The book is divided into four sections:
Section 1 “Provenance Research” includes papers by Thomas Jahn and Stephan Kellner on provenance research in the Bavarian State Library, Munich; Bernd Reifenberg on the provenance research project at the University Library Marburg; Heike Pudler on research and restitution at the State Library Berlin; Matthias Harbeck and Sonja Kobold on provenance research at the Humboldt University Library Berlin, focusing on books from the private library of the German-Jewish professor of German Studies Agathe Lasch; and Christiane Hoffrath on provenance research at the University and Municipal Library of Cologne, focusing on books from the library of German-Jewish university professor Elise Richter and her sister, the theatre historian Helene Richter.
Section 2 “Libraries during the Nazi period” includes contributions by Katharina Bergmann on the history of Graz University Library 1938-45; Cordula Reuss on Leipzig University Library 1933-45; Helmut Hilz on the Library of the German Museum (Munich) 1933-45; Susanne Wanninger on Rudolf Buttmann, General Director of the Bavarian State Library in the Nazi period; and Hans-Joachim Lang on acquisitions of the Law Faculty of Tübingen University, focusing on the looted library of Max Fleischmann of Halle.
Section 3 “
Section 4 “Book looting in the occupied territories” includes an article by Andrzej Mezynski on Polish libraries 1939-1945; Werner Schroeder on the “Research Brigade East” and the looting of books in the Soviet Union 1941-43; Sem C. Sutter on H.A. Krüss and Gustav Abb, library administrators in occupied territories; and Dov Schidorsky on the post-war book-salvaging missions of Shlomo Shunami in Europe and on aspects of centralisation, provenance research, restitution and distribution of several hundred thousand books transferred from Europe to Israel.