- Headline
-
A Holocaust Of Books
- Publication Date
- Friday, May 12, 1933
- Historical Event
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German Students, Nazis Stage Nationwide Book Burnings
This database includes 930 articles about this event - Article Type
- Page Section and Number
- 4
- Author/Byline
- --
- Article Text
- IT IS impossible not to smile at the serious way in which the Nazi minister of public enlightenment in Germany encouraged "enlightenment" by making a speech while delirious college students made bonfires of books that Hitler and his associates do not like. The books were given to the flames in Opera Platz, wild-eyed collegians danced like the French proletariat singing the "ca ira," and Hitler was "vindicated." It was the most ridiculous nonsense ever seen in Germany.
Jack London's works were among those consigned to the flames and solemnly pronounced to be "heretical" and "non-German." Judge Ben Lindsey, Upton Sinclair, Morris Hillquit and Helen Keller are other Americans who were dignified at the great burning. Lion Feuchtwanger, author of "Power," and Erich Maria Remarque are German authors whose novels were piled on the coals along with the writings of Karl Marx and Nikolai Lenin on economics and the works of Albert Einstein on science in general. These works, it seems, do not square with the social and political conceptions of Hitler and his followers.
One wonders how long the German people, noted for their liberality in thought and culture, will stand for such balderdash. As matters progress it becomes more certain that no such adventurer as Hitler can long maintain his power in an advanced nation. - History Unfolded Contributor
- Patricia P.
- Location of Research
- Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)
Learn More about this Historical Event: German Students, Nazis Stage Nationwide Book Burnings
- Book Burning (Encyclopedia Article)
- Immediate American Responses to Nazi Book Burnings (Encyclopedia Article)
- Culture in the Third Reich: Overview (Encyclopedia Article)
- Book Burning (Timeline)
Bibliography
Birchall, Frederick T. “Burning of the Books, May 10, 1933.” In National Socialist Germany: Twelve Years that Shook the World, edited by Louis L. Snyder, 101–104. Malabor, FL: Krieger, 1984.
Stern, Guy. “The Burning of the Books in Nazi Germany, 1933: The American Response.” (external link) Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual 2, (1985): 95–114.
Stern, Guy. Nazi Book Burning and the American Response: Distinguished Lecture. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University, 1991.
United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Nazi Book Burnings and the American Response. Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 1988.
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