but free Americans can still read them


United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Fighting the fires of hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings

58 AUTHORS

Sholem Asch Sholem Asch Sholem Asch, U.S., ca. 1940 [National Archives] “...lights shining from the windows of the everyday prayer room of the synagogue...”
Henri Barbusse Henri Barbusse Portrait of Henri Barbusse [Library of Congress] “I am a revolutionist and internationalist.”
Vicki Baum Vicki Baum Vicki Baum becoming a U.S. citizen. January 1939 [Wide World Photo] “They are at home on the sports field and in the laboratories...”
August Bebel August Bebel Portrait of August Bebel [Library of Congress] “I want to remain the deadly enemy of this bourgeois society and state regime...”
Georg Bernhard Georg Bernhard Portrait of Georg Bernhard [Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz] “Hitler's Germany. A relapse into medieval times yet simultaneously something unprecedented...”
Bertolt Brecht Bertolt Brecht Bertolt Brecht in London, 1936 [Bertolt Brecht Erben] “Our opponents are the opponents of mankind.”
Max Brod Max Brod Max Brod in Prague, 1937 [Czechoslovak News Agency] “...the final consequence of the distribution of power by paganism, Christianity, Judaism...”
Marc Chagall Marc Chagall Marc Chagall in his studio in Gords. France, 1940 [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] “If a painter is a Jew and paints life, how is he to keep Jewish elements out of his work!”
Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi Portrait of Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi [Stiftung Archiv der Akademie der Kunste] “united Europe leads to peace and prosperity”
Otto Dix Otto Dix “I will take revenge on the sins and virtues of my forefathers.”
John Dos Passos John Dos Passos “To Revolution! To Anarchy! To the Socialist State!”
Theodore Dreiser Theodore Dreiser Portrait of Theodore Dreiser [Library of Congress] “out of Russia, as out of no other country today...are destined to come great things...”
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels 1860 portrait of Friedrich Engels [Getty Images - Hulton Archive] “The socialist movement cannot be gagged.”
Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger in New York, November 17, 1932 [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] “...but one and only is the God of Israel...”
Louis Fischer Louis Fischer Portrait of Louis Fischer [Library of Congress]
Friedrich Wilhelm Förster Friedrich Wilhelm Förster Portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm Förster [Stiftung Archiv der Akademie der Kunste] “renewal through National Socialism is nothing but a hollow promise...”
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud Portrait of Sigmund Freud [Library of Congress] “Men are strong only so long as they represent a strong idea.”
Ernst Glaeser Ernst Glaeser Portrait of Ernst Glaeser [Library of Congress] “...the war was a terrible disease...”
Georg Grosz Georg Grosz Georg Grosz in Berlin [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] “Art is in danger.”
Werner Hegemann Werner Hegemann Portrait of Werner Hegemann [City Planning, Housing, 1936] “Barbarism has been victorious this year...”
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway in ambulance corps uniform, ca. 1918 [John F. Kennedy Library] “...both bring a permanent ruin.”
Rudolf Hilferding Rudolf Hilferding Rudolf Hilferding in Berlin, ca. 1920 [Archiv der Sozialen Demokratie Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung] “...the dictatorship of the proletariat.”
Morris Hillquit Morris Hillquit Portrait of Morris Hillquit [Library of Congress] “...the capitalists have become reactionary...”
Erich Kästner Erich Kästner 1929 portrait of Erich Kästner [Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz] “On the battlefields of Verdun...”
Karl Kautsky Karl Kautsky 1930 portrait of Karl Kautsky [Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz] “There is no greater imaginable danger to the rise of the German proletariat...”
Helen Keller Helen Keller Portrait of Helen Keller, ca. 1910 [Library of Congress] “I believe that socialism will solve the misery of the world...”
Alfred Kerr Alfred Kerr Portrait of Alfred Kerr, 1920s [Bundesarchiv. Long-term loan. Property of the Bundesarchiv; Permission Long-term loan. Property of the Bundesarchiv; Permission to use must be secured directly from the Bundesarchiv; USHMM caption.] “He's deemed here--no, I kid you not--a law-abiding patriot.”
Paul Klee Paul Klee Portrait of Paul Klee [Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz] “It seems unworthy of me to undertake anything against such crude attacks.”
Ferdinand Lassalle Ferdinand Lassalle “...to secure in the constitution its dominance over the other classes...”
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Lenin Portrait of Vladimir Lenin, ca. 1910 [Library of Congress] “When freedom exists, there will be no state.”
Benjamin Barr Lindsey Benjamin Barr Lindsey Portrait of Benjamin Barr Lindsey, ca. 1920 [Library of Congress] “Intolerance is the ultimate cowardice.”
Jack London Jack London Portrait of Jack London, ca. 1905 [Library of Congress] “All about me were nobleness of purpose and heroism of effort.”
Emil Ludwig Emil Ludwig Emil Ludwig arriving in New York for a U.S. visit. September 1933 [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] “...who wanted unity among the stocks speaking the same speech...”
Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg Portrait of Rosa Luxemburg [International Institute for Social Research] “...without a free struggle of opinion, life dies out in every public institution...”
Heinrich Mann Heinrich Mann Heinrich Mann and his wife arriving in the U.S. October 13, 1940 [Wide World Photo] “...the Germans are the last people who have a right to hate the Jews...”
Klaus Mann Klaus Mann Portrait of Klaus Mann [National Archives] “The National Socialists are the enemy...”
Thomas Mann Thomas Mann Thomas Mann in Germany, prewar [Library of Congress
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]
“...a phenomenon as unnatural as it was depressing.”
Karl Marx Karl Marx Portrait of Karl Marx [Reference Center for Marxist Studies] “...succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew.”
Ludwig Meidner Ludwig Meidner Ludwig Meidner, Selbstporträt, 1922 [Juedisches Museum Frankfurt am Main] “Up, up to battle against the ugly predator...”
Franz Oppenheimer Franz Oppenheimer “...the racial theories of the populace of today are nothing else but class theories of the nobility which have come down in the world...”
Carl von Ossietzky Carl von Ossietzky Carl von Ossietzky, Esterwegen concentration camp, ca. 1934 [Bundesarchiv. Long-term loan. Property of the Bundesarchiv; Permission Long-term loan. Property of the Bundesarchiv; Permission to use must be secured directly from the Bundesarchiv; USHMM caption.] “But who is this Adolf Hitler?...this foolish poltroon”
Kurt Pinthus Kurt Pinthus “...turning towards the dawn of a future which he makes himself.”
Walter Rathenau Walter Rathenau “...in politics we are about on the same level as the east Slavonic peasantry...”
John Reed John Reed Portrait of John Reed [Library of Congress] “Bound by no creed or theory of social reform, we will express them all, providing they be radical.”
Erich Maria Remarque Erich Maria Remarque Erich Maria Remarque. Paris, November 1937 [Wide World Photo] “...war is a cause of death like cancer and tuberculosis, like influenza and dysentery...”
Anna Seghers Anna Seghers Portrait of Anna Seghers [National Archives] “...a resolution to which they should all commit themselves...”
Upton Sinclair Upton Sinclair 1942 portrait of Upton Sinclair [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] “...but he can be starved and exploited by a master...”
Josef Stalin Josef Stalin Josef Stalin at signing of nonaggression pact, August 1939 [Wide World Photo] “...elevate the working class and strengthen the socialist state of this class...”
Ernst Toller Ernst Toller Ernst Toller in New York, May 1939 [Wide World Photo] “Crammed into narrow cells, prison years...torture years...”
Leon Trotsky Leon Trotsky Portrait of Leon Trotsky [Wide World Photo] “...the real arena for a harmonious socialist society.”
Kurt Tucholsky Kurt Tucholsky “Groups are something secondary; the state is something secondary.”
Sigrid Undset Sigrid Undset Portrait of Sigrid Undset [National Archives]
Jakob Wassermann Jakob Wassermann Portrait of Jakob Wassermann [Library of Congress] “I am a German and I am a Jew...”
H.G. Wells H.G. Wells H.G. Wells. United Kingdom, 1938 [Wide World Photo] “Socialism is to me no more and no less than the awakening of a collective consciousness in humanity...”
Franz Werfel Franz Werfel Franz Werfel in Vienna, ca. 1930 [Oesterreichische Nationale Bibliothek, Bildarchiv] “...we must expect gas warfare!”
Theodor Wolff Theodor Wolff “...by the National Socialists and those of similar ilk...”
Arnold Zweig Arnold Zweig Prewar photo of Arnold Zweig [Lotte Jacobi Archives, University of New Hampshire] “But the Jews exist, 14 million...”
Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig in Vienna, ca. 1920 [Oesterreichische Nationale Bibliothek, Bildarchiv] “He who has grasped the human in himself understands all mankind.”
 
Works pictured: from Antiquariat Syndikat, Leipzig; Bundesarchiv Koblenz; Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig, Germany; DLA-Marbach; Library of Congress; National Gallery of Art; Pennsylvania State University Library, University Park, Pa.; Princeton University Library; Salzmann Collection, Munich; and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection.