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Wartime Planning, Postwar Response

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Books Across Borders

Part of the book series: New Directions in Book History ((NDBH))

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Abstract

This chapter traces the history that helped pave the way for UNESCO, beginning in the late nineteenth century and focusing on the interwar years. It explores the intensive planning undertaken by the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education in London throughout the war years. Their wartime efforts, and especially those of the Conference’s Books and Periodicals Commission, culminated with the establishment of UNESCO and its Libraries Section. The flurry of interwar and wartime activity prepared the Libraries Section to take immediate action at the war’s end, delivering books and launching book and library reconstruction and rehabilitation projects to countries as they were liberated, and to evolve and expand as the overwhelming scope of damage and needs increasingly came to light.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Akira Iriye, Cultural Internationalism and World Order (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 2.

  2. 2.

    W. Boyd Rayward, Information Beyond Borders: International Cultural and Intellectual Exchange in the Belle Époque (Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2014), 8–9.

  3. 3.

    For more about the pair and their contributions, see Alex Wright, Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), and W. Boyd Rayward, ed., International Organisation and Dissemination of Knowledge: Selected Essays of Paul Otlet (Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier, 1990).

  4. 4.

    United Nations Catalogue, Intellectual Cooperation and International Bureaux Section, 19191–1946 (Sub-Fonds). http://biblio-archive.unog.ch/Detail.aspx?ID=408. Accessed 3 September 2017.

  5. 5.

    J. Massoulier to Edward J. Carter, July 1946, p. 7. UA, IIIC UNESCO Fonds.

  6. 6.

    Henri Bonnet, L’Œuvre de l’Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle (Paris: Académie de droit international, 1938), 465.

  7. 7.

    Bibliotheques populaires et loisirs ouvriers (Paris: IIIC, 1933); Mission sociale et intellectuelle des bibliotheques populaires: Son organisation ses moyens d’action (Paris: IIIC, 1937).

  8. 8.

    Shirley A. Wiegand and Wayne A. Wiegand, The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2018).

  9. 9.

    La coordination internationale des bibliotheques: rapports sur les centres nationaux de renseignements (Paris: IIIC, 1928).

  10. 10.

    Coordination des bibliotheques: Guide des services nationaux de renseignements du pret et des echanges internationaux (Paris: IIIC, 1930).

  11. 11.

    See, for example, Edward Carter, “UNESCO’s Bibliographical Programs,” American Documentation 5:1–4 (January–October 1954): 1–7 and Suzanne Briet, Enquiry Concerning the Professional Education of Librarians and Documentalists: Final Report Presented to the Joint Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and of the International Federation for Documentation (Paris: UNESCO, 1950).

  12. 12.

    Bibliothèques populaires et loisirs ouvriers, 9.

  13. 13.

    Carter , Mission sociale et intellectuelle des bibliothèques populaires, 8.

  14. 14.

    Mission sociale et intellectuelle des bibliothèques populaires, 8.

  15. 15.

    Franklin D. Roosevelt to Luther H. Evans, 13 June 1941. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.

  16. 16.

    See Larry Zuckerman, The Rape of Belgium: The Untold Story of World War I (New York: New York University Press, 2004) and Knuth, Libricide.

  17. 17.

    Some reaction from the time: Frederick T. Birchall, “Nazi Book-Burning Fails to Stir Berlin: 40,000 Watch Students Fire Volumes in a Drizzle, But Show Little Enthusiasm,” The New York Times, May 11, 1933, 1, 12; “Nazis Menace World, Say Paris Speakers,” The New York Times, May 11, 1933, 13; “American Jewry Protests While Jewish Books in Germany Burn” Daily News Bulletin, May 12, 1933, 2; “50,000 Jews Unite in Chicago Protest,” New York Times, May 11, 1933, 10; “100,000 March Here in 6-Hour Protest Over Nazi Policies,” The New York Times, May 11, 1933, 1; “Jews of World Join in Great Demonstration Against Hitler Persecution in Germany,” Jewish Daily Bulletin, May 12, 1933, 2; “Une grande manifestation contre l’antisémitisme hitlérien,” L’Aube, 10 Mai 1933, 3.

  18. 18.

    Maria Danilewicz, The Libraries of Poland , trans. Helena Brochocka (St. Andrews: W.C. Henderson & Son, Ltd., 1943), 63.

  19. 19.

    Edward J. Carter’s Reports to the Rockefeller Foundation, 29 March 1943, p.7–8. Royal Institute of British Architects, British Architectural Libraries, Drawings and Archives Collections, Victorian and Albert Museum, Edward Carter Papers (hereafter RIBA, Carter Papers), Box 1, CaE/1, Folder 2.

  20. 20.

    Dr. Grabinska to CAME, June 1942. Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London, A.19.II/32, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Education, CAME 1942–1945.

  21. 21.

    Archibald MacLeish, “A New Renaissance: Intellectual Needs of Liberated Peoples, Lending Libraries on a World Basis,” The Times, 3 May 1944.

  22. 22.

    Ernest Barker to Richard Butler, 2 May 1944, reporting on a meeting of librarians and interested others held in London, 21 April 1944. The National Archives of the UK: Public Records Office (hereafter TNA PRO), ED 42/6.

  23. 23.

    Much has been written about the problematic nature of Huxley at UNESCO due primarily to his alarming views on eugenics and evolution, all of which is beyond the scope of this book. See Peter Jackson, “The Malady of UNESCO’s Archive,” Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research 6:5 (2014): 1015–1024; Maurel, Histoire de l’UNESCO, 31–33.

  24. 24.

    Report of Dr. Julian Huxley, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission to the General Conference, Paris, 18 November 1946. UA, General Conference 1. Session Paris 1946, Vol.4 Documents.

  25. 25.

    Edward J. Carter to P.S.J. Welsford, Secretary, The Library Association, 20 September 1946. UA, Preparatory Commission, Box 42, 37/13/345, Libraries, Collaboration with IFLA.

  26. 26.

    Draft report of CAME first meeting, 16 November 1942. TNA PRO, ED 42/2 Conference of Allied Ministers of Education: Plenary Sessions: Reports, Agenda, Memoranda, Notes, Finance, Publicity.

  27. 27.

    AME/B/1 Paper C, Supply of books in the post-war period to countries now occupied by the enemy, 31 December 1942. UA, CAME, BPC, Vol. IV Part I Documents.

  28. 28.

    Complete Index to Commission (and History Committee) Papers. December 1942–December 1945. UA, CAME, BPC, Vols. IV and V Parts I and II Documents.

  29. 29.

    The other was the Commission on Cultural Conventions. Ultimately there would be eight Commissions. Only the BPC had sub-commissions, one on History, the second for the Inter-Allied Book Centre.

  30. 30.

    Richard Seymour to Ernest Barker, 14 October 1943. TNA PRO, ED 42/6 History Committee: Project for an Allied War Museum and Library. Inter-Allied Book Centre Committee.

  31. 31.

    Report of the Sub-Commission for Books for War-Damaged Libraries, undated [circa fall 1943]. TNA PRO FO 371 Foreign Office: Political Departments: General Correspondence from 1906–1966.

  32. 32.

    Richard Seymour, AME/B2, Memorandum by the Secretary on Books and Periodicals for National and University Libraries, 16 March 1943. UA, 02 A 20 Libraries – Special Needs.

  33. 33.

    AME/B/23, Interim Report of the Books and Periodicals Commission, July 1943, p.5. UA, 02 A 20 Libraries – Special Needs.

  34. 34.

    Fabien Daubresse, “Conférence des Ministres alliés de l’éducation pendant la Seconde guerre mondiale: la naissance de l’Unesco ou les relations intellectuelles mises au service de la paix,” PhD Dissertation, Université de Paris 1, 1992, 5.

  35. 35.

    Draft minutes of the 54th meeting, 29 November 1945. UA, CAME, London 1942–1945, Vol. III BPC, History, Committees and Sub-Committees.

  36. 36.

    Emphasis in original. Maria Danilewicz, “The Post-War Problems of Continental Libraries,” Journal of Documentation 1 (1945): 81–88.

  37. 37.

    The Commission for the Protection and Restitution of Cultural Material is known as the Vaucher Commission, named after Paul Vaucher, who chaired CAME’s Inter-Allied Commission for the Protection and Restitution of Cultural Material. The complexity of the restitution issue and that it was not taken up postwar by the Libraries Section rendered it beyond the scope of this work. See Kurtz, America and the Return of Nazi Contraband, 62–63.

  38. 38.

    AME/B/69, Supplement to the notes contributed by the Allied Representatives on the BPC in August 1943 on the principal libraries in their respective countries (AME/B/57) with further information about the damage which these libraries have sustained in so far as this is known (drafted May 1944). UA, CAME, BPC, Vol. IV Documents.

  39. 39.

    Pamela Spence Richards, “Aslib at War: The Brief but Intrepid Career of a Library Organization as a Hub of Allied Scientific Intelligence 1942–1945,” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 29:4 (Spring 1989): 279–296.

  40. 40.

    Phyllis Dain, “Harry M. Lydenberg and American Library Resources: A Study in Modern Library Leadership,” The Library Quarterly 47:4 (October 1977): 464.

  41. 41.

    Unsigned to Harry M. Lydenberg, 16 November 1940. International Federation of Library Associations Archives, Fonds de Genève 1927–1965 (hereafter IFLA Archives), Box WA/5, Folder Bibliothèques détruites au cours de la guerre 1939– (American Book Center, etc.).

  42. 42.

    PIASA, “Proceedings of the Conference on the Reconstruction of Libraries,” Bulletin of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America II:3 (April 1944): 608–609.

  43. 43.

    “Belgian Suggests a Cultural UNRRA,” The New York Times, 23 February 1944.

  44. 44.

    PIASA, “Proceedings of the Conference on the Reconstruction of Libraries,” 612.

  45. 45.

    Librarian, Central Depository Library for the Netherlands East Indies to Oskar Halecki, 25 February 1944. Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (hereafter PIASA Archives), 17.173 Conference on the Reconstruction of Libraries. 1942–1945.

  46. 46.

    “Can the World Agree about Education?” Picture Post, 6 May 1944.

  47. 47.

    Grayson Kefauver and Carl M. White, “Library Situation in Europe,” Library Journal 70 (1 May 1945): 475.

  48. 48.

    In a parallel to those established during the early aftermath of the war, recent work reveals some of the networks and communities exiles from the war formed in their host countries in order to help them integrate and adjust to the abrupt upheaval in their lives. Helga Schreckenberger, Networks of Refugees from Nazi Germany: Continuities, Reorientations, and Collaborations in Exile (Leiden: Brill, 2016).

  49. 49.

    Survey of Losses and Needs of Libraries in Some European Countries, 14 November 1946. UA, Preparatory Commission, Vol. V Program Committees.

  50. 50.

    Report on urgent needs of Hungarian libraries, 20 November 1946. UA, 02 A 20 Libraries – Special Needs.

  51. 51.

    Zuckerman , Memoir, 56.

  52. 52.

    The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report 1946, 13. https://rockfound.rockarch.org/documents/20181/28210/Annual-Report-1946.pdf/2201926e-5c28-413a-bb1d-3d7a17232347. Accessed 2 September 2018.

  53. 53.

    Mr. Brumbach, Commission on Reconstruction and Rehabilitation, Provisional Verbatim Record of the Second Meeting, 25 November 1946, p.17. UA, General Conference 1 Session Paris 1946, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Commission, Documents.

  54. 54.

    UNESCO Preparatory Commission, “Survey of Losses and Needs of Libraries in Some European Countries,” 14 November 1946. UA, Preparatory Commission Vol.V Program Committees.

  55. 55.

    Unsigned from Poland, undated [circa 1946–1947]. UA, 361.9: 02 Reconstruction Libraries.

  56. 56.

    UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries 1:1 (April 1947), 3.

  57. 57.

    Report of the Director-General on developments since the last session, Paris, 7 July 1947. UA, Executive Board, 1947, Vol.I, 1–2 Sessions.

  58. 58.

    Carter to Drzewieski, 19 May 1949. LBA Memo 772. UA, 332.55: 02 Book Coupons General I.

  59. 59.

    M. Photiades, UNESCO Committee for Cultural Reconstruction, 3rd Session minutes of first meeting, 1 October 1947, p.8. UA, Executive Board, 1947, Vol. IV Subsidiary Organs.

  60. 60.

    Mary Trevelynan, Executive Board, Reconstruction Section, Preliminary notes on field survey work carried out in six European countries, May–June 1947. UA, Executive Board, 1947, Vol.II 3. Session.

  61. 61.

    Barry, Libraries in Need, 13.

  62. 62.

    Mary Niles Maack, “The Lady and the Antelope: Suzanne Briet’s Contribution to the French Documentation Movement,” Library Trends 52:4 (Spring 2004): 719–747.

  63. 63.

    Briet, Enquiry Concerning the Professional Education of Librarians and Documentalists.

  64. 64.

    UNESCO and la Direction des services des bibliothèques de France, eds., Répertoire des bibliothèques de France: 3, Centres et services de documentation (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1951). Compiled by Suzanne Briet, with the collaboration of Marie-Ange Boucher Chomel.

  65. 65.

    Jaime Torres Bodet, Foreword, 29 February 1949, in Barry, Libraries in Need.

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  1. Alden Library, Ohio University Libraries, Athens, OH, USA

    Miriam Intrator

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Intrator, M. (2019). Wartime Planning, Postwar Response. In: Books Across Borders. New Directions in Book History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15816-3_2

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