The most valuable collections in Europe hidden in Poland. This fire remains a mystery to this day
Some of the most valuable collections in Europe are hidden in Poland. After a fire during World War II, some of the documents were lost, and the fate of the rest is still shrouded in mystery.
Joanna Lamparska, journalist and author of the Hi!History channel, decided to look at the small town of Gościszów in Lower Silesia. It was there that one of the most valuable library collections in Europe ended up during World War II.
The most valuable collections of Europe in Lower Silesia
The Prussian Library in Berlin, called the Berlin Library, was one of the most important collections of knowledge in Europe – before the war it had about three million books and 200,000 manuscripts. The treasures included, among others: the famous Maness codex, manuscripts by Goethe and Schiller, and musical scores by Bach and Beethoven. When Allied air raids threatened to destroy Berlin, library workers looked for ways to save the collections.
Some of the most valuable documents went to Gościszów, to the Evangelical church. The transports arrived in several stages and in total they transported 180 tons of manuscripts and files, and almost 280,000 documents – old prints, manuscripts and incunabula. The collections were so numerous that they were arranged in three blocks, over two and a half meters high.
They were not placed in the nearby castle, although it was huge, but in the temple. According to conservator Gunther Grundmann, “the castle was too beautiful to risk gathering such valuable collections there.”
A mysterious fire in Lower Silesia
Joanna Lamparska reminded that In 1945, there was a huge fire in the temple in Gościszów. So far, it is not known whether it was caused by a German pilot by accident, or whether it was an intentional action of the Red Army, which set the church on fire. Part of the collections burned down and the palace was plundered.
The surviving documents included, among others: private collections of the director of the Prussian Library, Hugo Andreas Chris, who committed suicide on April 27, 1945 in Berlin.
The author of the Hi History profile emphasized that “today Gościszów attracts history enthusiasts and researchers, and the memory of these extraordinary transports of the Prussian Library reminds us how fragile humanity’s knowledge was in times of war.”
– It is still an open question what happened to the rest of the collections, whether everything really burned down, because many signs in the sky and on the earth indicate that it did not. It is very possible that some of these things were simply taken away. There are reports that despite the fire, someone still had a chance to take something from this church under their arm. How much truth there is in this is unknown, summed up Joanna Lamparska.
