Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings and Our Jewish Past June 15, 2012

For Americans, the iconography of Nazism is found in the swastika, the jackboot, the Nazi banner. But another symbol-flames and fire-accompanied the Third Reich from its strident inception to its apocalyptic demise. On January 30, 1933, torchlight parades announced the onset of the Nazi revolution. One month later, the flames of the Reichstag fire consumed the last vestiges of the Weimar Constitution. On May 10, 1933, German university students launched an 'Action Against the Un-German Spirit' targeting authors ranging from Helen Keller and Ernest Hemingway to Sigmund Freud. Americans quickly condemned the book burnings as antithetical to the democratic spirit. This exhibition focuses on how the book burnings became a potent symbol during World War II in America's battle against Nazism, and concludes by examining their continued impact on our public discourse.