List of libraries damaged during World War II

This is a list of libraries damaged during World War II. Libraries across Europe suffered heavy damage during World War II, with many buildings burned or bombed and millions volumes lost. Entire collections disappeared through fire or looting: books, rare manuscripts, research archives, and everyday reading materials.

Austria

When Hitler's Germany started the Anschluss with Austria in 1938, one of the first casualties was the looting of the public and private libraries of Vienna.Harclerode, Peter and Brendan Pittaway, 2000, The Lost Masters: World War II and the Looting of Europe's Treasurehouses. Pages 9–15, 22

Of the library of the University of Graz, about 100 manuscripts and 4,500 volumes of academic publications, which had been stored for safe keeping in Steiermark, were lost as a result of plunder.Hoeven, Hans van der; Van Albada, Joan, 1996, “Memory of the World: Lost Memory: Libraries and Archives Destroyed in the 20th Century.” Pages 7–15. They comment from: M. Hirschegger, in Liber Bulletin. Volume 32/33(1989), pages 6–12. In 1938 the Nazis formed a Bücherverwertungsstelle which was a collection and distribution center for books stolen from the personal libraries, publishing companies and bookstores of Jews and other people whose possessions were declared in forfeit to the states for political or ethnic reasons. These books contained 644,000 volumes, of which 410,000 volumes were destroyed. This center was directed by Albert Paust, who previously had been the director of the Deutsche Bucherei in Leipzig. Libraries in Austria could choose desired titles from this center for their own book collections. "The two big Vienna Jewish libraries, the library of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG) and of the (ITLA), were transferred separately to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) in Berlin, where a major part of them was burned in an air raid in 1943." "The library of the Weiner Arbeiterskammer (Council of the Trade Unions) had a very valuable collection of material in socialism, communism, trade unions and related fields, but when the Germans took over in 1938 they broke up the entire collection and moved most of the material to Germany. The rumor went around that collection was to form the nucleus for a library of an international labor office to be established under "the New Order". However, the collection disappeared altogether and has not been recovered yet. The library in Vienna opened its doors again in 1945 with its holdings reduced to a minimum."Langer, Elizabeth M. 1949. “Vienna's Libraries Desire U.S. Books.” Library Journal. May 15, 1945. Page 789. The National Library had been instrumental in of taking the books and other possessions of Jewish citizens, and also other victims of the Nazi regime. It was estimated that about 195,000 books and other objects had been stolen from politically and racially persecuted victims, and unlawfully added to the collection.Austrian National Library . 2003. “Looted Books: The Austrian National Library confronts its Nazi Past.” In 2003 the Austrian National Library in Vienna stated that 32,937 books, manuscripts maps and other objects had been restored to their lawful owners.Werner, Margot. 2003. “Provenance Research and Restitution.” Bericht der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek an die Kommission für Provenienzforschung (Provenienzbericht). Wien: Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek. The Austrian National Library in Vienna had a number of books stolen from private libraries stored on site. After the war, these were returned without problems. These were the libraries of Moriz von Kuffner, Oskar Ladner, Viktor von Ephrussi, Stefan Auspitz, Rudolf Gutmann and Alphonse Rothschild. A review of the library situation in Austria at the end of the war was prompted by the American Library Association. "Vienna was heavily bombed and many of its famous buildings were badly damaged or altogether destroyed. But the library buildings were practically untouched. All functioned throughout the war, with only a short interruption when all facilities broke down in the Spring of 1945. But the conditions have suffered a great deal. There was at first a purge of books when the Nazis took over in 1938, and then all through the German occupation restrictions on new acquisitions and complete isolation from the rest of the world."Langer, Elizabeth M. 1949. “Vienna's Libraries Desire U.S. Books.” Library Journal. May 15, 1945. Pages 788–89.

Belarus Two hundred libraries in Belarus suffered damage during the war. T. Roschina calculated that 83 per cent of the libraries' collection were plundered, stolen or destroyed. 600,000 of those volumes were subsequently found in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland after the war, but a million other volumes, including rare and old printed volumes, have not been returned.Adam Maldis. “The Tragic Fate of Belarusian Museum and Library Collections During the Second World War.” Page 79.

Belarusian libraries were plundered of 95% of their holding.Hiller, Marlene P. 1997. “The Documentation of War Losses in the Former Soviet Republics.” In: Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. “Spoils of War.” Page 83.

In Smolensk, "...the German fascist invaders plundered and destroyed the most valuable collections in the museums. They desecrated and burned down ancient monuments; they destroyed schools and institutes, libraries, and sanatoriums. The report also mentions the fact that in April 1943, the Germans needed rubble to pave the roads. For this purpose, they blew up the intermediate school. The Germans burned down all the libraries of the city and 22 schools; 646,000 volumes perished in the library fires."Nuremberg Trial Proceedings. Volume 8, 64th Day, Thursday, February 21, 1946. Morning Session.

The "Smolensk holdings" of five hundred files of the Communist Party Archives ended up in the National Archives in Washington, DC, along with manuscripts of the Belarusian poet Vassily Koval. The papers of the Polish folklorist and ethnographer, Professor Józef Obrebski, ended up in the archives of the University of Massachusetts. The Khreptovitch Library was temporarily removed to Kyiv (Kiev) during the war. A Dutch Trophy collection was given to the Soviet Union and returned to the Netherlands. Part of the library collection of Petlura was returned to Ukraine.Adam Maldis. “The Tragic Fate of Belarusian Museum and Library Collections During the Second World War.” Page 80.

"The occupants looted the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus housing extremely rare collections of historic documents and books, and destroyed hundreds of schools, clubs, and theaters in Belorussia (White Russia). From the Pevlovsk Palace in the town of Slutzk the extremely valuable palace furniture, made by outstanding craftsmen of the 18th century, was removed to Germany."Nuremberg Trial Proceedings. Volume 7. Fifty-fourth Day, Friday, February 8, 1946. Many of the books returned to Belarus were found in Nazi storage areas in Silesia at the end of the war, but were mixed up with other books from different countries. Nevertheless, 54 railroad boxcars of books were sent by the Soviet Trophy Brigades (part of the Extraordinary State Commission) to Minsk. These boxcars carried 1.2 million volumes the Nazis plundered, including 500,000 books taken from French Jewish families and institutions. The books from France were stored in Silesia alongside hundreds of thousands of books stolen from Belarus, and this is why so many French books ended up in Minsk. "According to Nazi records, a squad descended on Professor [Victor] Basch's Paris apartment in January 1941 and took 17 cases of books. The professor had already left, and ended up in Lyon, where he and his wife were executed in 1944."LaGnado, Lucette. 2017. “On the Trail of Nazi Looted Books: Scholars trace how half a million books stolen from Jewish owners in France During World War II ended up in Minsk.” Wall Street Journal. August 3, 2017. Page A9.

Belgium The Nazis assumed control over libraries and information. Concerning the confiscation of library books, one military order stated: "The Army groups and their designees may demand information from any person concerning economic data, supplies, consumption, storage, purchase and sale of goods, products and wares of every kind. They may demand books, papers, receipts, and samples be shown, and that anyone required to furnish information appear in person... Information shall be given free of charge."Lemkin, Raphael. 1944. Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Page 322.

Brussels. The contents of the communist bookshop OBLA, Brussels, were sent by the Nazis to Racibórz, Poland.Lust, Jacques. 1997. “The Spoils of War Removed from Belgium During World War II.” In: Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. “Spoils of War.” Page 59. Brussels. The records of the International Federation for Housing and Town Planning were confiscated and brought to Germany. Jesuit convent in Enghien had 200 crates of books removed by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce in 1941. Concerning this library and the École des Hautes Études mentioned below, the Germans said, "Both institutions were considered outposts of French culture on Flemish soil and unfriendly to Nazism."Grimsted, P.K. Returned from Russia. Pages 203-204. The archives and library of the international Jesuit college at Enghien, which was sent to the "Zentrale der anti-Deutschland speziell anti-National-Sozialistischen Information" ("Center for anti-German and anti-National Socialist Information") Ghent. École des Hautes Études in Ghent had 56 crates of books confiscated by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce. The library of Niko Gunzburg (1882–1984) of history, law and Jewish culture, were confiscated by the ERR in January 1941, and shipped to Berlin in February 1941 in ten crates. Niko Gunzburg was a noted professor of law at the University of Ghent, was a leading member of the Jewish community, a prominent Mason, and he was also a protest-activist against National Socialism in Belgium. Of his large library, only 200 books were returned after the war."Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. Returned from Russia. Pages 217-218.

Liege. "Two remarkable photographic studies of the treatment of libraries by Germans shows what happened to the University of Liége in Belgium and the Polish Library in Paris. Books have been taken away- stolen, burned, dispersed- statuary lies in heaps of rubble on the floor, wainscoting and decorative woodwork have been pulled from their walls to be hacked to pieces, walls themselves have been destroyed."Shaffer, Kenneth R. and Kipp, Laurence J. 1947. “Books- Agents of War and Peace.” The Scientific Monthly. Volume 64 (5), May 1947, page 429. Louvain. Library of the University of Louvain (900,000 volumes, 800 manuscripts, all incunabula, and 200 prints of old masters lost; 300,000 books, manuscripts and incunabula were destroyed in World War I too) In May 1940, the stacks were completely burned down, as a result of German artillery fire. About 900,000 volumes, 800 manuscripts, all incunabula, and 200 prints of old masters were lost.Lemkin, Raphael. 1944. Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Pages 319-320. After the end of World War I, Belgium libraries were re-stocked with books from collections in defeated Germany and donations from the government, private citizens and other institutions of the United States. However, it was believed the Germans attacked the library because of a Latin inscription that was proposed for the library balcony, but never placed on the balcony: "Furore Teutonico Diruta, Dono Americano Restituta" ("Destroyed by the fury of the Germans, restored by the generosity of the Americans").Battles. Library: An Unquiet History. Pages 156-163. Public Library of Tournay (destroyed)