In Berlin, some 40,000 people gathered in the Opernplatz / now Bebelplatz to hear Joseph Goebbels deliver a fiery address: “No to decadence and moral corruption!” Goebbels enjoined the crowd. “Yes to decency and morality in family and state! I consign to the flames the writings of Heinrich Mann, Ernst Gläser, Erich Kästner.”
On 10th May 1933 members of the SA (“brownshirts”), SS, Nazi students and Hitler Youth groups burnt over 20,000 books.
Bebelplatz with the Opera House on the left ( being reconstructed) , the Catholic Church, St. Hedwig in the centre , and end of square and the law dept of Humboldt University on the right
Just near it a line of Heinrich Heine is engraved, stating “Das war ein vorspiel nur wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen” (in English: “Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people”)
Heine was one of the authors whose books were burned that day.