Opuszczone biblioteki w getcie warszawskim 1942–1944. Plany niemieckich bibliotekarzy
Abandoned libraries in the Warsaw ghetto 1942–1944. German librarians’ plans

Summary/Abstract: At its peak, approximately 450,000 people lived in the Warsaw Ghetto (1940–1943).Many of them had home libraries. There were also bookshops, public lending libraries, anda thriving street trade in antiquarian books. All of these books remained in the ghetto after theirowners were deported to extermination camps, and eventually, after the ghetto uprising, thenumber of these volumes is estimated to be around 500,000.The German librarian, Wilhelm Witte, commissary manager of three of Warsaw’s most significantlibraries, offered to the ghetto authorities to collect and store the abandoned books in the formerMain Judaic Library building on Tłomackie Street. However, this turned out to be an unrealisticrequest, as the SS had seized all remaining Jewish possessions as well as the Library buildingand denied Witte any access to these books. Thus, the books of the ghetto’s inhabitants weredestroyed in the ghetto’s ruins.

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