On 10 May 1933, student groups across Germany organised the public burning of thousands of books deemed ‘un-German’. The campaign targeted works by Jewish authors, political dissidents, and intellectuals whose ideas the National Socialist state considered a threat.
Earlier that spring, Leo Baeck observed that the history of Jews in Germany had effectively concluded. In the ensuing years, the Jewish community responded to this cultural exclusion with spiritual resistance. Publishers such as Schocken Verlag provided a refuge for a community barred from German public life by printing and preserving works of Jewish literature.
The destruction of property and culture continued throughout the Nazi period, encompassing the burning of synagogues and the looting of private and institutional libraries, including the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums where Baeck taught. Reflecting on these events, Baeck later noted that while books can be burned, the spirit they contain finds a new place to survive.
Today, the Leo Baeck Institute London documents and researches this disrupted intellectual heritage. Our Library of Lost Books project traces the histories of volumes stolen by the Nazis, ensuring this legacy is preserved.
Image: Wiki
