Bencowitz, Isaac, 1896-1972

Captain Isaac Bencowitz was a Russian émigré who graduated from the University of Chicago in 1922 with a degree in Chemistry and completed a M.A. (1922) and PhD. (1924) at Columbia University. As a Captain in the U.S. Army’s Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives division ( which formed part of OMGUS – Office of Military Government, U.S. Zone (Germany)), he was responsible for the Offenbach Archival Depot from May to October of 1946. He developed a method of identifying books and artifacts stolen by the Nazis to allow for their return to their original repositories.

The Offenbach Archival Depot held millions of looted books that were successfully restored to their repositories between 1944 and 1951 as part of the U.S. Book Restitution effort. Volumes that could not be traced to a repository were given to legitimate Jewish successor organizations.

In 1927, Captain Bencowitz began a thirty-four year career at the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company. He was a member of the American Chemistry Society, the American Institute for Chemical Engineering, and the New York Academy of Sciences.

From the guide to the Offenbach Archival Depot. Collection, 1946-1951, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)