BERLIN: BIBELPLATZ [Bebelplatz]
Remembering May 10, 1933
The plaza of the Alt Bibliothek.
A girl with backpack
peers through a window
in the pavement --
into a small floodlit room below.
White shelves line four walls.
Empty.
Close by, a plaque
recalls a night of bonfires
fueled by volumes
with forbidden words,
written by forbidden hands
and a quote from Heinrich Heine -
Who burns minds
May soon burn men.
Heinrich Heine, poet and essayist, 1797-1856
“Das war ein vorspeil nur,
dort womain bucher
Verebrennt
verebrennt man am end
auch menschen.”
Thank you to Thelma Morris for sharing this poem with us. Thelma wrote the poem after visiting the plaza in Berlin, site of the burning of some 20,000 books by the Nazis.
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