On April 8, 1933,

the Main Office for Press and Propaganda

of the German Student Union

proclaimed a nationwide "Action against the Un-German Spirit",

which was to climax in a literary purge or "cleansing" by fire.

On May 10, 1933,

Nazi Germany staged an event unseen since the middle ages

young German students from universities,

which formerly had been regarded as among the finest in the world,

gathered to burn over 25k books.

On April 6th, two days before the initial declaration,

William Lyon Phelps of Yale University,

who taught the first American University course

on the Modern Novel

shared the following thoughts on a public radio broadcast.