The history of the Nubar Library, founded in Paris in 1927, is inextricably linked to that of its first librarian, Aram Andonian. A former Armenian journalist and writer from Constantinople and a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, Andonian became the linchpin of this new institution which, in the inter-war period, worked to ensure the cultural survival of a people in exile. He and the Library were one until his death in 1951. This lecture will focus in particular on the little-known episode of the looting of the Nubar Library by the Nazis in 1941, through a reading of a unique source, Aram Andonian’s unpublished diary.

Boris Adjemian is the Director of the AGBU Nubar Library, Paris. He holds a PhD in history from EHESS and Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale.” He is the co-editor of the academic journal Études arméniennes contemporaines and an affiliated researcher to the Centre de recherches historiques (CNRS, EHESS). His most recent book is La Bibliothèque et le survivant: un intellectuel arménien au siècle des génocides (Paris, Anamosa, 2025).