So alarming are the current waves and forms of “Book Burning” in Western Nations, that we would like to bring forward a brief extract from the Epilogue of the book Germany’s War: The Origins, Aftermath & Atrocities of WWII. Today, in 2017, on a daily basis we wake up to multiple forms of “Book Burning” including but not limited to:

Retailers deciding arbitrarily to no longer carry certain titles and subjects; Internet search engines and social media platforms adjusting algorithms directing people away from certain titles and subjects; Internet search engines and social media platforms banning or shadow banning user channels, accounts, websites; Publishing Houses deciding to reject new books addressing certain subjects and refusing to re-print out of stock titles of those subjects despite demand; Declarations that historical Statues and Monuments need to be removed; Parks and Public venues need be renamed; and Regulating the English language through redefining existing words and creating new ones to promote reeducation and social change.

Notably, the focus of the above censorship is not on reducing violent or pornographic content in music, movies, books and the internet. It is timely to reflect on this as you read the following passage.

Germany’s War: The Origins, Aftermath & Atrocities of World War II

Epilogue

National Socialist Book Burning

Most people have heard of the National Socialist book burning. It happened on May 10, 1933, when mostly pornographic and other literature deemed to be anti-German was publicly set afire. Few people realize that the Allies removed and then destroyed no fewer than 34,635 titles of books and brochures from German libraries and bookstores after they conquered Germany. This is many times more books destroyed by the Allies than were destroyed by National Socialist Germany. Even today books doubting the Holocaust story can lead to a house search and confiscation of the incriminating literature, with fines and jail time meted out to the owner of the books.[i]

The destruction of large sections of German literature was part of the Allied reeducation program for Germany. Hans Schmidt describes his experience of the Allied treatment of Germans after World War II:

As far as the German people were concerned, the victors wanted only a malleable mass of dispirited, destitute, hungry, cowering and defenseless Teutons who knew the way to physical survival was to placate every whim of the victors. A still proud German was (always!) immediately branded a…Nazi; worse than a criminal…. I still vividly remember that soon after our defeat the victors set about to destroy all traditions and institutions that represented Germany. They did this under the spurious concept encased into even more spurious laws “to free the German people from Militarism and National Socialism.” Absolutely no organization except the Roman Catholic Church was allowed to continue functioning: not even the Red Cross, nor any other charitable organization, no public or private administration, no bank, no newspaper or magazine, no radio station—the list went on…. To me personally it was also disturbing to see that all well-known traditional publications (newspapers and magazines) had been forced out of existence, and new firms with new names appeared on the horizon. In addition all that which we consider part of a nation’s historic tradition was purposely destroyed, eradicated or forbidden in Germany, usually under the guise of an alleged De-Militarization…… [ii]

Epilogue p489

[i] Schmidt, Hans, Hitler Boys in America: Re-Education Exposed, Pensacola, FL: Hans Schmidt Publications, 2003, pp. 47-48.

[ii] Ibid., pp. 20-21.

Image Removal Maryland Confederate Statue