And then there are the “rebirths” Benjamin described: the second acts, rediscoveries, and renewals that bring older works back into circulation. Happily, unfairly forgotten treasures are in vogue.

It doesn’t look bad at all at first glance. Every year around 9,000 titles are still being published, about two-thirds of which are by German-speaking authors. And sales of children’s and young adult ...

Genealogists volunteering for the Looted Books Project recently returned a volume to a 103-year-old Holocaust survivor in Florida who was given the book in 1930 as a gift for her good performance in ...