Five books stolen by the German soldiers in World War II have been returned from Germany to a descendant of famed Nazi resister and former French minister Georges Mandel.
French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said at the handover ceremony in Paris on Friday the return of the books was a sign that it was never too late to bring justice to someone.
The works had been held by the Berlin State Library and the Saxon State Library in Dresden.
German soldiers stole them when they ransacked Mandel's apartment in 1940. The Jewish politician's personal library had included around 15,000 works, according to French accounts.
Among other positions, Mandel had been minister of the interior in France, and he resolutely refused to surrender to Nazi Germany.
In 1940, he was imprisoned in France. Mandel was later taken to concentration camps, and finally murdered as a leading member of the resistance in a forest south of Paris in the summer of 1944.
