Transcript File

Where one burns books,
one will, in the end,
burn people.
~Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)
The following slide contains a list of
randomly selected books, from political
treatises to books of religion to fiction to
comic books to classical literature.
What might someone find offensive in these
works?
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The Holy Bible, King James Version
The Koran
The Hebrew Bible
Night by Elie Wiesel
Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
a Captain America comic book by Stan Lee and Jack
Kirby
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels
Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
various Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling
There are documented cases of book burning as early
as 213 B.C. when Confucian books were ignited in an
act of government persecution.
The first recorded book burning in the United States
came in 1650. William Pynchon's A Meritorious Price
of Our Redemption was ordered destroyed by a court
because the religious publication contained "errors
and heresies." The book was burned by the public
executioner.
The largest book burning in history reportedly occurred
in 1992 when Serb forces attacked Sarajevo's
National Library. The three-day assault destroyed
more than 1 million books and 100,000 manuscripts
and records.
Section One: The Nazi Revolution
Uniformed Nazi party officials carrying confiscated books. Hamburg, Germany,
May 15, 1933. Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz / USHMM #71515
The Nazi Revolution
Between 30 January and 10 May 1933,
Germany changed dramatically on
many different levels
It was not just a political revolution but a
cultural one as well
The Nazi Revolution
The Nazis began to target groups they
considered to be troublesome to their
mission, the creation of an Aryan nation,
pure and strong.
Those who found themselves now on the
outside as not only citizens but even as
humans included:
Public humiliation of Jews. Tarnow, Poland, 1940.
Close-up of a Gypsy couple sitting in an open area in the
Belzec concentration camp, July 1940
Five handicapped Jewish prisoners, photographed for propaganda
purposes, who arrived in Buchenwald after Kristallnacht, 1938.
[Photograph #13132]
A group of Jehovah's Witnesses in their camp uniforms after
liberation. These men were imprisoned in the Niederhagen bei
Wewelsburg concentration camp. Niederhagen bei
Wewelsbug, Germany, 1945.
Identification pictures of a prisoner, accused of
homosexuality, who arrived at the Auschwitz concentration
camp on June 6, 1941. He died there a year later. Auschwitz,
Poland.
Three Soviet POWs who were captured near Wisznice, stand with
their hands tied behind their back. They were later executed in the
Lyniewski Forest. [Photograph #03835]
The Nazi Revolution
1933: Nazis in power; their concern toward Jews in
general reached into all areas of society. For
example:
25-point platform stated Jews needed to be removed
from influential positions in the arts
April 1933: Civil Service law dismissed Jews from
government employment –
Since most orchestras, etc, were run by
provinces, municipalities, this cost Jews their
livelihoods and pensions
“Gradualism” of restrictions between 1933-39 made
most Jews feel they could get by
1933: Reich Chamber of Culture created
Section Two: Students in the Nazi Revolution
Students and members of the SA with armfuls of literature deemed "unGerman" during the book burning in Berlin. Germany, May 10, 1933.
USHMM #69031
Students in the Nazi Revolution
Many students, feeling young,
disenfranchised, and out-of-touch with the
Weimar Republic embraced Nazi ideology.
Students and members of the SA unload books deemed "un-German" during
the book burning in Berlin. The banner reads: "German students march
against the un-German spirit." Berlin, Germany, May 10, 1933. National Archives
and Records Administration / USHMM #45032
Students in the Nazi Revolution
German university students led an organized
campaign against the “Un-German Spirit”
within Germany
o Twelve Theses (evoked
Luther’s 95 Theses)
o Invitation to a book burning
Students in the Nazi Revolution
4. Our most dangerous enemy is the
Jew and those who are his slaves.
5. A Jew can only think Jewish. If
he writes in German, he is lying.
The German who writes in German,
but thinks un-German is a traitor,
the student who speaks and writes
un-German is, in addition,
thoughtless and has abandoned his
duties.
The burnings were well organized and
planned in advance
Section Three: Authors and Their Books
The condemned authors included many
Germans, many of whom were Jewish
o Freud
o Einstein
Sigmund Freud
Authors and Their Books
• But also the works of non-Germans
were burned
o H.G. Wells
o Upton Sinclair
o Jack London
Upton Sinclair
“The Jungle”
Authors and Their Books
Banned categories:
• pacifists
• communists
• socialists
• Jewish
• opposed to Nazism
• “pornographic”
The Nazis burned Jack
London's socialistleaning works
Section Four: Immediate American Responses
Anti-Nazi groups in the U.S. hoped to use the
May 10 book burnings as a unifying cause
• Massive protests were organized on May 10
in cities across the U.S.
On the day of book burnings in Germany, massive
crowds march from New York's Madison Square
Garden to protest Nazi oppression and anti-Jewish
persecution. New York City, United States, May 10,
1933. National Archives and Records Administration / USHMM
#69040
Immediate American Responses
American newspapers nationwide
reported both the Nazi bonfires and the
American protests
o Political cartoons –
Immediate American Responses
This cartoon shows two
pyres, the "altars of the
Nazis"--Nazi victims, and
condemned books. The
piece was printed in the
Daily Worker (Chicago),
May 11, 1933. United
States Department of
Labor /
USHMM #2003CLFP
Immediate American Responses
Newsweek cover –
The interior article
labeled the
burnings as a
“Holocaust”
Immediate American Responses
Writers in the U.S. (some German exiles)
protested the events
o Walter Lippman
o Faith Baldwin
o Sinclair Lewis
o Helen Keller
Immediate American Responses
The expulsion of Jews and other political
opponents from German universities, the
book burnings, and the continuing acts of
oppression prompted writers, artists, doctors,
and other professionals to flee Germany
Visitors should look for:
Section Five: America At War
During the war, Nazi Germany and its
intolerance of ideas and the burning of books
was often contrasted with America’s
freedoms
Patriotic
wordsmiths
spawned a
vocabulary and
slogans that
militarized
literature. Books
were mightier
than the sword,
and became
weapons,
bullets, and
thinking
bayonets.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential
Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. / USHMM
#2003ZWHR
America At War
FDR delivered the
“Four Freedoms”
speech in 1941 –
freedom of
speech, of religion,
from fear, and
from want.
Wide World Photo / USHMM #00870
This 1942 poster
from the federal
Office of Emergency
Management
incorporated a
photograph of a
typical New York City
newsstand. German,
Russian, Yiddish,
French, and English
language
newspapers appear
in the display.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential
Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. / USHMM
#2003138E
The Office of War
Information poster
"This is the Enemy"
gives the Bible
prominence, intended
to appeal to deeplyheld religious
convictions. Rumors
that Bibles were
burned seized the
American
imagination.
Office of War Information, 1943 /
USHMM Collection #2003VENZ
The Office of War
Information made use of
the press, radio, motion
pictures, exhibitions, and
public programs in the
United States and abroad.
The Council on Books in
Wartime distributed this
poster to bookstores and
booksellers for window
displays to expose "the
nature of the enemy."
Records of the Office of War Information,
Record Group 208, Franklin D.
Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde
Park, N.Y. / USHMM #2003TRP7
New York City, May 1943. National Archives
and Records Administration, College Park,
Md. / USHMM #BB847
In May 1943, the
Office of War
Information opened
a giant outdoor
exhibition, The
Nature of the
Enemy, in
Rockefeller Plaza.
With its exhibition,
the OWI intended to
expose the Nazi
philosophy of "fear,
slavery, and death"-"pillars in the society
of evil." But
surprisingly, the
exhibition avoided
reference to the
"Final Solution".
America At War
The Writer’s War Board, a private organization
supported by the government, rallied more
than 2,000 writers to produce slogans,
posters, syndicated articles, radio dramas,
government publications, advertisements,
and war propaganda.
America At War
Brochure, “Books the Nazis Burned” from NY
Public Library exhibition
Book/radio play by Stephen Vincent Benet,
“They Burned the Books”
Pamphlet with artwork from winning entry of
a student essay contest, “What It Means
To Be An American”
America At War
The Council on Books in Wartime
contrasted Nazi German values with
U.S. values; the Council adopted the
slogan “Books are Weapons in the War
of Ideas”
o Banner, “Books Like These Are Burned in
Slave Countries,” display at the NY Public
Library, 1942
America At War
The Victory Book
Campaign
(sponsored by the
Red Cross, the
American Library
Association, and the
United Services
Organization)
published “good”
books for U.S.
troops.
Mrs. Roosevelt’s syndicated feature "My Day" 11 May
1943 reached more than four million people.
New York World Telegram / Nancy Roosevelt Ireland / USHMM #2003WLKC
America At War
The Office of War Information was
established by FDR in 1942 to promote
an understanding of the nation’s war
efforts
o Advertisement, “These are the Things we
are Fighting for”
o Exhibition (photographs), “The Nature of
the Enemy,” New York, May 1943
Section Six: The Recurring Symbol
Americans have to the present used the Nazi
book burnings as a powerful metaphor of
censorship, demagoguery, and suppression
The Recurring Symbol
Public destruction of Nazi flags, pamphlets, and insignia occurred during the
early postwar occupation of Germany. Cologne, Germany, 1945.
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md. / USHMM #BB853
"Educating the New Germany in Our Free Way of Life", a
cartoon by Daniel Fitzpatrick, appeared in the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch on June 15, 1953. St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
June 15, 1953 / USHMM #2003L7YS
During the
Cold War, the
symbolism of
the Nazi book
burnings resurfaced in
opposition to
Joseph
McCarthy’s
and the
government’s
actions against
supposed
communists.
Political cartoon by
Daniel Fitzpatrick
about the purging of
books from U.S.
libraries in Germany
San Antonio Express, June 6, 1953.
Serial & Government Publications
Division, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C. / USHMM
#2003USGB
The Recurring Symbol
The iconic image of the
Nazi book burnings has
continued to appear and
to be referenced within
American popular culture
even today
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit
451
The Recurring Symbol
Literary vigilantism today is directed
against forces perceived to be
corruptive; reference to the Nazi book
burnings continue
o Salman Rushdie
o Harry Potter
The Recurring Symbol
In Alamogordo, New Mexico, a local church
staged a ceremonial "Holy Bonfire" to destroy
the Harry Potter books and symbols of
witchcraft. Announced in advance, the nighttime
event attracted worldwide media attention.
Protestors against the book burning carried
symbols of Nazism. Scores of letters to
newspapers invoked the "infamous Burning of
the Books," Fahrenheit 451, the Taliban, and
the "memory of Adolf Hitler." A protestor
dressed as Hitler recalled childhood memories
of McCarthyism, censorship, and persecution.
Alamogordo, New Mexico, December 30, 2001. Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/USHMM #BB546