Writer, not

I had the good fortune recently to enjoy a three-week stay in Europe, traveling through Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and France.  Of the hundreds of pictures I took during that trip—some of them actually in focus—I choose to begin with these.

In central Berlin, along the Unter den Linden, there is a public square named Bebelplatz.  Located adjacent to what was then the state opera house, the site was previously named Opernplatz.  On May 10, 1933, Opernplatz was the site of an enormous book burning, orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels.  Some 20,000 books, deemed to be decadent, or of un-German spirit, were burned that night.  Included were works by Albert Einstein, Erich Maria Remarque, Thomas Mann, and many others.

The photo below shows the memorial commemorating the book burning. Beneath a transparent plate set into the cobblestones, there is a brightly lit chamber containing empty bookshelves. Utterly brilliant, in my opinion.

Accompanying the memorial is a plaque set into the stones, quoting German author Heinrich Heine (1820).  It reads (roughly):

“It was only a prelude, where they burn books, they also burn people at the end.”

(Somewhat) related posts:

1. Celebrate Banned Books Week. Read.
2. My own experience with (near) book banning
3. Is Burning Wood Really Carbon Neutral?