The Book Burning 1933
In May 1933, the Nazi Party decreed that any book, “which acts subversively on our future or strikes at the root of German thought, the German home and the driving forces of our people...” was to be burnt.
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Copyright American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise - Reprinted with permission.
On May 10, 1933, German students under the Nazi regime burned tens of thousands of books nationwide. These book burnings marked the beginning of a period of extensive censorship and control of culture in Adolf Hitler's escalating reign of terror.
In this short film, a Holocaust survivor, an Iranian author, an American literary critic, and two Museum historians discuss the Nazi book burnings and why totalitarian regimes often target culture, particularly literature.
Esther Clifford recalls witnessing the burning of books in 1933, Germany, as a young child. She discusses how she felt as her former friends tossed the works of Jewish authors into a fire.
This is a testimony clip from Esther's full length testimony preserved in the Visual History Archive.
The Book Burning Memorial in Berlin.
The site of the original Book Burning
10th May 1933