Hello all, I’m sorry for the time it has taken for me to post this, my very first (official!) blog post. The only excuse I have is revision for exams, but even so that’s no excuse! So please read this and share it with all – not for myself, but so we can share the messages that I want to present to you all. As I said in my initial post, this is a blog related to the messages of the Holocaust, from some obvious topics such as Jewish persecution right through to how the Holocaust can help us in our lives today. Enjoy! (:
My post today is titled “A Day to Remember… Forgotten” because I want to relate the events of the Holocaust to our lives today. I wonder, if I were to ask you if you know what happened on this day 79 years ago, how many of you would say “yes, I know!” and tell me the correct answer? I would hedge a bet that most – if not all – of you didn’t know that the 10th May 1933 was the day of the Berlin Book Burnings, and I’ll gladly admit that I didn’t know it either, until a bit of research a few minutes ago.
In April 1933, the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Association called for a nationwide act against what they called the “Un-German Spirit”, and called for all books that were seen as “Un-German” to be cleansed and removed from society by fire. Books written by Jews, socialists and those of ‘corrupting foreign influences’ were among the thousands to be rid of from German society, including those by the ‘founder of communism’ Karl Marx, English author H.G. Wells and American author Ernest Hemingway. On 10th May of that same year, the Student Association burnt around 25,000 “Un-German” books in the German capitol of Berlin, and many university towns held torchlight parades to against the “Un-German Spirit” that they felt was present in their country. This was a day of huge significance to Hitler’s propaganda scheme – his students were showing huge support for the ideals that he was preaching and publicly demonstrating their hatred for anything that did not support the ideal German society.
So why then is it that we do not remember this day as we do many other, less significant dates? There are a lot of events both directly and non-directly related to the Holocaust which are almost forgotten from history, and I believe that it is important that we remember them.
So, as of today, I will be posting on days of significance to the Holocaust with at least a description of why that day is important to remember.
Also on this day in 1940, the Nazis invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. So why not spend a minute this evening thinking about the people who were affected by this – those thrown out of their homes as the Nazis marched through, or those killed because they tried to stop them.
Thank you for reading (:
Natalie x
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