Advertisement
Published: April 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Nazi Artwork - Young Men
I have not figured out what they are doing. The theological library of Charles University here in Prague is housed in an old gymnasium that was used during World War II by the Nazis. As we walked around the library I noticed three large pieces of relief artwork. Not knowing, at that time, of the Nazis use of the building I assumed the artwork had been done during the Czech era of Communism. I asked about the relief panels and learned of the connection. One of the librarians said, “They probably are by the Nazis. There are swastika on the tiled floor, but they have been covered with carpet. I do not think there is any question as to why the swastikas were carpeted over. That certainly was not a happy era in the Czech Republic.
Nancy--The idea of a library in a gymnasium is one to strike fear in the hearts of most librarians. I have been in schools where I had to have a library in a gym (two times on the stage next to the gym). Those are bad old memories for me. But this library was quite nicely situated in the gym. Someone had come up with a metal shelving and floor scheme. So
Nazi Artwork - Young Man
Guess he is an exhibitionist. the library was on two levels with stairs connecting them. The entire shelf portion ran from gym floor to the ceiling of the gym but in the center there was a metal floor which nicely divided the library into usable sections. The 'upstairs' had bathroom facilites, the library work area and front desk plus a nice lot of library computing equipment. All was quite modern and the facilities which could have been a disaster because of setting were, in fact, quite well planned and comfortable. We were hosted there by one of the student library workers. The librarian, who was to show us the facilities, had given birth to premature twins. We were so pleased that the young librarian was willing to give up her Saturday to open the library and give us a tour. One story she told us really impressed me. It was the story of how the library was saved from destruction during the Nazi era and the communist era. The man who was librarian during those two times used various devious means of hiding the books from those intent on removing them. In one instance he merely 'checked out' much of the collection and sent it
Nazi Artwork - Young Women
Are they throwing rocks at the men? home with other brave theology faculty members. In another he avoided the books being removed by instigating a new "method of organization' for the books. He took the books from the theology section and intershelved them with books from other, non-offensive to the communists and not on any censored list, in a unique arrangement. He put them in order by size, color, etc. much as the ancient libraries in the city. This made it not worth the time of censors to hunt for the books of theology. Thus the older part of the library still had the wonderful volumes it had collected from years and years ago. We got the chance to see some of those treasures during our tour.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0363s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb