locations to avoid destruction by Allied bombing. The original collecting point in 1945 was the Rothschild Library in Frankfurt, but the overwhelming numbers required them to find a new location in the I. G. Farben building in Offenbach. This five-story building was soon renamed the Offenbach Archival Depot. General Eisenhower issued an order in September 1945 that all trained librarians who were officers in the Western Theatre of Operations were to report to him for possible duty in the MFA&A. Lt. Posté was selected from the other librarians for this duty, and ended up driving over a thousand miles a week in an open jeep around Hesse and Wuerttemberg-Baden, who helped select and set up the Collecting Point at Offenbach. Cataloging was streamlined under Librarian Leslie I. Posté, and some 300 books a day eventually increased to where millions of books could be returned to their libraries. "As one of the founders of the Offenbach Archival Depot (or Collecting Point), he was an instrumental figure in the restitution of books and archives in Europe following World War II. Before the Offenbach collecting point was established, library collections from Hungen, Bavaria, Hirzenhain and other repositories were stored at the Rothschild Library in Frankfurt for sorting and cataloguing. Poste recognized that the system in use at the Rothschild Library was inefficient, and suggested the relocation of operations to the I.G. Farben building in Offenbach. By establishing the Offenbach Archival Depot, all of the collections found in repositories were restituted through a single, large, and secure facility." "In late February 1946, my colleague First Lieutenant Leslie I. Poste, a Library and Archives specialist, drove me through a blinding snowstorm to Offenbach. En route, Lt. Poste briefed me on the Offenbach Collection Point's origins, his role in selecting a building within the I.G. Farben complex on the Main River, and his concern that restitution operations be expedited in accordance with military regulations. Since its establishment in July 1945, the operation had yet to restitute any materials. Lt. Poste also reviewed the operations of Hitler's
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce ( or ''ERR'') was a Nazi Party organization dedicated to appropriating cultural property during the Second World War. It was led by the chief ideologue of the Nazi Party, Alfred Rosenberg, from within the NSD ...
(ERR) and its educational branch the Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (
Institute for Study of the Jewish Question The Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question () was founded in 1934 and was affiliated with the Reich Ministry of Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels. In 1939 the institution was called "Anti-Semitic Action" () and from 1942 "Anti-Jewish Action ...
). The ERR, backed by German military forces, had traced Jewish,
Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a worker who lays bricks to assist in brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cutti ...
ic, Socialist, and other anti-Nazi cultural objects throughout Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe and had deposited them in many places, especially in
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
in the Rothschild Library,
Hungen Hungen () is a town in the district of Gießen, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated 20 km southeast of Gießen, and 18 km northeast of Friedberg. Surrounding towns are Laubach to the north, Nidda to the east, Wölfersheim to the south ...
and
Hirzenhain Hirzenhain is a municipality in the Wetteraukreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located approximately 45 kilometers northeast of Frankfurt am Main. It has a population of around 2,800. History From 1943 to 1945 the area was the site of '' :de:Arbeitse ...
in
Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
, and all over
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
. The ERR targets ranged from occupied
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
to the French-Spanish border and from
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
to the British
Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...
. The ERR even raided
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, an axis power. After
Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...
, the ERR collected items to save and use them for Nazism. Lt. Poste also described the U.S. combat and occupation operations to protect and restitute the looted collections. He and other Museums Fine Arts and Archives personnel felt the collections at the Rothschild Library and other places should be moved to a single large, secure facility. The
IG Farben Building The I.G. Farben Building – also known as the Poelzig Building and the Abrams Building, formerly informally called The Pentagon of Europe – is a building complex in Frankfurt, Germany, which currently serves as the main structure of the West ...
at Offenbach was their site of choice."Pomrenze, Seymour J. 1998
"Personal Reminiscences of the Offenbach Archival Depot, 1946-1949. Fulfilling International and Moral Obligations."


Post War activities

Upon his return from Europe in 1947, he taught at both the
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...
and the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
before earning his Ph.D. at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
's Graduate School in 1958. From 1958 until 1978, he was a professor of
Library and Information Science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with inf ...
at SUNY-Geneseo. Following his retirement from the university, Poste was an
antiquarian bookseller Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The foundi ...
until his death in 1996.


References


Publications

* Posté, Leslie Irlyn, June 1958, revised August 1964, "The Development of US Protection of Libraries and Archives in Europe During World War II." Fort Gordon, GA: US Army Civil Affairs School. "Prepared ... as he author'sdoctoral dissertation at the Graduate Library School, University of Chicago." 329 pages.
OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...
: 1152347. * Posté, Leslie. 1948. "Books Go Home".
Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...
. December 1, 1948, page 1704. * Posté, Leslie. 1947. "US Information Centers.
Military Government Weekly Information Bulletin
Issue Number 100, July 7, 1947. Pages 4–6. * Martin, James F., Leslie I Poste, and Paul Kruse. 1954. A brief history of the University of Denver Press: a paper. "August 9, 1954." "Paper presented to Mr. Leslie I. Poste and Mr. Paul Kruse, The University of Denver, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the courses Research methods in librarianship and Literature of subject fields." Copies of the University of Denver Press 1948, 1950, 1952 book lists inserted at end. * Tagung der Bibliotheksdirektoren der Amerikanisch Besetzten Zone, Stuttgart, 1946, and Leslie Irlyn Poste. 1946. Protokoll. 10 pages. * Spahn, Raymond J., and Leslie I. Poste. 1949. "The Germans Hail America: Some Aspects of Communication Media in Occupied Germany". Modern Language Journal. 33 (6): 417–426. . * Poste, Leslie I., and A. Noblecourt. 1959. "Review of Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict". The Library Quarterly. 29 (3): 212–213. * Poste, Leslie I. 1969. ":Kriegs- und Nachkriegsschicksale der Niedersächsischen Landesbibliothek in Hannover (1939-1950)". The Library Quarterly. 39 (2): 200-200.


Bibliography

* Farmer, Walter Ings. 2000
The Safekeepers: A Memoir of Arts at the End of World War II
Walter de Gruyter. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Poste, Leslie I. 1918 births 1996 deaths American librarians Antiquarian booksellers Monuments men State University of New York at Geneseo faculty University of Chicago alumni University of Denver faculty University of Kentucky faculty Columbia University School of Library Service alumni Columbia University librarians Wayne State University alumni