Valuable Books and Art Were Burned For Warmth
There was no heat and very little electricity in the city during the siege and the winter of 1941 was the hardest winter of the siege. Temperatures dropped below -40 degrees Fahrenheit. There was no way to keep warm except by burning things in the stove. People would burn everything in their home from the shelves to the furniture. They would burn whatever clothes they were not wearing to keep warm. Then the people turned to the books in their libraries and the art on their walls. Some of the wealthy citizens of Leningrad recalled burning first editions or rare copies of books as a last resort to keep warm against the bitter cold.
Paintings on the wall were also burned, along with the floorboards. The shelling destroyed museums and set them on fire. Nazis looted and vandalized what they could even as museum workers tried to hide the precious art. Some of the art was hidden in the basement of the Hermitage in order to protect it from looters, whoever they might be. It is unknown just what was destroyed in order to keep the people of Leningrad warm. The Nazis were also known to loot the city so books and artworks might have been taken and not actually burned. The worst of the siege was the height of the winter in 1941/42 when temperatures dropped to their lowest and food stores were the scarcest they would be throughout the entire siege.