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WHEN THE Nazis "burned the
W       books" in Berlin's Opernplatz
on May 10, 1933, 20-year old Helmut
Kindler was filled with shame. The
young German university student re-
solved to help make up for this bar-
baric act of his fellow-countrymen.
Kindler, now 36, has accomplished
what he set out to do. He has pub-
lished a book which carries excerpts
from writings by more than 200 Ger-
man authors whose works were
banned, burned, and forbidden by the
Nazis in 1933.
His book was printed early in
March, and is being sold in book-
stores  throughout  Germany    at
RM 3.50. Called "Verboten und Ver-
brannt" (Forbidden and Burned) the
book bears a title page with flame-
red lettering.
The original spark for the book was
generated last spring. Kindler, one of
the two German licensees of the
American-sponsored Berlin woman's
magazine, "sie," approached Fred B.
Bleistein, chief of the Publications
Section, Office of Military Govern-
ment, Berlin Sector, and asked if he
could get four additional pages for a
coming issue of the magazine.
"I want to fill an entire issue of
"sie" with short items written by
By Raymond Simon
Information Specialist, Public Rela-
tions Branch, OMG-Berlin Sector
German authors whose works were
forbidden by the Nazis," Kindler ex-
plained. He told Bleistein that both
he and Heinz Ulistein, co-licensee of
the magazine, had agreed to cut out
of the particular issue all but a half
page of advertising in order to make
room for the editorial material.
"sie" came out on May I1, 1947,
with its  enlarged  16-page  issue.
Within its covers were short excerpts
from writings by such world-famed
German emigrants as Bert Brecht,
Lion Feuchtwanger, Thomas Mann,
Erich Remarque, Franz Werfel, and
Stefan Zweig. The response- from
readers of "sie" was immediate and
enthusiastic. Every day in the three
months following publicationthermag-
azine received an average of 15 let-
ters praising the article and re-
questing extra copies of the issue. It
was then that Kindler advanced the
idea of having the article enlarged
and published in book form.
Bleistein granted the necessary
paper allocation, and Kindler and
Ulstein immediately began looking
for an editor.
THEY FOUND two of them, Alfred
Kantorowicz and Richard Drews,
the former a German emigrant who
had been to America during the Hit-
ler period, the latter an anti-Hitlerite
who had remained behind in Germany
doing advertising work. Both were
conversant with the main works of
the important banned German writers.
In fact, their own writings had been
banned under the Nazis.
Assembling "Forbidden and Burned"
was not difficult because most of the
material came from  books which
Kindler had kept illegally in -his li-
brary throughout the Hitler period.
"There wasn't anything especially
heroic in this," explains Kindler.
"There were few checks by the police
In an elaborate ceremony, in 1933. the Nazis burned the books of "undesirable"
German authors  (Ard-ives)
Raymond Simon, who wrote
Restored and Re-Read, entered
Berlin as an enlisted man with
the first occupation units in July,
1945, and has been there ever
since. A graduate of the North-
western University School of
Journalism, he intends to enter
newspaper work in the near
future. He is a native of West
Englewood, N. J.