- Headline
-
Piles Of 'Un-German' Books Burned In Berlin Bonfires
- Sub-Headline
- Nazi Regime Gives 'Blessing' As University Students Consign Works Of Noted Jewish And Gentile Authors To Flames
- Publication Date
- Thursday, May 11, 1933
- Historical Event
-
German Students, Nazis Stage Nationwide Book Burnings
This database includes 930 articles about this event - Article Type
- Newspaper
- Location
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- Louis P. Lochner (AP Foreign Staff Correspondent)
- Article Text
- BERLIN, May 10 (AP)—Books of Helen Keller, Franz Boas and Jack London as well as hundreds by German authors went up in smoke throughout Germany tonight.
University young men and women, pronouncing judgment on world literature considered as contravening German spirit, started huge bonfires of the volumes shortly before midnight.
Dr. Joseph Goebbels, minister of public enlightenment and propaganda, pronounced the government's blessings and declared that "the period of Jewish intellectualism now has ended."
The weird glow illuminated Opera Square, opposite Berlin University as the students, garbed in the picturesque costumes of their fraternities, the Nazi brown or the Steel Helmet grey, threw a thousand torches on the pire, then seized the books from trucks and hurled them into the blaze amid cheers.
The names of German writers such as Heinrich Mann, Emil Ludwig, Erich Remarque, Theodor Wolff and George Bernhard were read out as their writings were consigned to the fire.
Ludwig and Remarque were especially booed by the vast crowd of spectators.
The names of foreign authors on the proscription list, however, were not mentioned.
Dr. Goebbels declared, "as you had the right to destroy the books, you had the duty to support the government. The fire signals to the entire world that the November revolution-
(Continued On Page Eight) - 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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