" As one of the founders of the Offenbach Archival Depot ( or Collecting Point ) , he was an instrumental figure in the restitution of books and archives in Europe following World War II . Before the Offenbach collecting point was established , library collections from Hungen , Bavaria , Hirzenhain and other repositories were stored at the Rothschild Library in Frankfurt for sorting and cataloguing . Poste recognized that the system in use at the Rothschild Library was inefficient , and suggested the relocation of operations to the I.G. Farben building in Offenbach . By establishing the Offenbach Archival Depot , all of the collections found in repositories were restituted through a single , large , and secure facility . " " In late February 1946 , my colleague First Lieutenant Leslie I. Poste , a Library and Archives specialist , drove me through a blinding snowstorm to Offenbach . En route , Lt. Poste briefed me on the Offenbach Collection Point 's origins , his role in selecting a building within the I.G. Farben complex on the Main River , and his concern that restitution operations be expedited in accordance with military regulations . Since its establishment in July 1945 , the operation had yet to restitute any materials . Lt. Poste also reviewed the operations of Hitler 's Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg ( ERR ) and its educational branch the Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage ( Institute for Study of the Jewish Question ) . The ERR , backed by German military forces , had traced Jewish , Masonic , Socialist , and other anti-Nazi cultural objects throughout Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe and had deposited them in many places , especially in Frankfurt am Main in the Rothschild Library , Hungen and Hirzenhain in Hesse , and all over Bavaria . The ERR targets ranged from occupied Ukraine to the French-Spanish border and from Greece to the British Isle of Man . The ERR even raided Italy , an axis power . After Kristallnacht , the ERR collected items to save and use them for Nazism . Lt. Poste also described the U.S. combat and occupation operations to protect and restitute the looted collections . He and other Museums Fine Arts and Archives personnel felt the collections at the Rothschild Library and other places should be moved to a single large , secure facility . The IG Farben Building at Offenbach was their site of choice . " Upon his return from Europe in 1947 , he taught at both the University of Kentucky and the University of Denver before earning his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago 's Graduate School in 1958 . From 1958 until 1978 , he was a professor of Library and Information Science at SUNY-Geneseo . Following his retirement from the university , Poste was an antiquarian bookseller until his death in 1996
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Leslie I. Poste