Since 1938 the Viennese Dr. h. c. Helene Richter (1861-1942), philologist (English) and historian (history of the theatre), and her sister Prof. Dr. Elise Richter (1865-1943), who had studied Roman languages and became the first female university teacher in Austria (Privatdozentin), were forced to sell books from their private library. Most of the stock was bought in 1941 by the Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln (Cologne). Both sisters died in Theresienstadt. In the end of 2007, the collection of the literary critic, publisher and translator Walter Boehlich (1921-2006) was donated to the library of the Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum. In During the process of cataloguing, two volumes were discovered which carried the exlibris of Helene and Elise Richter. Probably Walter Boehlich acquired the books through the antiquarian book trade.
