Richard Ovenden’s 2020 book, Burning the Books, delves into the history of destroying knowledge, but he told IDEAS that “with events like Afghanistan, Ukraine, and the book bannings now, I should be doing another edition of the book. It’s not a historic topic anymore. It’s a very current one.”
From a Florida state law that requires school librarians to remove contested books from classrooms under threat of imprisonment, to Ukrainian librarians risking their lives to save materials targeted by Russian missiles, Ovenden says “unfortunately, there are many new aspects to the threat to knowledge coming about all the time.”
Ovenden’s public lecture in Toronto outlined what he characterizes as “five freedoms that libraries defend for us, and why we must, in turn, defend libraries and archives, as they are at the heart of open, democratic societies.”
Ovenden began with this claim: “By defending libraries and archives we are defending the very idea of a free and open society.” On May 10, 1933 there was an intense attack on libraries in Nazi Germany. In Berlin a bonfire was held and in the presence of nearly 40,000 cheering people a group of students marched up to the bonfire carrying the bust of a Jewish intellectual, Magnus Hirschfeld. The bust was tossed on top of the fire created by the burning of thousands of books from the library of the Institute of Sexual Sciences. The bonfire consisted of books from Jewish and other “ungermane writers” including gays and communist. It is notable that these same groups are currently under attack in America by American Conservatives including neo-Nazis. The fascists are never permanently defeated. They are always around the corner, ready, willing, and able to blossom when conditions are ripe. The greatest fertilizer for the blossoming is always fear and hate. These are the greatest enemies of civilization.
The were eager to impress the new Nazi government in Germany. “According to Ovenden, “the book burning was a carefully planned publicity stunt.”[2] The Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbells, was there on behalf of the Nazi government to give a speech to thunderous applause, in which he advocated Germans to say
“no to moral decadence and moral corruption; yes to decency, morality, family, and state. 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. You do well to commit to the flames the evil spirits of the past.”
The speech was heard around the world to widespread support and also widespread fear of what was to come. These words did not seem threatening to many people. Autocrats frequently use words and phrases that comfort them. It often seems like they are speaking in favor of civilization and yet they often have a powerful deeper meaning that warns of dangers to freedom. Masses are often persuaded by the opposition to common enemies, such as communism, perversity, or immoral conduct. In our day liberal weakness. Who wouldn’t support that?
But there is an ominous underbelly to the words that makes it clear to those who pay critical attention to them that they succour powerful feelings of illiberal yearnings.