The Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation

Chapter XV - Jewish Print Culture and the Holocaust: A Bibliographic Survey

XV • JEWISH PRINT CULTURE AND THE HOLOCAUST: A BIBLIOGRAPHIC SURVEY Joy A. Kingsolver and Andrew B. Wertheimer . I THIS essay offers an introduction to research on the impact of the Holocaust on the cultural life of European Jewry. First, it is important to understand what existed prior to the Holocaust, so we include select references to studies of prewar Jewish libraries, booksellers, and publishers. Further sections follow these cultural institutions through the years of the Holocaust, including their suppression by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR). This essay briefly explores the postwar repatriation of books by Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (JCR), as well as the emergence of Holocaust documentation centers and the yisker books. We also address the question of library acquisitions of Holocaust denial materials. Suggestions for further research will made throughout the essay. Thisbibliographyisderivedfromtheauthors’researchfortheirJewishPrintCulture : A Bibliography, which is several years away from publication. We have only begun to explore archives and the vast quantity of material published in Hebrew, so there will inevitably be gaps in our coverage. A number of brief articles from yisker books on community libraries also have not been included, and other items may have been overlooked owing to the great scattering of this literature. We hope that this volume, along with recent writings by David Shavit, Rosemary Horowitz, and others, will encourage further English-language scholarship on print culture in the Holocaust, incorporating an understanding of Jewish and European history with the methodologies of book history. . L  A A variety of sociolinguistic, religious, and cultural factors, as well as anti-Semitism , led to the growth of a wide range of Jewish libraries in Europe. Synagogue The authors would like to thank Dan Sharon and Kathy Bloch (Asher Library, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies) and Michael Terry (Dorot Chief Librarian, New York Public Library) for their assistance , as well as Jonathan Rose for his encouragement. and yeshiva libraries, Zionist Hebrew collections, socialist popular libraries, Yiddish cultural collections, as well as personal libraries could be found even in small Jewish communities. The ferment of public debate—religious vs. secular, nationalistic vs. assimilationist, diasporaism vs. Zionism—produced an equally vibrant press, which was collected in community libraries. These libraries were special environments where Jews could escape anti-Semitism and immerse themselves in self-improvement, study, or recreation. Indeed, a first step for many political organizations was to assemble enough books and funds for a reading room. These libraries may have been for members only or open to the larger community. Some were licensed (as was required in some communities) while others were underground . Several European research libraries also had assembled significant Judaica collections, such as the Frankfurt Stadt-und-Universität Bibliothek and Amsterdam ’s Rosenthalia. Prewar Europe also produced the first modern Jewish archives, most notably that of the YIVO Institute of Vilna. Others were created to document ethnographically the Jewish experience. This historiographical spirit inspired the inhabitants of Eastern Europe’s ghettos to later produce significant caches of Holocaust records, such as the Oneg Shabbes Archive, which was found after the war in milk containers buried below the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto. This section focuses on libraries, archives, and librarians before and during the Holocaust. The systematic looting of these collections is mentioned in many of the following articles, although works specifically on the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg are treated separately (see section ). This section also includes studies of reading and libraries in Theresienstadt and other concentration camps. Abramowicz, Dina. “Die Bibliothek im Wilnaer Ghetto (–).” In Bücher und Bibliotheken in Ghettos und Lagern, –, –. Hannover: Laurentius-Verlag, . A German translation of the author’s Yiddishlanguage essay in the Lite yisker book. ———. “Guardians of a Tragic Heritage: Reminiscences and Observations of an Eyewitness.” In Proceedings of the rd Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries, –. Ed. Barbara Y. Leff and Laurel S. Wolfson. New York: AJL, . Arad, Yitzhak. Ghetto in Flames: The Struggle and Destruction of the Jews in Vilna in the Holocaust. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem; New York: Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, . This book uses diaries kept by librarians Herman Kruk and Zelig Kalmanovich in describing the Ghetto Library before its destruction. Its bibliography includes a list of archival material. Beinfeld, Solon. “The Cultural Life of the Vilna Ghetto.” Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual  (): –. This article discusses cultural life in Vilna in general , including library activities. Bohmuller, Lothar. “Der Salman Schocken Verlag Berlin und die Universitatbibliothek Jena, –.” In Bibliotheken während des Nationalsozialismus, : –. Ed. Peter Vodosek and...