1933 BOOK BURNING BY NAZI'S : 20,000 BOOKS : WHERE THEY BURN BOOKS THEY BURN PEOPLE AS WELL

BERLIN ART MEMORIAL BOOK BURNING 

1995 this art installation in Berlin commemorated one of the largest book burnings in 20th century history.

Now.... isn't censoring books to make them "politically correct" or WOKE a way of lighting a match to a book?  Maybe the book won't be entirely turned into ash and be no more but it will show the damage.

EXCERPT : AND THE SHOW WENT ON : CULTURAL LIFE IN NAZI-OCCUPIED PARIS BY ALAN RIDING

Pages 239-241

"...the Nazi had...long since "cleansed" the publishers' back lists...some 20,000 books were seized.

"...After the Otto List, a far wider sweep followed, with German military police raiding seventy publishing houses, closing eleven of them, and confiscating over 700,000 books. But the Nazis were not yet satisfied. In July 1942, Propaganda Staffel issued an updated Otto List of 1,070 titles; some books on the first list were removed as mistakes, and others were added. Then in May 1943, a third list was issued, naming 1554 authors, including 739 "Jewish writers in the French language.'

... "In his memoir Heller said that a total of 2, 242 tons of books were burned. He noted, "I was able to visit the place where these books were stocked before their destruction. it was a vast garage on the avenue de la Grande-Armee. In the sad light coming through dusty windows, I saw piled up, torn dirty books, which for me were the objects of a veritable cult. A mountain of horror, a dreadful sight which reminded me of the autos-da-fe in front of Berlin University in May 1933.'

C 2010 Alan Riding
Borzoi Book
Alfred A. Knopf Publisher