James Spohrer

Image of James Spohrer.

James Spohrer

Type
Library Fellow
Department
Library
2009-10

James H. Spohrer, Librarian for Germanic Collections at Doe Library, is currently conducting research and acquisitions for an exhibit of Dutch clandestine books. During the German invasion of the Netherlands from 1940-1945, a significant Dutch resistance movement emerged, predominantly in the form of secret publications that defied the Nazi power's attempts to control the flow of information and to suppress dissent. According to Mr. Spohrer, the UC Berkeley Library has assembled one of the world's largest collections of these items, including bound printed books, flyers, broadsides, "Tarnschriften" (disguised books), and even simple mimeographs on scrap paper. Mr. Spohrer's forthcoming exhibit, which will present these materials against the historical backdrop of the occupation itself, focuses on the persecution and deportation of Dutch Jews, the attempts to remake Dutch civil and cultural institutions in the image of German national socialism, and the economic and social consequences of the occupation. The exhibit is scheduled to be on display in Doe Library's Bernice Layne Brown Gallery in 2010.