Rotary Club No. 3521, Alkmaar
Rotary Club No. 3533, Amersfoort
Rotary Club No. 1336, Amsterdam
Rotary Club No. 3233, Arnhem
Rotary Club No. 5180, Bussum
Rotary Club No. 4079, Delfo
Rotary Club No. 1919, Den Haag
Rotary Club No. 3013, Groningen
Rotary Club No. 2299, Haarlem
Rotary Club No. 2943, Hilversum
Rotary Club No. 2386, Leiden
Rotary Club No. 3467, Nijmegen
Rotary Club No. 1879, Rotterdam
Rotary Club No. 1481, Utrecht
Rotary Club No. 4721, Zaandam
All together 470 cases combining material from the here mentioned lodges and from organizations of a similar status were packed and transported to Germany. Furthermore, everything the temple of the lodge in Nijmegen and the temple of the I.O. O.F. in Haarlem contained, was sent to Germany. Also, steel-shelves for about 30,000 books were taken from the building belonging to the Grooten Oosten in Den Haag where they have so far been used for the Bibliotheka Klossiana, containing parts of one library of the Grooten Oosten, and the library of the Vrijmetselar-Stichting, Amsterdam, are of great value. And so are the archives of the Grooten Oosten in Den Haag, containing all the historical documents of the lodges affiliated with the Grooten Oosten.
To estimate the value of the Bibliotheka Klossiana, containing many rare pieces, it is to be remembered that in 1930 the Grooten Oosten der Nederlande was offered $5,000,000 for the Bibliotheka Klossiana by Freemasons in the U.S.
A particularly valuable discovery was made by the working group searching the altars in the building of the Grooten Oosten in Den Haag. The Master-Hammer of the Grooten Oosten, made of pure gold, with which some of its members had presented to the Grooten Oosten on its 60th Anniversary, fell into our hands. It is a piece of high quality whose money-value alone is estimated to be 3,000 Reichsmark.
The Working Group took over the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam with its library and archives, boxes of extraordinary value. It seems that this institute was founded in 1934 with the intention of creating a center of intellectual resistance against National Socialism. Its employees were mainly Jewish refugees from Germany. The contents of its library and its archives with many very valuable items were brought together from all over the world. In the library, there are about 160,000 volumes, though most of them will have to be catalogued. Of particular interest is the German, French and Russian Department. According to the decision made by Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the Institute was taken over in its entirety. A member of the Dienstelle was nominated as director of the Institute—he, together with his collaborators will arrange the books, catalogue the scientific material and get the Institute ready for the work of the Party. What may be said already is that the scientific value of the library and the archives is that they contain a complete collection of material on the social and socialist movements in certain countries.
The libraries of the Societas Spinozana in Den Haag and of the Spinoza-House in Rijnsburg also were packed. Packed in 18 cases, they, too, contain extremely valuable early works of great importance for the exploration of the Spinoza problem. Not without reason did the Director of the Societas Spinozana try, under false pretenses which we uncovered, to withhold the library from us.
Then the library of the Alliance Francaise, Den Haag, was packed (6 cases) as well as the German publication of the refugee-publishers Aller de Lange, Querido, Fischer-Beerman, Forum-Zeek, of the Kultura Bookshop and the publications of the Pegasus-Verlag, all in Amsterdam, a total of 17 cases. After that, the Working Group concentrated on packing the newspaper and magazine stocks of the International Institute for Social History. The very exclusive racks which had been brought together from all over the world were kept at the Institute in complete disorder and left to self-destruction; they were properly packed into 776 cases and stored, for the time being, in the Working Group's store-houses. It is very strongly suggested that these newspapers and magazines be bound and the volumes be put up in proper libraries as fast as possible; otherwise, an irreparable loss will be the result since these newspapers and magazines are from all over the world.
A large unknown amount of material classified as "Enemy Goods" and coming from the so-called "Overseas-Gifts", that is, household goods of Jewish refugees, is falling into our hands daily. These gifts are being kept at the so-called "House in Holland", and so far 43 cases were packed there, including the private library of the former Minister of the Eisner-Government, Neurath.
In agreement with the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in the Netherlands, all libraries in houses of Jewish refugees and confiscated by the Wehrmacht, are being turned over to the Working Group. So far, the library of the Jew De Cat in Haarlem was packed into 4 cases.
An extremely valuable library, containing inestimable works in Sanskrit, was confiscated when the Theosophic Society in Amsterdam was dissolved, and packed into 96 cases.