The Nazi destruction of Polish and Jewish libraries during World War II in Cracow, Poland was the topic of a lecture given by Marek Sroka, a Slavic cataloger, last Sunday in Capen Hall.
The lecture was the first in a series of lectures on humanities and library science sponsored by the George and Mary Bobinski Lecture Fund in conjunction with the Department of Library and Information Studies, the University Archives, the School of Informatics, the University Libraries Polish Collection, the Office of the Vice Provost for International Education, and the DLIS Student chapter of the A.L.A.
Sroka, who is also an assistant professor of library administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the 2002 recipient of the Justin Winsor Prize, given by the American Library Association and the Library History Round Table, for his essay titled "The Destruction of Jewish Libraries and Archives in Cracow During World War II."
According to LHRT Chairperson Lorna Peterson, professor of information and library science, Sroka was an ideal speaker because his essay was an appropriate topic to kick off the lecture series.
Sroka spoke about the various Jewish libraries and archives that existed in Poland before the war. Prior to Nazi occupation of the country, he said there was an abundance of libraries that varied from typical commercial lending libraries, to synagogue and yeshiva libraries.
According to Sroka, when German forces penetrated Poland and imposed Nazi policies on the Jews in Cracow in 1939, both Jewish and Polish libraries were completely destroyed.
"The destruction of Jewish libraries and archives was carried out through
Sroka said it is difficult to fully assess the extent of the damage to the libraries, because the Nazi destruction was so thorough.
A Cracow native, Sroka said his interest in the topic stems from the fact that it has not been researched very well.
"Keep in mind that the Slavic and Polish people were just as repressed (as the Jewish population)," he said. "It was kind of a general plan to the destruction of the Jewish and Slavic people (in Poland)."
He said that while the loss of lives incurred by the Jews and Poles was certainly tragic, the overall loss of cultural and educational institutions was equally terrible.
W. David Penniman, dean of the school of informatics, said that Sroka discussed a topic that can be related to issues libraries are currently facing, because libraries are currently dealing with whether or not to destroy materials after they are converted to digital form.
Kathleen Guinnane, a graduate student of library science, felt the lecture was interesting because the issue of the Nazi destruction of libraries is not very well publicized.
"I was very interested to hear another perspective," Guinnane said. "You always hear about what happened to the people, but you never hear about what happened to the information the cultures have stored. It's a big part of their culture that can never be recovered."
Teresa Vadakan, a library science graduate student, said that she has been interested in the Holocaust since she was 10, and the lecture enhanced her knowledge on the subject.
According to lecture series co-founder, George Bobinski, a former dean of the school of informatics, he and his wife started the lecture series to show his appreciation to the university.
Sroka was chosen to be the inaugural speaker in the series, because libraries are a special area of interest to Bobinski.
"We wanted to do something to promote special people coming here and being a part of this (University)," said co-founder Mary Bobinski.
