City of Warsaw Library

Warsaw Public Library (Polish: Biblioteka Publiczna m.st. Warszawy) is one of the main libraries in Warsaw, and one of the largest in Poland.

The library was founded in 1907 by the Public Library Society, which was formed by foremost Polish educators and intelligentsia, like Stanisław Leszczyński, Samuel Dickstein, Ludwik Krzywicki and Stefan Żeromski. Since 1914 the library resides on the Koszykowa Street. At that time the institution was led by Faustyn Czerwijowski, the first chairman of the library, who served in this position till 1937. Before the outbreak of World War II the library already contained 500,000 book volumes. In January 1945 it was set ablaze by retreating Nazi German soldiers. As a result 300,000 books were destroyed, another 100,000 were stolen

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