Book Burning Monument (The Empty Library)

The memorial for the book burning that occurred in Berlin is a fairly small, semi-transparent square in the middle of a plaza. During the day, which is when we went, it is hard to see what it actually is without looking intensely at it for a few minutes. However, when you are able to see what the square covers, you see a room with empty shelves lining its walls, and the more I looked at it the more intrigued I became. These empty shelves represent the large number of books that were burned by the Nazis during the time of the Holocaust. The room is very stark and the monument as a whole keeps a very low profile. At night, however, the light illuminates the room and casts a glow around it which immediately draws the attention of anyone in the plaza. There is also a bronze plaque inlaid into the ground next to the monument with a quote from a Jewish author's play written in 1820 which reads "That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well." Chilling.

The empty shelves, which would not even begin to hold all of the books that were burned at this time, made me reflect on the gravity of what happened to all of this knowledge and all that the Nazis destroyed. It represents a time during Berlin's history when people were oppressing knowledge and groups of people. The books that were destroyed were deemed "un-German" due to the authors race/religion or the content of the book. I think that this monument is so important for people to see so that they can also reflect on the tragedy of the book burnings and the overall complete control that the Nazis had over Germany during this period of time. 

Berlin obviously has an extremely flawed past and learning about its history and culture includes a lot of colonization, fascism, and overall hatred of people who they deemed as "Other." This monument is just one example of how Berlin confronts their past and attempts to reconcile with it and begin to make strides towards improvement. I think that this monument contributes to Berlin as a cultural capital by showing us that they recognize the wrongs committed and they want to respect that loss. Something that I loved when we went to the monument was that there was a book fair set up around it! I think that this is a wonderful thing that the city has done to show that they are moving on from their past. I bought How Democracy Dies by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt which I thought was quite poetic and a bit of a dig at Hitler and all that the Nazi party stood for.

Picture of monument and information from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empty_Library