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Depends on the research. For some areas such as gender science, they swooped in and literally burned decades worth of research [1]. And fwiw, even medicine was

Depends on the research. For some areas such as gender science, they swooped in and literally burned decades worth of research [1]. And fwiw, even medicine was considered political - the term "Schulmedizin" was popularized by the Nazis who preferred esoterics, homeopathy and other quackery. IMHO, it's more than warranted to call out parallels between events back then and events happening right under our noses today [2], not to mention the increasing and worrying trend of book bans [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissenschaft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissen... [2] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-man-accused-burning-books-black-jewish-lgbtq-history-rcna206716 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-man-accused-burnin... [3] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-school-library-book-bans-list/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-school-library-book-ban...

aipatselarom 1y ago
TIL about [1]. It definitely adds an interesting nuance to the book burning thing. Thanks.
- flohofwoe 1y ago
  Realizing that the book burnings in the 1930s were not performed by the dumb Nazi brutes we know from movies like Indiana Jones, but by student organizations (e.g. what should be sufficiently smart people) was a bit of a shock to me (not really anymore from today's point of view seeing how easy otherwise smart people get themselves into a spiral of hate and fascist ideology).
  - aipatselarom 1y ago
    Absolutely. So, it was smart and young German students that wanted to get rid of most or all of the material produced by one of the earliest institutions on the planet dealing with controversial topics like birth control, LGBT, fetishism, sadomasochism and venereal disease. The founder and most of the researchers there were Jewish, so I wouldn't discard an antisemitic motive behind that as well. As you say, I always bought the "dumb nazis burned books" story, but this context makes me think about the event in a much different way.

aipatselarom 1y ago

TIL about [1]. It definitely adds an interesting nuance to the book burning thing. Thanks.

flohofwoe 1y ago
Realizing that the book burnings in the 1930s were not performed by the dumb Nazi brutes we know from movies like Indiana Jones, but by student organizations (e.g. what should be sufficiently smart people) was a bit of a shock to me (not really anymore from today's point of view seeing how easy otherwise smart people get themselves into a spiral of hate and fascist ideology).
- aipatselarom 1y ago
  Absolutely. So, it was smart and young German students that wanted to get rid of most or all of the material produced by one of the earliest institutions on the planet dealing with controversial topics like birth control, LGBT, fetishism, sadomasochism and venereal disease. The founder and most of the researchers there were Jewish, so I wouldn't discard an antisemitic motive behind that as well. As you say, I always bought the "dumb nazis burned books" story, but this context makes me think about the event in a much different way.