Udział Wacława Olszewicza w ratowaniu zbiorów Ossolineum we Lwowie

The Ossolineum in Lviv was one of the most important scientific-cultural centres in Poland and the second largest (right behind the Jagiellonian Library) library. Since 1939 it was taken over by the Soviet and German occupying authorities. It was nationalized and reorganized. Thanks to the determination and involvement of many Polish employees of the Ossolineum the vast part of the book collection was saved from destruction and degradation. One of the people taking part in this process was Wacław Olszewicz, a librarian, excursionist, prewar ministerial clerk who spent the postwar period in Lviv. Here he devoted his time to working with books as consecutively a librarian and bibliographer in the Ossolineum, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union at the cost of quitting the chance of returning to Poland. He kept in touch with Polish scientists publishing his works in Polish journals. He died in 1974. He was buried on the Janowski cemetery in Lviv.