Berliner’s Private Library Seized by Nazi Students

The campaign for “purging” Germany of Jewish books reached its pitch today with numerous groups of Nazi students cruising through the streets of Berlin, visiting houses to ask that Jewish books be given up. Although it was officially stated that no force was being used to obtain compliance with this demand, the student groups penetrated into famous privately-owned libraries seeking the literature which has no place, by decree, in the Third Reich.

The world-famed library of Magnus Hirschfeld, containing one of the most complete and important collections of works on sexual subjects, was seized today. Hundreds of volumes and several paintings from the Hirschfeld collection were to be added to the continually mounting pile which will go up in flames next Wednesday in a huge bonfire before the State Opera House.

One hundred and sixty Jewish and Marxist works, “un-German” in spirit, have been listed for the flames by the Nazi student organization. No great feat of scholarship was revealed in the compilation of the list, which is neither thorough nor discriminatory. It was pointed out that a complete list of Jewish authors alone would tax the erudition of the entire studenthood.