05/27/2026
This month in Holocaust history…
On May 10, 1933, at the Opernplatz, around 40,000 people gathered to witness the first national book burning, organized by the N**i Party to celebrate the rise of “New Germany” and the beginning of “national purification.” This event culminated a month-long propaganda campaign against the so-called “un-German spirit,” led largely by university students. The 20,000 volumes destroyed included pacifist, socialist, and Jewish literature, as well as writings by political opponents of the regime. Among the authors whose works were burned were Erich Maria Remarque, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Joseph Roth, Ernest Hemingway, and Helen Keller.
