The Holocaust that followed the book burning in 1933 was likely the greatest and most well-resourced attack on books and learning in world history. As Richard Ovenden said in his lecture at the Toronto Library:

“It was estimated that 100 million books were destroyed during the Holocaust.  These attacks on knowledge were a cultural and intellectual genocide that prefigured the human genocide that would soon follow.”

These truths must not be forgotten. We must remember them when the freedom to read is challenged as it is now in many places in North America including so far, Winkler, Winnipeg, and Brandon 1 in Manitoba. As Ovenden said,

The current wave in book banning and the broader context of censor[1]ship and constraints around freedom of expression are all stark reminders that the techniques used in Nazi Germany are once again in fashion.

Who would ever have thought that Neo-Nazism would find such a comfortable home in North America? This is an important reminder that fascism is never dead. The best we can do is tamp it down for a spell. We must never assume that it is permanently erased. It is always able to be resurrected when conditions are right.  As Ovenden added,

“Suppressing freedom to read is a core tactic used by those who seek to exercise authoritarian control over societies. Let’s be clear; it is our minds that are the true battlefield and libraries are a good proxy for those. As John Milton wrote in Areopagitica in 1644 in response to the English Parliament imposing a restrictive printing ordinance:

“For books are not absolutely dead things but do contain a potency of life within them. To be as active as that soul whose progeny they are, nay they do preserve us in a vial, the purest efficacy and extraction of that intellect that bred them.”

If you love books you must love freedom and be ready to protect the right to read.