Bookvica

[DRIVERS IN THE NAZI OCCUPIED WESTERN UKRAINE] Korotkyi kurs shoferstva. Z politsiinymy prypysamy y kolorovoiu tablytseiu znakiv dlia dorohovoho rukhu [i.e. A brief chauffeuring course. With police regulations and color road signs chart]

Siia, Volodimir

Item #2320

Kraków: Drukarnia „Pospishna” for Ukrainske vydavnytstvo, 1941. 182, [2] pp., ills. in text, 2 color fold-outs. 14,5 x 10,5 cm. Publisher’s illustrated paper cover. In Ukrainian. Overall good. Rubbed and creased cover with ink spots and an illegible exlibris stamp on the front cover with owner’s name and address in Lviv. Trace of paper sticker on the inside of the front cover. Title restored with tissue paper; minor restoration to the fold-outs. Pencil marks throughout the block.

A unique survival of its time - this guidebook appeared to introduce modern automobile driving theories within the Ukrainian territories and road traffic rules used in Third Reich.

The major part of the handbook is an illustrated technical guide, covering modern mechanics, combustion and diesel engines, automobile wiring. A smaller division on the road traffic rules is accompanied by a bifold color spread of the road signs. Already the newly organized territories of the General Governorate are mentioned (see: p. 141).

The manual was popular and it can be confirmed that next year this book saw another edition (Krakow-Lviv, 1942). It seems that Nazis were relying on the new cheap workforce for driving, as the bulk German specialists were primary engaged in military and administrative tasks. However, even as the Nazis retreated, the driving skills were still in high demand: at least one DP edition printed in Augsburg (1946) is known. Post-WWII editions of manuals of Korotkyi kurs shoferstva were also supplemented with a German-Ukrainian technical vocabulary. A brief comparison shows little to no change in rules or general lessons themselves; thus we can assume it was printed anew due to high demand. The interest in new professions rose among DP settlers during 1946 as with organized resettlement to the New World countries many settlers were interested in acquiring valuable technical skills combined with essential foreign language instructions. The profession of chauffeur offered the prospect of a stable life in any country, which was of particular interest to those displaced and not willing to come back to the USSR controlled territories. In DP camps during 1946 additionally to the standalone books on technical automobile vocabulary, a phrasebook was published.
Nothing is known about the author and his name disappears from the cover of later editions.

Holovata, La. Knyzhkovi ta arkushevi serii "Ukrainskoho vydavnytstva" u Krakovi-Lvovi, 1939—1945: sklad, pryznachennia, dynamika vypusku // Zapysky Lvivskoi natsionalnoi naukovoi biblioteky Ukrainy im. V. Stefanyka. — 2010. — Vol 1. — Pp. 199—223. Romanenchuk, B., Pelenskyi, Ye. Bibliohrafiia ukrainskoi knyhy v Velykonimechchyni za chas viiny (veresen 1939 — hruden 1941). Lwov-Krakov, 1942. Biblos. Zhurnal bibliohrafii, krytyky i retsenzyi. No. II 1(19) for 1956.

Rare. Not in WorldCat, not in KVK.

Price: $950.00