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On May 10th, 1933, the Nazi Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels chose this square opposite the liberal Humboldt University (as seen in the background of our photo) for the burning of "non Nazi friendly" books by Freud, Einstein, Marx, Heine, Thomas Mann and various others. In the centre of the square there is a memorial entitled "The Empty Library" by an Israeli artist Mischa Ullman. It is an underground room, entirely in white with empty bookcases all around symbolising all the burned books (approx 20,000). From the square one can look down into the room through a glass window in the floor. Next to the glass there is a plaque stating "Where one burns books, it is only a prelude; in the end one also burns people".
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