08/16/2025
"The Empty Library" is a memorial marking where N**i Party students burnt 20,000 books on Berlin's Bebelplatz on May 10, 1933. This subterranean installation, created by artist Micha Ullman in 1995, consists of empty white bookshelves visible through a glass plate set into the cobblestones, designed to hold approximately the same number of books as were burned by at this site. When visitors look down through the glass panel, they see "what is missing": underground, almost out of sight, no books, empty white shelves, directly under the Bebelplatz. Nearby, a bronze plaque bears Heinrich Heine's prophetic 1820 quote: "Where you burn books, you end up burning men" -- words that gained terrible significance during the Holocaust.
The book burning that inspired this memorial was a pivotal event in the evolution of N**i censorship and repression. On May 10, 1933, approximately 40,000 people gathered in what was then called Opernplatz as 5,000 students affiliated with the N**i Party marched with burning torches to ignite piles of seized books. A month earlier, the N**i German Student Association had announced a nationwide initiative "against the un-German spirit" and directed local chapters to collect books from a list of 4,000 titles that the N**i Party had deemed "objectionable" for a "säuberung" or cleansing by fire. At the book burning on Bebelplatz, Joseph Goebbels, the N**i Minister of Propaganda, gave a speech declaring "the era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end"; he went on to commend the students, asserting "you do well in this midnight hour to commit to the flames the evil spirit of the past."
This was not an isolated incident -- N**i student groups carried out similar public burnings in 34 university towns across Germany over the next several weeks, in particular targeting democratic, leftist, and Jewish literature. When they ran out of "objectionable material" from their university libraries to burn, they would raid public libraries and bookstores. In response to the mass book burnings, American author Helen Keller, whose books were among those blacklisted published an "Open Letter to German Students", in which she wrote: "You may burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe, but the ideas those books contain have passed through millions of channels and will go on."
In the equivalent of a modern day book burning, the Trump administration has undertaken an unprecedented erasure of women's and minority history from government websites as part of the federal government's purge of "DEI" content following an executive order by Trump. Under the direction of Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Department of Defense Department has been particularly zealous about purging its many websites of "objectionable material." A federal official confirmed to the AP that the purge of images and stories about women and minorities could ultimately include as many 100,000 images or posts in total after social media content is also censored.
Department of Defense websites telling the stories of such wartime heroes as the highly decorated WWII-era Women Airforce Service Pilots and the "Six Triple Eight" battalion have been deleted, along with thousands of other pages showcasing the contributions of women and minorities to the U.S. military. In fact, to initiate this widespread history purge, Trump officials released a blacklist with specific words and ideas that staff were instructed to flag for removal, including terms such as "women," "discrimination," "sexism," and "racism," as well as any content recognizing historical "firsts" achieved by specific groups. While Trump officials have claimed that highlighting diversity undermines the military's unity and effectiveness, this far-reaching act of government censorship has effectively erased decades of diverse service members' sacrifice from official government records.
In a letter this week, the Trump administration outlined its next censorship target with White House officials informing the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution of their plan to conduct an in-depth investigation of eight Smithsonian museums' exhibitions, materials, and operations. Their stated aim is to ensure that they align with Trump's interpretation of American history by removing any content he deems "improper" or "divisive." Such systemic and ideologically-driven intrusion into the content and operations of America's most prominent museums runs contrary to the standard practice of the executive branch respecting the Smithsonian's independence and the expertise of those who run these esteemed institutions.
As Lisa Strong, a professor of art history at Georgetown University observes: "Museums cannot change content to suit a political whim or agenda. The best way for museums to maintain the high public trust they already enjoy is by remaining independent. Museums are staffed by experts in their fields who interpret the collection to help educate the public about art, history, science and culture. Their content should not be reviewed, revised, or edited for political gain."
If we don’t stand up to censorship now, we risk walking the same path that led to some of history’s darkest moments. “Censorship is always about who’s allowed to speak, and who isn’t. And that’s always political," observed author Margaret Atwood. Moreover, she added: "There’s always been a war on books. Because books are where ideas live, and ideas are dangerous to tyrants.”
To take a stand against the Trump administration's censorship, you can use the action alert on PEN America -- one of the country's leading free expression advocacy organization -- to contact your elected officials at https://act.pen.org/a/tell-congress-dont-censor-america
To read PEN's report on the Trump Administration's assault on free expression, visit https://pen.org/report/trump-administration-100-days/
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For an inspiring book about a Mighty Girl fighting against censorship in school, we highly recommend "Ban This Book" for ages 9 to 12 at https://www.amightygirl.com/ban-this-book
For two excellent books about Mighty Girls who find hope by reading forbidden books - both for ages 12 and up - we recommend "Voices" (https://www.amightygirl.com/voices) and "The Book Thief" (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-book-thief)
For powerful books for tweens and teens about girls living in real-life oppressive societies with little respect for freedom of expression, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426
For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
To see more stories from A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for A Mighty Girl's free weekly email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter
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To read more about Trump's intrusion into the Smithsonian, visit https://www.npr.org/2025/08/12/nx-s1-5500550/smithsonian-trump-review
To read the AP report on the Department of Defense's vast content purge, visit https://apnews.com/article/dei-purge-images-pentagon-diversity-women-black-8efcfaec909954f4a24bad0d49c78074
