On April 9, 1941, the Germans occupied Salonika, which had a Jewish population of 50,000. Within a week, the members of the Jewish community council were arrested, JewsΓÇÖ dwellings were expropriated, and the Jewish hospital was requisitioned for the use of the Wehrmacht. Three Jewish newspapers in French and Ladino were shut down and replaced with antisemitic and collaborationist papers. In April-May 1941, Einsatzstab Rosenberg (Rosenberg Operational Staff), aided by units of the Wehrmacht, systematically looted 500-year-old literary and cultural treasures in dozens of private and public libraries and synagogues in this city. Most of the booty was taken to Frankfurt, where the Nazis were establishing a library for the study of Judaism.
