A German City Remembers the Burning of the Books

The university city of Erlangen (a few kilometers north of Nuremberg) is commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Nazi book-burnings, which took place on May 10, 1933. (Erlangen's took place on May 12 because another ceremony was scheduled at the designated site on May 10.)

http://www.nordbayern.de/region/erlangen/verboten-verfolgt-als-in-erlangen-die-bucher-brannten-1.2862031

The various German universities took the lead in the book burnings, and as a university city, Erlangen students also participated.

I researched the incident when I was writing my book on the history of Erlangen. I received assistance not only from the Erlangen city archives, but from the Holocaust Museum in Washington as well as they had documentation on the event.

The evening began with a procession of two horse-drawn carts carrying the seized literature that wound through several streets before arriving at the Schlossplatz (the square in front of the former margravial palace). There were several speeches, the playing of the Horst Wessel song, and then the books were thrown into the fire.

It should be mentioned that there was a good figure in this incident in the person of Eugen Stollreither, the university librarian. He publicly condemned the action.  The books taken from the university library were taken out without his permission, and he managed to conceal several himself. An effort was made to remove him by the Gauleiter of Franconia, Julius Streicher and his newspaper, Der Stuermer,  but the university stood by him. He remained at his post for the remainder of the Third Reich. In addition, the Krische University book store managed to conceal and save many targeted books in storage bales covered with soot.

In 1987, on the anniversary of the event, the city laid a plaque into the pavement in front of the Schlossplatz that read, "Hier wurden 1933 Buecher verbrannt" ("In 1933, books were burned here"). It is still there.