Thursday, May 25, 2017
Book Burn Memorial
Books are something that can be used for entertainment, but also supply us with knowledge. In 1933, staff and students of the Humboldt University took the right of entertainment and knowledge away by burning more than 20,000 books. These books were authored by Einstein, Hemingway, Freud and many others. The publications by these authors were banned at this time because there was Nazi propaganda that condemned these writers. The idea was that by burning the books the era of Jewish intellectualism needed to come to an end. Today, there is a memorial inside the Bebelplatz that you can see though a piece of glass and view empty book shelves representing the books that were destroyed in that historic Book Burn bonfire.
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I liked seeing this memorial too, Alyssa. It demonstrates how awful the Nazis truly were. Not only were they extremely violent and blood-thirsty, but they wanted to control public knowledge as well. It's a shame that they burned many works by important authors at the time. It is a reminder that we should be grateful that we have the freedom of speech and press. We can write or say basically whatever we wish. That was not the case in Nazi Germany, and it is important that the book burns they initiated are remembered.
ReplyDeleteI did not know it was the students and professors that performed the burnings! Very sad. Is the burning comparable to banning books in libraries now? I think this is a warning!
ReplyDeleteI also did not know that it was students and professors. It's interesting to think that out of all things they could have destroyed it was books.
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