For nearly five decades, Harvard's libraries have housed several hundred books looted from Holocaust victims and sent back to the United States by the victorious Allies, a government report revealed this Tuesday.

The report--issued by the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets--identified thousands of books and works of art that were shipped to libraries and museums throughout this country in the years after the Second World War and were never returned to their original owners.

But while the report suggested the U.S. might not have done all it could to return the items, University Library officials defended their possession of the books.

No one has ever sought the books, University officials said, and Harvard has not sought them out.

"If anyone ever came to us and said those are our books, we, in a heartbeat, would return them," said Beth Brainard, director of communications for the Harvard College Library.

'Cultural Treasures of European Jewry'

The books in question made their way to Harvard after the Second World War, when U.S. government forces collected artwork, books and other cultural items and searched for the original owners.

In 1949, they turned over the unclaimed works to Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., an organization formed by dozens of Jewish groups including the American Jewish Committee and the World Jewish Congress. The group sought university libraries in the United States to house volumes for which they could find no owners.