Nazi Lessons On Books Not To Be Repeated

 

Despite the rise of book bans in America, the United States, by and large, treasures the transformative power of books and respects free speech. But it is not a history untouched by censorship, book burnings, book bans, or attempts to suppress written truths. We should take note of world history when it comes to books, and no doubt we will come to see the Nazi bonfires as the low point in bibliocide. 

On May 10, 1933 – 92 years ago Saturday – Hitler’s Germany, organized by Nazi student groups, torched books in 24 university towns across Germany. The US Holocaust Museum estimates that 90,000 volumes were turned to ash. Newsweek called it “a holocaust of books.” We must never, ever allow the state to dictate what books are written, published, sold, or rad. Let us remember. 

This year marks the 100^th anniversary of the publishing of the first of two volumes of Hitler’s screed against the Jews, Mein Kampf. It became a Nazi Bible. Twelve million copies are estimated to have circulated in Germany at the time of World War II, a copy for every other household. After the war, the book was banned for 75 years, until its publishing was allowed again, in the hope it would be an educational tool of what not to think. Books don’t kill people; people do, but this book contributed to the dissemination of hateful and anti-Semitic messages that rallied a nation to kill or turn a blind eye to it. 

In a book called Portable Magic, it certainly captures what Hitler’s book, written while he was in jail for a failed coup in the 1920’s, meant to a nation a century ago: 

'As the manifesto for the appalling Nazi doctrines of racial superiority and antisemitism that would lead to the gas chambers, Mein Kampf's mass distribution is a sign of national complicity. The ubiquity of the book in German culture during Hitler's rule marked the spread of this ideology across society. It is, in this way, a text, a collection of words, conveying a set of ideas in the terms used in the Introduction, it is writing as platonic. But it is also clear that the book itself became the symbol of that ideology rather than merely its carrier, a pragmatic and even talismanic object as much as a collection of words. It is striking, for instance, that no authorized abridged account or collection of quotations from the work was published in Germany, which might have been expected were the transmission of the key messages of this lengthy book the priority. Most people, after all, will not study eight hundred pages of any book. Mein Kampf was, rather, a ritual object, a portable bibliographic manifestation of Hitlerism, the symbolic center of the Reich. Hitler's signature is reproduced in facsimile at the end of the dedication and many extant copies are signed by him in person.” 

May we learn to never again repeat the Nazi atrocities of the past. 

 

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About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 4.4 million pageviews. With 5,300+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

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