At the end of WWII, the US Army established a collection in Offenbach, Germany for millions of books, Torah scrolls, and other cultural items looted by the Nazis. Their goal was to sort, identify and, if possible, return Jewish cultural property to its owners. The National Library of Israel received a large number of these recovered items, incorporating them into their collections. Many books carried stamps from their original libraries. These book plates were photographed and then put into binders to help fascilitate their return. These binders now serve as a kind of obituary list of many of the Jewish schools, libraries, and community centers across Europe that vanished during the war.