What Are The Responsibility Of Germans React To The Holocaust?

Let’s begin with censorship. Many books are challenged and banned in the United States. Fortunately, censorship has not gotten to the point of banning all books, as in Fahrenheit 451. In Fahrenheit 451, the burning of books started because they offended too many people-- “‘Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t

The burning of books is limiting free speech by removing a medium to express ideas and opinions. The government’s main vision is that by burning books, people will become happy. This theory is debatable, but it clearly defies the freedom of speech. Censorship of this degree violates free speech by suppressing ideas, as shown when Beatty claims “‘Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it.”(59). By removing books with conflicting ideas like this, the government is systematically destroying the idea of free speech. When people cannot express their ideas freely, free speech is being vehemently defied.Equally consequential is the effect that burning books has on people’s political knowledge. Considering that the government’s goal is to keep people content with their political views, Beatty explains that “‘If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him. . . . give him none.’”(61). The government’s method of censoring political information is burning books, and therefore, free speech is

In this war, [World War II] we know, books are weapons” (Von Merveldt). He was trying to lift the American spirits in spite of the horrific events in Europe . In Germany, the mood was much more cheerful, as they were accompanied by singing of “Nazi songs and anthems” (The History Place). The leader of propaganda and book burning for the Nazi party, Joseph Goebbels, proclaimed “The flames not only illuminate the end of the old era, they also light up the new.” (Foxman) Unlike the rest of the world, the Nazi party viewed the book burning as a positive event and as a beginning, not an end.

Ban books or burn them? Ray Bradbury wrote his famous novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 fantasizing about a world in which books were banned, and when a book was found it was burnt and destroyed. Little did he know that his thought of books being banned could actually happen and that it would be one of his own. Today Fahrenheit 451 is being banned and challenged in schools all across America. How ironic that a book about books being banned is now being banned around the country. A prize winning book by a prize winning author is now being questioned as to whether it is a good book to teach in an English class. Though Fahrenheit 451 may contain controversial elements such as language, discussion of

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, details a world filled with mindless entertainment and a lack of self-expression. Everyone is not only discouraged to think for themselves, but also fearful of unique thoughts and ideas. A quote from the book that would describe this is, “It was a pleasure to burn…with the brass nozzle in his fists…blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history…While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark and burning.” (1) Books, which would provide information and knowledge, are forbidden and burned. The owner who is caught with them is put in prison. The idea of a society run by one who dictate the rules, take away all freedom. These consequences for disobeying and being an “individual” are strong reasons the

In Fahrenheit 151, a book written by Ray Bradbury, one of the major points of the plot is censorship. In the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, Montag, the protagonist, begins to steal books from the fires he’s responded to and hides them inside his air vent. Beatty, his chief, explains how books used to be and how citizens were horrified and offended by them. Authors began to edit their books, trying not to offend anyone, and as a result, began to create dull and boring books. Society then decided to burn all the books then have more people offended by them. Montag then decides to talk to Faber, a retired professor who team up to start planting reprinted books in houses for firemen to find. After trying to show his wife about the books and how useful they are, his wife betrays Montag by burning his house down. This was society’s way of censorship, by banning books that promote free thinking.

The destruction of opposing ideas is shown by the government burning books. Burning books destroys ideas because books can introduce people to ideas that they couldn’t come up with themselves. The destruction of books also destroys ideas because books are one of the easiest way to share ideas on a massive scale and destroying them limits the spread of those ideas. Imprisoning people who are found with books also destroys opposing ideas. Imprisoning people found with books destroys opposing ideas because even if the book is destroyed people who’ve read it can spread its ideas, however in this case they can’t because they’re in prison. Also, imprisoning people who are found with books destroys ideas because it stops people from adding onto the ideas contained in a book and spreading those ideas as well. Destroying opposing ideas is especially demonstrated in this quote, “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind.” (28). This quote shows that the government is destroying opposing ideas because they’re making sure everyone is happy, and unfortunately sometimes ideas make people

May 10, 1933; Nazi Germany attacked Jewish intellectuals. Claiming they needed to “purify” the German language and literature, universities to be German nationalism. A symbolic significance to May 10, university students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes of “un-German” books. Within past history in the book Fahrenheit 451 the resemblance of the two stories relate to how the governments wanted to banish books due to a new education, different than what should be taught (general information) as well as, people rebelling once learning this information.

Censorship is one of the many manifestations used by the Nazi’s throughout the most notorious genocide in history. Censorship is essentially “the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.” Book Burnings are a method of censorship that the government uses to diminish a group of people’s interpretations, very often in a time of annihilation. Heinrich Heine once said, "Wherever they burn books, in the end will also burn human beings." Book Burning, the public act of turning books to ash, ultimately resorts to the act of turning humans to ash. Books represent the rights of freedom of speech and freedom to express your beliefs, and when those rights are taken away, dehumanization is the outcome. The May 10, 1933 Nazi book burning, was the first major act of censorship against the Jews. Symbolically, the extermination of 25,000 books ultimately led to the murder of six million Jews. The act of book burning prohibits the spread of information through literary works, contrary to the ultimate goal of authors and publishers who wish to share their opinions.

In the novel Fahrenheit 451, censorship is very important, and even valued above freedom of expression. “‘Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘That’s against the law.’” (pg. 8) This quote indicates that in this world, reading is not only frowned upon, but illegal. Instead of only books with “harmful” ideas or themes being banned, owning any book is illegal. This makes it easier to censor content, even if it limits people’s abilities to learn things that could be potentially useful to

It is ever present, always burning, maybe killing, maybe cleaning, maybe restoring in a society that has long forgotten what books were and are, and which, in fear for the loss of its current status, pronounced books as prohibited. In fact, without books, people won’t need to rethink things or philosophize about life, and in the event of transgression, fire is the antibiotic which can be used by firemen to kill the virus. Additionally, Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 not long after World War II, in which the Nazis resorted to burning books during Adolf Hitler regime. In fact, book burning has a long and dark history that represents an element of censorship (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n. pag.). Many readers may not recognize the relationship of this novel to the Holocaust, but it is a strong and rigid one because it focuses on the fact that fire is not just a symbol of a fiction novel, but it is a concrete reality that has affected many human beings in the past. For instance, in a symbolic act of ominous significance, on May 10, 1933, university students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes of “un-German” books, presaging an era of state censorship and control of culture (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n. pag.). With this last words, regardless of the position that readers may assume, the significance of Ray Bradbury’s novel and fire, along with all the symbols related to it,

Towards the end Part One, Captain Beatty tells Montag that the purpose of burning books is to create a forced equality between all people. He tells Montag that “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each mans the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against” (Bradbury 58). Beatty tells Montag that books are dangerous because they create differences in people by allowing some people to gain great knowledge and become “mountains” that overshadow other people.

Some citizens are so passionate about their novels they would burn with their books as the firemen set the books on fire. Firemen in this crooked society will do anything to disallow people from books, even if it means burning them with the books, Captain Beatty tells Montag “...these fanatics always try suicide; the pattern’s familiar.” (Bradbury 39) Citizens who protect their books and die with their books as they burn, proves how important books are to people who have discovered there “powers” and how great they are for relaxing and such. The world is so ignorant about how much you can benefit from books, but throughout everyone’s life all they learn about is how books should be hated by all. People who do not take the time to explore book’s greatness believe (like the rest) that books are evil and should be burnt, so they think everyone who reads them is better than those who do not read, Montag is to be believed to be one of these “book loving freaks” when Beatty says “You think you can walk on water with your books. Well, the world can get by just fine without them.” (118) People in general no matter what society, dystopic or not, believe anything the government throws in their face. By burning books, the government is making citizens believe reading is terrible, expanding your mind with literature is disgustingly bad, and create people who read

Both of the societies in Fahrenheit 451 and Minority Report are illusions of an ideal utopian world. When Beatty tells Montag about the history of the firemen, he explains, “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag” (Bradbury 57). In the society of F451, there is a censorship of all literature for the strive of political correctness and to preserve people’s emotions. It seems to be ideal that there will be no material to offend people, however, realistically, it is impossible to achieve universal political correctness and the burning of literature simply causes the citizens to lack free thought and, more concerningly, any genuine thought. Comparatively, in

Firemen today are around to put out fires, but in Fahrenheit 451, the temperature books burn, they are the ones that start the fires when they hear about a house that contains books. Anti-Intellectualism was used in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by the firemen burning books and the houses that contained them. Anti-Intellectualism is when a group or individual disagrees with given knowledge, for example burning books in Fahrenheit 451 because they disagreed with the knowledge contained within them. Firemen saw books as nothing but a waste, but still went through with harsh punishments to anyone in possession of a book because it was a law. Similar was done throughout history. Something like that was a huge world event showing that we can be punished for knowledge. Events like the Salem witch trials, nazi occupied germany, and isis all believed that information should be censored and heavily practiced anti-intellectualism. That similar illegalization and burning of books in Fahrenheit 451 leads to unhappiness, anti-intellectualism of citizens, and even death to the very people who believed it was better for the population.