This database contains objects from the prewar collection that were looted by the Nazis in 1943 and are still missing. The provenance category indicates these objects as LOST. Objects with unknown provenance in other collections may match a missing object in the JHM database.
A second provenance category, indicated with JHM, relates to objects in the present collection with unknown provenance and to objects that, after the war, were registered as museum property but are in fact prewar loans.
Objects the Museum acquired between 1930 and 1941 were registered in an inventory book, that reappeared in 1987. Aim of the research was a reconstruction of the fate of these objects and to determine which objects returned in the museum collection and which objects got lost.
Starting point was the description of the objects in the prewar inventory book. These descriptions may or may not contain detailed information. In order to collect as much information as possible on each individual object, we searched for these objects in museum and exhibition catalogues, Jewish and non Jewish newspapers, Jewish weekly's or other Jewish magazines. We also looked for photographs and archival documents that refer to the object.
To itemise the recovered objects as well as the missing items, the collected data was then tested against the present collection database. Our focus was on the present inventory numbers from 1 to 600: these were the items that were registered around 1960 - five years after the re-opening of the museum - when museum staff started assigning inventory numbers to objects that had returned from Germany and to new acquisitions.
To date (2011), of the approximately 835 prewar objects, circa 210 have been identified in the present museum collection; around 400 items remain missing. The number of objects that actually returned may be higher, but it is impossible to identify these objects due to the brevity of their description.
Provenance research is based on the data that are mentioned in an inventory book, that dates from 1960 when museum employees started to register the Museum collection. In 1960, the provenance of the objects was not always known and even in later years information on how and from whom an object was acquired was not always written down in the book. These objects with unknown provenance are included in the database. During research, it was established that some of these objects appear on photographs that were taken in the American Central Collecting Point at Offenbach in 1946. These photographs are added to the object description. Information on acquisition may come to light during future research. Sources that need to be investigated systematically are, for example, the postwar correspondence and minutes of meetings of the Museum board, museum catalogues, and a card register with information on museum objects, the exact nature of which has not yet been determined. The Museum will continue provenance research of its collection.