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Salvage and Destruction: The Recycling of Books and Manuscripts in Great Britain during the Second World War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2013

PETER THORSHEIM
PETER THORSHEIM*
Affiliation:
Peter Thorsheim, Department of History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA; [email protected]
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Abstract

An analysis of Great Britain's campaigns to recycle books and paper reveals the paradoxes of wartime waste policies: destroying history and culture for the sake of reusing materials, and the impact of recycling on the war machinery's own wastefulness. Conscious of systematic recycling in Nazi Germany and its own dependence on imports, the British government established a salvage department only weeks after the outbreak of war. Beginning in 1940, this department required all large towns to collect recyclable materials. Salvage, beyond lessening shortages, served ideological and psychological aims, because reused materials were turned into weapons. This led to a critical redefinition of recycling as the war progressed. People who previously characterised the Third Reich's recycling programmes as typical fascist control now considered compulsory recycling in Great Britain wholly positive. However, protesters claimed the government was causing irreparable harm by salvaging items whose value far exceeded their worth as scrap. The harvesting of books, periodicals and manuscripts as ‘waste’ paper proved particularly contentious, with some arguing that their own government was adding to the destruction that bombs were causing to Great Britain's cultural inheritance.

Récupération et destruction: le recyclage des livres et des manuscrits en grande-bretagne pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale

Une analyse des campagnes de recyclage des livres et du papier en Grande-Bretagne pendant la guerre met en lumière les paradoxes de ces politiques de récupération que sont la destruction de l'histoire et de la culture pour en réutiliser les matériaux, et l'impact du recyclage sur le gaspillage de la machine de guerre elle-même. Le gouvernement britannique était au courant des opérations de récupération systématiques entreprises en Allemagne et conscient du fait que la Grande-Bretagne dépendait des importations; il a donc mis en place un département de la récupération quelques semaines seulement après le début de la guerre. Dès 1940, ce département exigeait de toutes les villes de collecter les matières recyclables. La récupération allait au-delà de la lutte contre les pénuries: elle avait aussi des buts idéologiques et psychologiques puisque les matières recyclées servaient à fabriquer des armes. La notion de recyclage a donc évolué en profondeur au cours de la guerre. Ceux qui avaient précédemment décrit les programmes de recyclage du Reich comme des instruments de contrôle typiquement fascistes étaient maintenant entièrement favorables au recyclage obligatoire en Grande-Bretagne. Mais selon certains, le gouvernement causait des dégâts irréparables en recyclant des objets dont la valeur à la casse était nettement inférieure à leur valeur réelle. La collecte des livres, des périodiques et des manuscrits pour en recycler le papier s'est révélée particulièrement controversée, d'aucuns allant jusqu'à déclarer que le gouvernement lui-même ajoutait à la destruction de l'héritage culturel causée par les bombes.

Wiederverwertung und zerstörung: die wiederverwertung von büchern und handschriften in großbritannien während des zweiten weltkriegs

Anhand einer Analyse der britischen Initiativen zur Wiederverwertung von Büchern und Papier werden zwei Paradoxien der Abfallpolitik im Krieg deutlich – die Zerstörung historischer und kultureller Wertgegenstände zur Wiederverwendung der Materialien und die Wirkung der Wiederverwertungsmaßnahmen auf die Verschwendung von Materialien durch die Kriegsmaschinerie. Die britische Regierung war sich der systematischen Wiederaufbereitungspolitik im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland und der britischen Abhängigkeit von Importen wohl bewusst. Daher begann sie bereits wenige Wochen nach Ausbruch des Krieges mit dem Aufbau einer Abteilung für die Wiederverwertung von Materialien. Seit 1940 hatten alle großen Städte auf Anweisung dieser Abteilung wiederverwertbare Materialien zu sammeln. Neben der Überbrückung von Ressourcenknappheiten diente die Wiederverwertung auch ideologischen und psychologischen Zwecken, denn wiederverwertete Materialien konnten für die Waffenherstellung genutzt werden. Diese Einstellung führte im Verlauf des Krieges zu einer entscheidenden Neubewertung der Wiederverwertung von Materialien. Die Wiederverwertungsprogramme des Dritten Reiches waren zuvor vielfach als typisch faschistische Überwachungsmaßnahmen verurteilt worden. Die staatlich vorgeschriebene Wiederverwertung von Materialien in Großbritannien wurde jedoch durchweg als positiv wahrgenommen. Gegner warfen der Regierung allerdings vor, durch die Wiederverwertung von Gegenständen, deren historische oder kulturelle Bedeutung ihren Wert als bloßes Altmaterial deutlich überstieg, unwiderrufliche Verluste herbeizuführen. Die Verwertung von Büchern, Zeitschriften und Handschriften als ‘Altpapier’ erwies sich als besonders umstritten. Einige Gegner beschuldigten die Regierung in London, die durch feindliche Bomben verursachte Zerstörung des britischen Kulturerbes noch zu verschlimmern.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 22 , Issue 3: Recycling and Reuse in the Twentieth Century , August 2013 , pp. 431 - 452
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

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