Biblioteki i czytelnictwo żydowskie w Białymstoku w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym

Abstract

Jewish public libraries started appearing in larger numbers by the end of the 19th century. Revolutionary events of the years 1905-1907 gave strong impetus to their development. Finally a significant progress took place in the inter-war period. In 1929 over 770 thousand books were collected in 662 establishments. Sholem Alejchem Private Library in Białystok was one of the largest Jewish libraries in Poland. Just before the beginning of the Second World War it contained 65 000 volumes. It existed till the extermination of the ghetto in August 1943. The Library was created at the turn of 1915 and 1916. Since 1919 it had a status of public city library, available to all inhabitants o f Białystok, regardless of their nationality, religion and langugage. In 1927, due to the competition of the newly created City Public Library as well as increase of anti-Semitic feelings, municipal authorities deprived it of the privilege and name of the public library. Since 1932 the municipal government ceased covering the cost of book purchase. In 1935 books in Yiddish and Hebrew made up almost 38% of the collection, in Polish - over 32%, in Russian - about 24%, in German - over 5%, while books in French, English and Esperanto constituted about 1% of the collection. The library collected also archives concerning history of Jews in Europe and Jewish settlement on Polish territories. The loan of scholarly books from this library reached 22%, being the highest among all Białystok libraries. Historical and sociological books enjoyed the greatest popularity among scholarly literature. The most numerous social group of readers were workers (42-60%). Most frequently borrowed books were in Polish, followed by those in Yiddish, Russian and Hebrew. In the period of the Soviet rule in Białystok the library had favourable conditions for its development. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War the most valuable part of the collection was taken away to Germany, to libraries in Berlin, part of it was ostentatiously burnt publicly, while the remaining books, together with what was left from other Jewish libraries, were taken to the ghetto. Other Jewish libraries in Białystok were less active and had fewer books. For example, a valuable collection belonged, in the years 1922-31 to the Library of the Circle of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Białystok, an organization of various men of letters, also those of non-Jewish descent.. All Jewish libraries in Białystok shared the fate of the Jewish people. Today only occasional copies of books from various libraries can still be found in the Regional Public Library in Białystok, or in private collections.