How many libraries were destroyed during world war 2? How much information is estimated to have been lost, and are there examples of books/records we know existed but no longer have copies of because of the war?

by 0l01o1ol0

I came across the anecdote of Yuri Knorozolov, one of the major linguists decyphering Mayan script, finding books on Mayan in the Prussian State Library in Berlin while he served in the Red Army during the war. There's some dispute as to how much of the story is exaggerated, but apparently the Prussian State Library is known to have lost a lot of books to Russia?

Are there other examples of libraries that were looted or destroyed, and an estimate on how much material was lost?

edit: And yes, individual library examples are welcome, doesn't have to be a total war estimate.

Georgy_K_Zhukov

edit: And yes, individual library examples are welcome, doesn't have to be a total war estimate.

Just a heads up for OP, and potential respondents. The rules of the subreddit proscribe "Example Seeking" questions. While your overall question is fine, I would remind potential respondents that simply noting "X library in Y place was destroyed" is not sufficient. Certainly focusing on specific libraries as 'case studies' of sorts is perfectly fine, but we would expect to see those examples comprehensively covered and contextualized.

Thrower105

Are you trying to sort between the willful destruction of a library a'la Nazi book burning, or are you also considering something like a random artillery shell or a bomber hitting it as collateral damage?