Summary Of The Destruction Of Jewish Libraries In Cracow During World War II

Certain times in human history seem to reflect only the worst qualities we as a species possess. The Holocaust is one of those times. Marek Sroka, author of the article The Destruction of Jewish Libraries and Archives in Cracow during World War II examines the loss of various Jewish books, library collections, and other materials in Cracow, Poland after the 1939 invasion of German troops. Of all the collections of Jewish works, it was the school libraries in Cracow that suffered the worst losses. As the author states “the plan to eliminate Jewish cultural and literary contributions to Polish as well as European civilization became almost as important to the Germans as the physical destruction of the Jewish people” (161). This chapter

This long history meant that there was an established and well represented cultural presence, usually characterized in the form of a library or archive, of the Jewish pre-war population of Cracow. “Almost every Jewish organization…had its own library” (148). In addition to “commercial lending libraries” Jewish collections could be found in Synagogues, which housed many rare manuscripts and other religious collections, political reading rooms, and Jewish schools, which included a variety of books and materials in their collections (149 and 150). The emphasis on preserving their knowledge, history, and the written word is apparent through the various types of Jewish libraries. Opened in 1899 the Ezra Library, also known as the Ezra Judaic Library, “was the largest Jewish library in Cracow until 1939” (148). Established by a collection of Jewish organizations the goal of the Ezra library was ‘the promotion of education ad Jewish scholarship through the establishment and support of a free library and Jewish reading room’ (148). Though it was not the largest Jewish library in Poland, before the start of the War, it was one of the best organized

By November of 1939 Nazi policies had closed down all schools, religious or not (155). As education is counterproductive to the propaganda that the Nazi government was spewing, closing schools makes complete sense. The closure of the schools also meant the destruction of their libraries. Buildings, furniture, school records, everything was destroyed. “By the end of the war Jewish school libraries in Cracow had been almost completely destroyed” (156). “In addition to the destruction of the cultural and educational institutions, the Germans plundered synagogues and on many occasions burned them” (157). In order to protect some of the most valued religious works, some people made attempts to hide a large number of objects. Unfortunately efforts to conserve these precious items failed, as hiding places were found after the liquidation of the Cracow ghetto. What was not destroyed remained in German hands