<i>Livres pillés, lectures surveillées: Les bibliothèques françaises sous l'Occupation</i> (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Livres pillés, lectures surveillées: Les bibliothèques françaises sous l'Occupation Robert P. Holley Livres pillés, lectures surveillées: Les bibliothèques françaises sous l'Occupation. By Martine Poulain. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2008. 587 pp. €22,50 (paper). ISBN 978-2-07-012295-0. Neither the title, Looted Books, Monitored Reading, nor the subtitle, French Libraries under the Occupation, adequately describes the broad scope of this comprehensive [End Page 504] study from Martine Poulain, library director for the Institut national d'histoire de l'art. Perhaps she chose this title as an attention grabber to connect her efforts with the much better known history of art stolen by the Nazis. Poulain begins with efforts to safeguard library materials at the start of World War II by storing them in safe locations and then devotes the two closing chapters to developments after the Liberation in 1944, including efforts to return materials to their rightful owners. "Bibliothèque" is used in its larger sense because the Nazis systematically pillaged private libraries, most often those owned by Jews. Beyond libraries, the Germans and their French supporters were particularly interested in the archives of Jewish, Freemason, and Communist organizations since they used these records to hunt down members of these three groups. Finally, this study treats publishing, reading, and the status and life of librarians during the Occupation. The Bibliothèque nationale (BN) plays a central role not only because of its key importance among French libraries but also because of its director during the Occupation, Bernard Faÿ. Sentenced to life imprisonment after the Liberation, he helped seize and process the stolen archives, added plundered items to the BN collections, and supported efforts to censor library materials throughout France. Poulain describes in great detail Faÿ's special efforts against the Freemasons, his political machinations aimed at his self-aggrandizement by increasing the importance of the BN, and his willing collaboration with the Nazis. She does not neglect libraries outside Paris that often suffered damage to their buildings and collections from Allied bombings, ground battles, and destruction by the retreating Germans. Throughout the war, heroic librarians most often were successful in keeping libraries open in difficult circumstances that included a lack of materials, staff, and utilities and even damage to the buildings. She gives special attention to the Germanization of libraries in Alsace-Lorraine as Germany removed French materials to speed the integration of these two provinces into the Reich. The main text is supplemented by nearly 180 pages of additional materials and scholarly apparatus. The eighteen-page bibliography includes five pages of archives consulted. Poulain documents her text with almost eighty pages of notes, which often include substantive commentary. The "annexes" consist of two lists of materials seized from libraries and private collections, a chronology of libraries under the Occupation, and a report on Faÿ's collaboration. Four pages of photographs and a thirty-three-page index to names in the text and notes complete the supporting materials. Poulain assumes that her readers have extensive knowledge of the period; I found myself frequently consulting reference sources. World War II itself is eerily absent from the text, with few references to how its general progress affected libraries. For example, while the Normandy invasion is well known, the much less publicized invasion of southern France also caused difficulties for libraries; Poulain gives few details about this campaign. While I can understand her reasoning, I question the separation of Faÿ's activities into three chapters because doing so disrupts a chronological understanding of his intertwined leadership of the BN. Finally, the comprehensive nature of the scholarship leads to long lists within the text, for example, of all members of various committees, all bombings of libraries, and so on. While these detailed lists serve as excellent documentation, they bog down the narrative flow and do not provide the information as effectively as when she uses tables. [End Page 505] My final point is to consider Poulain's comments in the introduction and conclusion about the lack of scholarly attention to this period. "On compte sur les doigts d'une seule main les articles consacrés à l'histoire des bibliothèques fran...