The bulk of the 50,000 volumes in the Jewish section of the Korolenko Library at Kharkov escaped destruction by the Germans during their occupation of the city, it was reported here today by a young Jewish officer who was with the Red Army forces that liberated the Ukraine center. Among the volumes are rare ancient works from Amsterdam, Leghorn, Pisa, Koretz, Slavota, Grodno, Vilna, Frankfurt and Venice, and large quantities of rabbinical and Talmudic literature.
The officer revealed that during the shelling of Kharkov, prior to its capture by the Nazis, the upper stories of the Korolenko Library were destroyed and hundreds of tons of masonry and other debris fell into the lower story, where the Jewish collection was housed. During their occupation of the city the Germans destroyed all the volumes of the library which were found scattered in the debris, but missed the buried Jewish volumes. They were unearthed when the Russians recaptured the city.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
