Germans Ashamed of Book Burning
Holger Mehlig - Associated Press
May 09, 2008
BERLIN - Germany's president on Friday marked the 75th anniversary of the 1933 book-burning that was an emblematic step in the Nazis' seizure of power, voicing his country's shame for actions that he said faced little resistance at the time.
On May 10, 1933 - little more than three months after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor - students around Germany burned thousands of books deemed to be "un-German."
"We recall today with shame that 75 years ago - not just here in Berlin, but in all of Germany - tens of thousands applauded and cheered as the books of Erich Kaestner, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Kurt Tucholsky and many others were thrown into the fire by students," President Horst Koehler said.
Koehler said in a speech at Berlin's Academy of Arts that the book-burning, broadcast on radio, left room for no illusions about the way Nazi-run Germany was headed, coming after a boycott of Jewish businesses weeks earlier.
"It was only a small step from the ostracism of Jews to the burning of their books, and again a small step from the burning of books to the burning of human beings," Koehler said. "And there was barely any resistance against the action."
He noted that the book-burning was not even organized by the state, but by the student body, adding that "academics, students and professors engaged in propaganda against what they viewed as 'un-German.'"
Hitler convinced ailing President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933.
A month later, he used the torching of the Reichstag parliament building - blamed on Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe - to strengthen his grip on power, suspending civil liberties and cracking down on opposition parties, paving the way for the police state.
On March 23, parliament approved the Enabling Act, "enabling" Hitler's Cabinet to issue decrees without the need for approval by lawmakers or the president and effectively giving him dictatorial powers.
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Copyright 2008 by Associated Press
