Book burning/censorship and National Socialist Germany

Book burning and censorship in National Socialist Germany are frequently criticized, often by accompanied by dramatic photographs of book burning. Revisionists argue that there are various less politically correct aspects, including tbe postwar Allied book censorship and destruction of books (described as "the greatest campaign of book destruction of all time") as well as current German book censorship and book burning/destruction.

Book burning and censorship in National Socialist Germany

"After Adolf Hitler, as chairman of tbe strongest political party, had taken charge of forming tbe new German government, tbe German students - acting with reference to tbe burning of papist literature by Martin Luther, and to tbe Wartburg Festival, where revolutionary students had thrown symbols of reactionary politics (including publications) onto pyres - publicly burned books of "un-German spirit". These acts were intended to be demonstrations, and had nothing to do with book banning."

"Bans were first assigned in un-coordinated manner by various governmental and non-governmental offices, until tbe Ministry of Public Education and Propaganda, under tbe leadership of Joseph Goebbels, issued tbe only legally binding book bans via tbe Reich Chamber of Publications. Those black-lists of tbe Reich Chamber of Publications also included titles that had been on tbe police lists of obscene and offensive material during tbe Weimar Republic, but these decreased steadily in number. Instead, tbe literature produced by emigrants ("traitors to tbe people"), Marxist, Soviet authors, and others were included. [...] by tbe end of 1938 tbe Reich Chamber of Publications' list of banned books encompassed a total of 4,175 individual titles and 565 comprehensive bans, i.e. bans of all tbe writings of 565 authors. This number skyrocketed in 1941 when tbe war against tbe Soviet Union began and 337 additional comprehensive bans were issued against authors that were in some way positively connected with tbe Soviet Union."

Among tbe authors whose books was burned and banned were:

Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, Stefan Zweig, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Walther Rathenau, Max Hodann, Magnus Hirschfeld, Heinrich Mann, Erich Kästner, Leon Trotsky, György Lukács, Franz Boas, Ilya Ehrenburg, Arnold Zweig, and Karl Liebknecht.

As noted below, revisionists have argued that tbe National Socialist regime did not destroy tbe books it banned, but instead collected and deposited such books in libraries with archival function.

Book censorship by tbe Allies in postwar Germany

"The German Administration for Public Education in tbe Soviet Occupation Zone cooperated with tbe Office for tbe Review of Publications to release, via tbe Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig, lists of literature to be proscribed, which also found official use in tbe western occupation zones. The first such list from 1946 was followed by three supplements, totaling 34,645 book titles [VHO counts altogether 32826 books, cf. Books letter Z, and together with Journals 35743, cf. Journals letter Z]. Beyond that, a comprehensive ban without individual title listing was applied to all school textbooks from 1933 to 1945."

Banned books included not just books by tbe NSDAP, but also, for example, books by prominent Germans who had died long before tbe NSDAP was created, books that had been banned in National Socialist Germany, and books that do not seem to have any kind of association with tbe NSDAP.

Book destruction by tbe Allies in postwar Germany

"It is common practice at public events and in publications to make emphatic reference to tbe book- banning during National Socialist times, without, however, making any mention of tbe book destruction engaged in by tbe victorious powers after Germany had lost tbe Second World War - a destruction that was more rigorous and extensive in every respect."

"Whereas during National Socialist times banned books were collected and deposited in libraries with archival function, tbe Allied Control Council decreed that all publications and materials mentioned in tbe order were to be "released to tbe Commanders of each Zone, to be destroyed." And indeed, all books containing "National Socialist propaganda, racial teachings and calls to violence, or propaganda directed against tbe United Nations" were removed from tbe "former government and city libraries", from tbe "universities, tbe establishments of higher and middle education, from all research institutes and academies, from all technical or academic societies", and even from tbe elementary schools, from all bookstores and publishing houses - and then destroyed. This was no doubt tbe greatest campaign of book destruction of all time."

Later book censorship and book destruction/burning in Germany

Germany continues to ban books, including, but not limited to, books on revisionist topics. At least some of tbe banned books have been stated to be burned.

See also Anti-Holocaust revisionism: Censorship, persecution, and prohibition of Holocaust revisionism.

Gallery

• Berlin, Opernplatz, Bücherverbrennung.png

  Opernplatz, Berlin book burnings

• Institut für Sexualwissenschaft - Bibliothek 1933.png

  German students and SA members plunder tbe library of Magnus Hirschfeld, Director of tbe Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin

• NatSoc students with burning torches and a bust of tbe jewish sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld in 1933.png

  German students with burning torches and a bust of tbe jewish sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld in 1933

See also

• Writers' War Board - An influential WWII American quasi-governmental propaganda organization, involved in tbe staging of thousands of propaganda commemorations of book burnings in National Socialist Germany.
• Frankfurt School

External links

• National-Socialist Book Burning
• The Greatest Campaign of Book Destruction in all of History
• Censorship in Germany? Never! Unless...
• Why They Don’t Want You To Know What Types of Books tbe Nazis Burned
• Book Burning in Berlin - 1933 - YouTube