RBU_JR_LIS_V23_2021-FULL_TEXT-E-Copy

Biswas & Mukherjee: Books for bullets …
Introduction
Source: https://www.amazon.in/dp/1529104777/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_eMiCFbN2BHE10
The next level of homicide occurs when the identity and
history of humankind are damaged beyond repair.
Deliberate destruction of libraries is one of such heinous
forms of violence that the world has witnessed several
times. Libraries are one of the most basic forms in which
man tried to preserve his acquired knowledge of this
world, to make life easier for future generations. Today, if
a large part of human history was not wiped out due to
man's hatred for one another, the world could have been
more enriched with knowledge that could have taken the
progress of the human race to another level.
Here we will work with literary texts like Spanish author
Antonio Iturbe’s The Librarian of Auschwitz 2, whereas an
author and journalist Iturbe (Iturbe, Antonio, 2019) took
interviews Dita Kraus whose contributions towards library
sciences are immense. We will also deal with a very
recently published book A Delayed Life: The true story of
the Librarian of Auschwitz 1 written by Kraus herself on
the lived experiences of a holocaust survivor. Once it is
understood how without the formal training of the
discipline of library science, how much legendary
contributions Kraus has left in the field of library science
will provide a plethora of research subjects for future
academicians of this discipline. The problem identified
while analyzing this study was the treatment of libraries
by the Nazi and how the Book Burning 3 incident was
organized by the students of Germany in the year 1933.
Centralizing this attitude of the rulers of the land regarding
libraries, and books of the Jewish community this paper
attempts to resolve the authorization through an analytical
study of Dita Kraus’s life and work.
The study has included a list of the types of books that
were burned during this incident and also tried to
understand the content of the collection of books Kraus
was taking care of and how they were relevant to the
prisoners of Auschwitz and how deeply the collection of
this smallest of libraries had to impact on the humanity of
those times. Especially studying these situations in the
present times where terrorism, war is taking a toll on
history and culture, for example in Afghanistan and Syria,
gives rise to a hope of betterment. Holding up books
against bullets is one of the major ways of resistance and
that's what this paper wants to prove. The world still bears
the scars of the holocaust that occurred during World War
II, adding to the human death records, suffering, and
massacres the 1933 (May 10th) Book Burning carried out
by Germans tells the story of how the incident mutilated,
not only the Jewish culture but history of the world.
Alongside this, there is also a marvelous history of
courage during such dark times of a thirteen years old
Dita Kraus, a Jewish girl, who was responsible for saving
the world's smallest library in a German Concentration
camp. This article deals with these two incidents from the
German atrocities on the Jewish people during World War
II and tries to understand how the violence against culture
was done by the destruction of books, and how basic
aspects of humanity were saved by the preservation of the
smallest of libraries in the most hostile situations. In the
face of extreme forms of violence, at times even silence is
an agency, the smallest of attempts of resistance brings the
era to the verge of a revolution. With the current trends of
the destruction of books to tame a race as we are
witnessing in Afghanistan, Balochistan and several other
countries in the grasp of terrorism, it is important that we
take a deeper look into history to find what agency a few
books or a library can offer to humans in times of need,
and how clinging on to books are often the only ways to
hold on to basic humanity in certain situations. Kraus’s
story is one such incredible journey to look back on in the
times of darkness and preserve our faith in light and is an
important milestone in the history libraries.
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