“To read or not to read
during the World War II”
librarian’s view on publishing activity in Italy,
Ljubljana Province, Protectorate of Bohemia and
Moravia and Denmark during the World War II
Igor Zemljič
Institute for Contemporary history,
Ljubljana - Slovenia
European Cities during the World War II
The everyday life in an occupied city - Prague 1939 – 1945 in the European comparison
Prague, 11. October 2005

Introduction:
 Short comparaison of book
production in four states
 Shematical survey of differences
 Example of Ljubljana Province,
(Ljubljanska pokrajina, Provincia di Lubiana)

Sources :
 Bollettino delle publicazioni Italiane
 Založniška dejavnost v Ljubljanski
pokrajini 1941-1945
 Bibliografický katalog : literární
tvorba z roku 1941-1944
 Dansk bogfortegnelse :
aarskatalog

Influence on
publishing policy
 Political system:
 Fascist Italy
 Occupied Czech Republic
 Divided Slovenia
 Occupied kingdom of
Denmark with high level of
autonomity
 Censorship
 Book market size

Comparative study
 Huge differences in quantity;
 Number of book published in 1941
e
9427
5431
2503
251
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
Italy Protectorateof
Bohemiaand
Moravia
Ljubljana
Province
Denmark

Books categorized
by subject:
Italy 1941:
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
General
Philosophy
Religion
Politics
Economy
Law
Administartion
Education
Geography
Science
Medicine
Technic
Agriculture
Art,music…
Sport
Literature
Historyetc.

0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
General
Philosophy
Religion
Politics
Economy
Law
Administartion
Education
Geography
Science
Medicine
Technic
Agriculture
Art,music…
Sport
Literature
Historyetc.
Ljubljana Province 1943:
Books categorized
by subject:

Denmark 1944:
Books categorized
by subject:
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
General
Philosophy
Religion
Politics
Economy
Law
Administartion
Education
Geography
Science
Medicine
Technic
Agriculture
Art,music…
Sport
Literature
Historyetc.

Books by
categorized subject:
 Italy
 Ljubljana Province
 Denmark
ljubljana 1943
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Danska 1944
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600

Number of books published
in Czech Protectorate
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Year
1940
Year
1941
Year
1942
Year
1943
Year
1944
all books Czech German

Overview of Czech book
production
 Percentage of Czech authors:
Year
1940
Year
1941
Year
1942
Year
1943
Year
1944
91 % 84 % 75 % 69 % 62 %
Italy Bohemia Slovenia Denmark
88 % 84 % 71 % cca 72 %
 Other countries in 1941:

Percentage of domestic
and foreign literature:
Italy Bohemia Slovenia Denmark
78 % cca 68 % 42 % 36 %
Italy Ljubljana
Province
Denmark
Protectorate of
Bohemia and
Moravia

Translations to Italian (1941)
2 1
6
1 4 1
104
2
30
141
74
3 2 2
21
1
15
114
15
5
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
arabic
bulgarian
danish
hebrew
flammish
finish
french
japanese
greek
english
latin
norwegian
dutch
romanian
russian
sirian
spanish
german
hungarian
other

Translations to Czech (1942)
9
2
15
3 3 7 8
2
22
3 2
16
4
245
7 5 6 2
8
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
english
bulgarian
danish
finnish
flammish
french
grške
hebrew
italian
japanese
chinese
latin
hungarian
german
dutch
norwegian
other
sanscrit
spanish

Translations to Czech (1941-1944)
1941 1942 1943 1944
english bulgarian danish finnish
flammish french greek hebrew
sanskrt farsi italian japanese
catalan chinese latin hungarian
dutch norwegian portugese romanian
russian sanskrt slovak croatian
old church slavonic spanish swedish

Translations to Slovene (1942)
8
1 1
2
5
1 1
5
1
2 2
1
2
1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
english
croatian
dutch
bolgarian
italian
norwege
ancientgreek
danish
finish
german
russian
spanish
polish
french

Translations to Danish (1943)
15
0
3
38
34
4 5
3
27
2 1
8
2
77
0
20
40
60
80
100
120 dutch
english
estonian
finnish
french
german
greek
italian
latin
nordic
persian
polish
russian
spanish
swedish

Translations to Danish (1941-1944)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Year 1941 Year 1942 Year 1943 Year 1944
french
english
german
nordic
swedish
finnish
dutch
italian
spanish
russian
estonian
polish
hungarian
croatian
middleage
greek
latin
oriental
persian

Most frequently published
authors in Italy (1941)
 M. Tullius Cicero 40 ed.
 Maro P. Vergilius 39 ed.
 Titus Livius 22 ed.
 M. Delly 18 ed.
 Cornel. P. Tacitus 16 ed.
 Benito Mussolini 14 ed.
 Platon 13 ed.
 G. Julius Caesar 12 ed.
 Adolf Hitler 12 ed.
 Horatius Flaccus 10 ed.
 Luciana Peverelli 11 ed.
 Creti Marcelo 10 ed.
 Gabriele D’Annunzio 10 ed.
 Dante Alighieri 10 ed.

Most frequently published
foreign authors in Italy (1941)
 Adolf Hitler 12 ed.
 Johann W. Goethe 6 ed.
 Jakob & Wilhelm Grimm 6 ed.
 Nikolai V. Gogol 2 ed.
 Jack London 2 ed.
 Daniel Defoe 2 ed.
 Friedrich Nietzsche 2 ed.

Most frequently published authors
in Protectorate of Bohemia (1943)
 Gustav Frenssen 6 ed.
 Ernst Erich Strassl 5. ed.
 Rudolf Šrámek-Hušek 4 ed.
 Hans Christian Andersen 4 ed.
 Karel Novotný 4 ed.
 also: D’Anunzio, Cervantes,
Defoe, Gogolj, Grimm, Macha,
Nizami, Ovidius, Platon,
Trojan…

Most frequently published
foreign authors in Ljubljana
Province (1941-1945)
 Gerard Th. Rotman 5 ed.
 Pope Pius XII. 4 ed.
 Božena Nemcová 3 ed.
 Henry Rider Haggard 3 ed.
 Albert Goossens 3 ed.
 Pope Pius XI. 3 ed.

Most frequently published
authors in Ljubljana Province
(1941-1945)
 Franc Knific 27 ed.
 Gregorij Rožman 8 ed.
 Fran Sal. Finžgar 6 ed.
 Mirko Kunčič 5 ed.
 Janez Jalen 5 ed.
 Narte Velikonja 5 ed.
 Lojze Zupanc 5 ed.
 Stanko Kociper 4 ed.
 Edo Deržaj 4 ed.

Most frequently published
foreign authors in Denmark
(1942)
 Archibald Cronin 8 ed.
 Ernest Hemingway 6 ed.
 Edgar Rice Burroughs 6 ed.
 John Steinbeck 5 ed.
 Fedor M. Dostoevskij 4 ed.
 Jules Verne 3 ed.
 Gulbranssen, Lagerlöf… 2 ed.
 etc…

Publishing activities in
Ljubljana Province:

Slovenia during WW II:
 Italian, German and Hungarian
occupaton
 Politics of denationalization
 Library abolishment, 1.200.000 books
destroyed
 Suppression of national press
 27 % of pop. lived in Ljubljanska
pokrajina
 Italians respect Slovene cultural
autonomy
 Cultural silence

Publishing during the
World War II (1)
 Small crisis before the war
 three main periods:
 from April 1941 until late autumn1942 -
STAGNATION
 until capitulation of Italy - REVIVAL OF
PUBLISHING ACTIVITIES
 September 1943 – May 1945 - BOOKS
AS MEANS OF PROPAGANDA

Publishing during the
World War II (2)
 A large number of publishers
 Majority (60 %) published only one
book
 Important new book collections
 Collections of “old books”

Publishing houses in
Ljubljana 1942
Konzorcij Slovenca
Ljudska knjigarna
Salezijanski
inspektorat
Knjigarna tiskovne
zadruge
Družba Sv. Mohorja
Juridična fakulteta
Pokrajinska šolska
založba
Nova založba
Narodna tiskarna
Glasbena matica
Škofijski ordinariat
Akademija znanosti
in umetnosti
Mladinska založba
Bogoslovni vestnik
Publishing house
with only 1 book
s.n.
published by author
Ljudska tiskarna
Italijanska liktorska
mladina
Učiteljska tiskarna
Glasnik pr. Srca Jez.
Vodnikova družba
Katehetsko društvo

Big publishing houses:
 Konzorcij Slovenca (novels)
 Ljudska knjigarna (literature)
 Narodna tiskarna
 Salezijanski inspektorat (religion)

Medium size publishing
houses:
 Pokrajinska šolska založba
 Juridična fakulteta
 Knjigarna tiskovne zadruge
 Mohorjeva družba

Small publishing houses
 Akademija znanosti in umetnosti
 Slovenska matica
 Vodnikova družba
 Glasbena matica

Collection
“Slovenčeva knjižnica”
 Published by newspaper Slovenec
 100 books in three years
 26 Slovene authors
 Intensive advertising
 Books were published every 1st,
10th and 20th day of the month

The illegal partisan
printings:
 Propaganda brochures
 Poetry of Matej Bor, Karel Destovnik
Kajuh, Tone Seliškar
 Theatre works of Matej Bor
 The highest point: bibliophile edition of
France Prešeren’s poem Zdravljica
(1944)
 Together 687 printings (newspapers,
brochures and books)

Conclusion:
 Begining of the war means the end of
flourishing period of midwar publishing
 Readers are searching “easy reading”
 Quantity instead of quality
 Small editions
 Average price: 5-75 liras
 End of the war means another (even
more important) turning point in the
history of Slovene publishing