Not pictured: Good guys.
May 6, 1933: The Nazi Party undertakes its 1st major book-burning campaign in Germany.
On April 8, 1933, the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Union (DSt) proclaimed a nationwide "Action against the Un-German Spirit,", which was to climax in a literary purge or "cleansing" ("Säuberung") by fire.
The books they wanted to burn included, among others, works of Albert Einstein (Jewish), Sigmund Freud (Jewish), Karl Marx (Jewish, author of The Communist Manifesto), Franz Kafka (Jewish), Bertolt Brecht (married to a Jew, actress Helene Weigel), and Erich Maria Remarque (author of All Quiet On the Western Front, which questioned Germany's role in World War I).
There were 20,000 books burned in Berlin on May 6. This came after the library and archives of the Institute for Sex Research were sacked. Some people were injured in the attack. On May 10, another 25,000 books were burned in the Bebelplatz, a square in front of the State Opera in Berlin. This was presaged by a speech by Joseph Goebbels' the Nazi Party's Minister of Propaganda. Included among his remarks:
The era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end. The breakthrough of the German revolution has again cleared the way on the German path...
The future German man will not just be a man of books, but a man of character. It is to this end that we want to educate you. As a young person, to already have the courage to face the pitiless glare, to overcome the fear of death, and to regain respect for death. This is the task of this young generation. And thus, you do well in this midnight hour to commit to the flames the evil spirit of the past.
This is a strong, great and symbolic deed, a deed which should document the following for the world to know: Here, the intellectual foundation of the November Republic is sinking to the ground. But from this wreckage, the phoenix of a new spirit will triumphantly rise.
By "the November Republic," Goebbels meant the Weimar Republic, which replaced the Germany Empire, the Second Reich, following the Armistice ending World War I on November 11, 1918.
Someone once said that America should have gone to war against the Nazis as soon as they burned Einstein's violin. In fact, that never happened, although Einstein did visit America in February 1933, and had to stay there after the Nazis raided his apartment in March.
Memo to Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas, Bill Lee of Tennessee, and especially to Donald Trump of Nerdocrumbesia: The people who want to burn books, or ban them, always end up looking like the bad guys.
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May 6, 1933 was a Saturday. These 4 baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Wes Ferrell outpitched George Pipgras. Earl Averill went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Babe Ruth went 1-for-4 with a walk. Lou Gehrig went 2-for-4 with a walk.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Boston Braves, 9-6 at Braves Field in Boston. Woody English and Charlie Grimm singled home the winning runs in the top of the 13th inning. English went 4-for-7 with 3 RBIs.
* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Navin Field in Detroit. (It was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938 and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Goose Goslin hit a home run. The Tigers would trade for him the next year. Hank Greenberg also hit a home run. Charlie Gehringer went 2-for-4. These 3 men, who helped the Tigers win the next 2 American League Pennants, would be called "The G-Men" in the wake of the rise of the FBI, known as "Government Men" or "G-Men" for short.
* And the Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-6 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Jimmie Foxx went 2-for-5 in what would be a Triple Crown season for him, and Pinky Higgins went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. For the Browns, Oscar Melillo went 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Lefty Grove started for the A's, but didn't get out of the 5th inning. Roy Mahaffey went the rest of the way, and was the winning pitcher.
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