Die Bücherverbrennung

Tonight is the 75th anniversary of the Nazi book burnings, die Bücherverbrennung. On May 10, 1933, the German Student Association, prompted by official propagandist Joseph Goebbels, organized the burning of 35,000 "un-German" books in university towns throughout the country. Most of the books were written by Jews, making this an act of cultural genocide, and a harbinger of the Holocaust.

You can see a chilling video of the book bonfire at the Opernplatz (now Bebelplatz) in Berlin and hear Goebbel's address to the Nazi youth at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The website also has a good overview of the event and an online exhibition. When Books Burn is another good online exhibition, hosted by the University of Arizona Library. Do take a few moments to learn about this dark moment in human history.

Where they burn books, they will also burn humans in the end.
—Heinrich Heine

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
—George Santayana

via Kimbooktu

Comments

[Stefanie]

Thanks for the links. The When Books Burn exhibit is terrifying. The desire to expunge everything that disagrees with the nazi world view is rather like a certain American president's administration. I'm not making a direct comparison, just noting the similarities.

[J.D.]

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the mundane that I forget to be horrified by the horrific. It's as if it happened in a fictional world--the world of history books.

Then I stop and think and it hits me: this really happened. Human beings were there and felt the fire on their faces, just as I feel the fire on my face when I'm camping.

And then I remember the other things that happened, and I realize they were real, too. And I don't know what to say or think.

[Sylvia]

Very true. Well said.

[wil]

I watched the (*#@! Real Player) video and read the text waiting, expecting to feel outrage, horror...but like J.D. said, it seems like something from a fictional world, a movie. It is horrible in an intellectual sense, but for some reason I don't really feel it.

[J.D.]

I can't decide if that lack of feeling you're describing has always been there or is a characteristic of this new age, when EVERYTHING is available -- when we can watch Baghdad being bombed on TV or Saddam being hanged on YouTube. It's clichéd to say we're desensitized to violence and tragedy, but is it not also true?

Were the common people of other ages this disconnected from past events? Or were they simply ignorant of past events?

I just can't decide what I think.

[wil]

J.D., it's my opinion that it's always been this way. If people really understood, really felt the horror of war -- the full weight of the thing -- how could anyone go to war?

[Sylvia]

Unfortunately, human beings seem to have an endless capacity for denial...

[Balkan]

Unfortunately, human beings tend to forget what should never be forgotten. Thanks for post and links.