The German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine once said, “that was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well.” In the year of 1933, Hitler’s Nazi regime burned the books of Jewish authors and various others whose works infringed upon German ideologies. According to Knuth, “Heine’s books were among the thousands that were burned at Berlin’s Opernplatz, the library of the Institut fur Sexualwissenschaft, as well hundreds of public and privately owned libraries around Germany.” (Knuth)

The act of libricide, or the burning of books, has a long history “as a tool wielded by authorities both secular and religious, in efforts to suppress dissenting or heretical views that are perceived as posing a threat to the prevailing order.” (Huener) It is carried out when books and libraries are perceived by a social group, in this case Hitler’s Nazi regime, “as undermining ideological goals, threatening the orthodoxy of revered doctrine or representing a despised establishment.” (Burrin)

In the midst of World War II, Richard Euringer, the director of the libraries in Essen, Germany identified 18,000 works and deemed them “inappropriate, un-German, and not corresponding with Nazi ideology,” (Knuth) at which point they were publicly burned. Similarly, on May 10, 1933 the Sturmabteilung, or Stormtroopers, and Nazi youth groups took part in the“destruction of over 25,000 books from the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft and Humboldt University.” (Weiss)

“Works that were lost in the fires include those written by Albert Einstein, Vicki Baum, Bertolt Brecht, Heinrich Heine, Helen Keller, Thomas Mann, Karl Marx, Erich Maria Remarque, Frank Wedekind, Ernest Hemingway and H.G. Wells.” (Kater) The libraries that were destroyed during Hitler’s reign fit into the broader context of the history of reading and writing as they housed the works of some of the world’s greatest philosophical thinkers, on matters pertaining to religion, politics, and various ideologies that were challenged by the Nazi regime. An incredible wealth of knowledge was stored in these libraries and the world indeed felt the loss of some of its finest intellectual’s works.

Several questions come to mind when one thinks of the biblioclasm in Nazi Germany: what do these acts of violence tell us about the Nazis thoughts on books and reading, particularly those affiliated with Jewish and non-German ideologies? “What is it about texts and libraries that puts them in the line of fire during social conflict? What compels a group to enact its alienation through violence aimed at print materials and the institutions and buildings that house them?” (Knuth)

“The history of libricide or biblioclasm is entwined with the history of vandalism and political violence in general.” (Rose) From these acts of violence, one can garner that the Nazis disregarded the value of reading, writing, and by extension human intellect, in turn exposing “the vulnerability of the very foundations of modern civilizations.” (Rychlak) “The Nazi regime shook the world with the reality of how effective unchecked vandalism and unbounded racial pride could be in reversing [Germany’s] progress toward a modernity based on pluralism and tolerance.” (Knuth)

Books and libraries are placed in the line of fire during times of war and social change because they represent intellectual freedom, individualism, pluralism, and tolerance, therefore, the destruction of books and libraries becomes a public assertion of choice and a radical repudiation of the aforementioned issues. “Hitler’s National Socialist Party implemented the dismantling of hundreds of libraries and setting fire to the books within them.” (Pulzer) Among other things, the Nazis strove to “purge the nation of un-German elements: homosexuality, cosmopolitanism, independent inquiry, and humanism in general.” (Knuth) The most efficient way of doing so was to eliminate the source of knowledge, the library or the book, which consequently turned into the burning of an entire culture.

“Though Germany’s book fires were by far the most well-known incidents of cultural destruction from the last century, the phenomenon has recurred in many forms around the globe” (USHMM) throughout the world’s history and still occur even to this day. By definition, biblioclasm is “the breaking of books.” (Knuth) In Nazi Germany, biblioclasm manifested itself as a symbol that highlighted the progression of social discord to a critical point which in turn, shook the very foundation of a modern civilization.

Works Cited

“Book Burning.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 31 Jan. 2012.   <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005852>.

Burrin, Philippe. Nazi Anti-Semitism: From Prejudice to the Holocaust. New York: New, 2005. Print.

Huener, Jonathan, and Francis R. Nicosia. The Arts in Nazi Germany: Continuity, Conformity,Change. New York: Berghahn, 2006. Print.

Kater, Michael H. Hitler Youth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2004. Print.

Knuth, Rebecca. Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. Print.

Knuth, Rebecca. Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. Print.

Pulzer, Peter G. J. The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria. New York:Wiley, 1964. Print.

Rose, Jonathan. The Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation. Amherst:University of Massachusetts, 2001. Print.

Rychlak, Ronald J. Hitler, the War, and the Pope. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2000.Print.

Weiss, John. Ideology of Death: Why the Holocaust Happened in Germany. Chicago: I.R. Dee,1996. Print.