An Unknown Draft of a Regulation Concerning the Safekeeping of Book Collections and the Reconstruction of Libraries in Post-War Poland

Abstract

In the face of unprecedented losses in the Polish cultural substance – including book collections – during the Second World War, reconstruction of libraries and their holdings when the hostilities ceased, attained utmost importance. The issue was particularly complicated because of the amount of annihilated books. Already in 1944, before the final collapse of the Third Reich, a draft of a governmental regulation concerning the safekeeping of extant book collections was prepared. The document foresaw coordinated efforts by the Ministry of Enlightenment and Culture – an institution that eventually never came into being. The draft postulated a divide the country into several library regions, which encompassed the eastern territories of pre-war Poland, with Vilnius and Lviv. Activities in thus constituted regions were to be coordinated by directors of great research libraries. Due to political reasons and the changes in post-war Polish boundaries this draft never became law. It only anti- cipated the regulation issued by Minister of Enlightenment Stanisław Skrzeszewski on 15 February 1945 in Cracow, which divided Poland into four library regions, which in fact were to be directed by heads of major research libraries. The aforementioned draft, extant in the archives of the Polish National Library in Warsaw, brings forward important evidence of the efforts aimed at rescuing printed and manuscript materials in a coordinated, organized fashion. It was the first attempt at such a regulation of post-war library reconstruction, undertaken at a time of most complicated political situation.