Censorship, Banning, and Book Burning in Nazi Germany
Background Information
Books were banned or burned categorically by the governement if the authors had Jewish lineage, communistic or pacifist sympathies. These books were completely unavailable to the public under the control of the Nazis. In occupied countries such as Poland, the Nazis also banned books that were not in German. Authors whose work was seen as "against German ideals" often had their citizenship revoked. Others were banned from publishing in academia, driven to exile, and some were even put into concentration camps and eventually executed.
“Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen": "Where they burn books, they will also burn people."- Heinrich Heine
Book 1: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
This book was banned for its grim and gruesome depiction of WWI. The Nazis believed that this promoted an anti-war and un-patriotic ideology which was directly conflicting with the ideologies that they were promoting.
Book 2: Relativity: The Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein
This book, as technical and unbiased as they come, completely science-related, was banned because the author, Albert Einstein was Jewish. All of Einstein's and Jewish authors' works were banned soley because of their connection to the Jewish faith.
Book 3: Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
This book was banned in Nazi Germany and in surrounding communist countries. Kafka's personal notes and papers were seized by the Gestapo and are still being searched for today. Kafka was also Jewish.
