“LIBRARY OF BURNED BOOKS”

Evening Star, Issue 21717, 11 May 1934, Page 3

“LIBRARY OF BURNED BOOKS”

SEQUEL TO SUPPRESSION BY NAZIS A movement has been begun in France and England, and may be extended to the United States, to found a “ German Library of the Burned Books.” It is proposed to form a collection, in the first place in Paris, of copies of all the works which under the Nationalist Socialist Government in Germany have been destroyed, censored, or suppressed, and with this as a basis to establish a library which will also comprise books, to the number of 20,000, which German refugees are willing to make available works regarded as indispensable for the study of the Nazi movement; and a large amount of material gathered from hundreds of small archives in various European cities to which the refugees proceeded after leaving Germany. A meeting arranged by the provisional committee for the foundation of the library was held recently at the residence of Lady Oxford and Asquith to consider how support for the movement could be stimulated. Among those present were Prince Hubertus Lowenstein, Lady Oxford and Asquith, Lord Marie,y, Mrs Haldane, Mr Louis Golding, Miss Ellen Wilkinson. Mr Leonard Frank, and Miss Margaret Goldsmith. REFUGEES’ ARCHIVES. Dr Alfred Kantorowicz, the secretary for the library in Paris, gave an account of what has so far been done. He said tht the idea of establishing a German Library of the Bm - ned Books was no mere idealistic speculation on the part of enthusiasts, but the result of practical work. Shortly after the outbreak of the Third Reich the German emigres realised the necessity for collecting material relating to the happenings l in Germany, and there came into existence in Paris, London, Zurich, Prague, and elsewhere hundreds of small private archives, independent of each other. It became necessary to assemble this quantity of scattered material, and it could now be said that central archives had evolved, had been increased and supplemented, and had been made available to a large number of scientists, writers, and journalists. They contained more than 200,000 documents, newspaper cuttings, letters, laws, and speeches covering every sphere of the social upheaval in Germany in 1933-34. A comprehensive offensive was now being launched in order to save and preserve the cultural contributions of Germany to the evolution of humanity during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Premises had been taken to accommodate 15,000 volumes and to provide rooms in which work on the archives could be continued. Immediate plans included the establishment of the library and its inauguration in Paris on May 10, when speeches would be made by French and German scientists and writers. The inauguration would be accompanied by an exhibition which would illustrate the upheaval which had taken place in the German Press. Dr Kantorowicz asked the gathering to consider what financial support English sympathisers could give to the library, and whether the exhibition which is being arranged would be of interest to England if it were transferred to London about the end of May. He also suggested that English representatives should attend the opening of the library in Paris. Mrs Haldane and Mrs Kantorowicz agreed to act temporarily as joint secretaries of an English committee, and plans were discussed for holding a public meeting in some form, at which the scheme for establishing the library could be presented.