Book Burning - Can It Happen Here?

One fateful day in Germany - May 10, 1933 - university students burned books, thousands of books. Giant bonfires were fueled by works from such legendary authors as Helen Keller, Ernest Hemingway and Sigmund Freud.

The book burners were 'cleansing' Nazi society from books that didn't meet the requirements of German spirit.

Could book burning happen here? Sometimes I wonder when I people urge libraries or book stores not to display, rent or sell books that those people don't like. Many years ago in Gwinnett County, D&B fought back when a mother demanded that a book by Judy Blume be banned from all Gwinnett school libraries.

Our daughter had read that book - after we reviewed it and okay-ed it (which is the role of a parent). Interestingly, the woman who led a media campaign for the Blume book banning had never read the book. She had just heard it wasn't appropriate.

It's this type of "I don't like this book so get rid of it" attitude that is the cursor to book burning and controlling what people read and how they think.

This type of control could result in book burning here, just like in Germany. To learn more about book burning, plan to see the traveling exhibit, Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings, at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega, Ga. Produced by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the exhibit is on display until March 15, 2013. A lecture series accompanies the exhibit.

For more information, call 706-364-1520.