On This Day the Nazi's Burned a lot of Books

May 10, 1933 was a bad day for books. The Nazi's designated the day as the one to burn all the "nation-corrupting books and journals" that existed within Germany. The goal was to rid the country of  “un-German spirit."

Germans view the "pillar of shame" (Schandpfal), a display of "un-German" books and periodicals mounted on a tree stump in the Cathedral Square in Münster. May 6, 1933.

 "You are doing the right thing at this midnight hour—to consign to the flames the unclean spirit of the past. This is a great, powerful, and symbolic act. . . . Out of these ashes the phoenix of a new age will arise. . . . Oh Century! Oh Science! It is a joy to be alive!”" - Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, speaking at the Berlin book burning, May 10, 1933 that attracted over 40,000 people.

German students gather around books they regard as "un-German." The books will be publically burned at Berlin's Opernplatz. Berlin, Germany, May 10, 1933.

Over 30 burnings took place across the country and the day remains one of the greatest examples of biblioclasm in history.

Online exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Here is a list of 58 authors whose work was burned.
Bibliography from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the 1933 book burnings.