In 1821, Heinrich Heine wrote, "Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people." Consider what Heine meant by this statement. In your opinion, what is the danger of burning books? How, if at all, does burning books jeopardize human life?
[Note: Somewhat ironically, Heine was a noted German author who converted to Christianity from Judaism in the nineteenth century. According to the Nuremberg Laws, Heine would have been considered a Jew; therefore, his books were also burned and forbidden.]
Here is a link to some of the books/authors as well.
Lit Terms 2
5 years ago
3 comments:
I know that the book burnings was one of the scenarios our "personas" went through, but upon viewing these pictures I felt a great need to rant as myself.
Books are one of many keys to our existence. One may take a feather quill to a piece of parchment and record their knowledge, their history, their world and unless the pages are lost, torn, or burned then that piece of priceless information shall never be forgotten. Never. Books supply us with morale stories and the educated opinions of the individual who wrote it, an opinion that could, in some form or fashion, change the perception of the world for another person. I do not understand how someone could be so cruel and hope to demolish these precious annals, these timeless works.
And it ...ticks me off beyond belief to sit here and stare, bewildered, at these pictures. Burning books only states that the Nazis did not want anyone to be subjected to opinions outside of their political party. Essentially "there way or the highway", and I am baffled by the thought that anyone -student, teacher, government person, bookstore owner, or even a commoner- would idly watch as all that knowledge became ashen ruin.
Of course, I'm sure I'm one of a rare few who simply cringes at the thought of a book having dog-eared pages, so some of my response is based off my fury of seeing those books aflame rather than what their blazing pages means for the future of the Jews. Yet, either direction appeals to the same atrocity.
The topic of book burnings reminds me that when people are in a frenzy, or excited state, they don't act like they normally would. All the hype and excitement at "book burnings", "rallies" (or any gathering of a unified nature), tend to cause people to act far from the norm. Situations like these set the stage for a tragedy to easily occur.
The quote reminds me of the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. There is a small wonderful little girl who skips alongside the main character (Guy Montag) as he walks to work. She asks him all sorts of inquisitive questions and he regards her as abnormal and strange for admiring nature and being so thankful for life's wonders. This book is set in the future where such thinking would be considered "free thinking" and therefore highly discouraged.
In the end, the little girl simply disappears one day- never to be heard of again. No one asks where she disappeared to, she simply was there one day and gone the next. Guy notices and all of sudden the gravity of this hits him and begins to start questioning the rules the government has set in place.
In that story, the little girl disappears. Who she was is now lost. In real life, once you burn people's books- which contain their beliefs, hopes, dreams, and aspirations- you in a sense start to censor and control their thoughts. You take out all the thoughts that could pollute their minds with "free thinking", the thing you as a sadistic political leader would despise.
All in all, burning books burns the thoughts of those before you. Whose to say they won't burn your thoughts next? And after you let the government run you wild enough, they'll just burn you first rather than wait to burn what you write. They’ll stop the free thinking at the source: which is YOU. Always be wary how much you let an entity infringe on your life.
-Laura Hoffmann
Sorry this comment is late, our internet has been disfunctional until today. I think the book burnings were horrible, and the pictures of them were very sad. Books are the key to alot of knowledge in the world. They are the diverse opinons of our people. They hold information of all kinds and sorts that is subject to humans and accepted as such an important part of our society and everyday life and learning. I can't even begin to imagine how any of those people took part in or watched the books being burned much less let there young innocent children take part in this massacare. This was a clear statement by the Nazi party that they thought they were the ultimate best and didn't want their people to know anything different from this party's beliefs. You can't be simple minded and have a good outlook on anything. Open mindedness is the best choice because you can view differences and step outside your beliefs to learn something new because everyone is different and has an opinion. Authors are great because they take the time to to write their thoughts and opinons down on paper for other people to read and learn about and enjoy. We should all respect and appreciate that because if it was not for books many things would be kept secret, never disscussed or even heard of. It is a disgrace that we actually have humans in this world that would put together such an iggnorant act and at that people that would agree with and take part in it. I'm glad some of us are more educated today and saddened that those innocent people had to endure all of that torture for no reason. I am very hopefull that learning indepth about this part of history will stop such a thing from ever happening again.
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