In some pictures, Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister of the Third Reich, can be seen. That evening, he gave a speech at the Berlin Opera Square (today Bebelplatz), in which he lamented the “decline of German literature” and portrayed the book burning as a symbolic act of “purification” of the German spirit. The photos show burning piles of books, cheering students, and Nazi officials – a shocking testimony to the destruction of freedom of expression and intellectual diversity.