This was taken in the offices of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish researcher and sexologist,
on May 6, 1933. Alarmed by the rise of nazism, Dr. Hirschfeld had left Germany
in 1930 on a speaking tour, and he never returned. Unfortunately, he did not
remove his archives, and many of the items selected by the vandals
for burning shown above were back issues of Der Eigene.
Make no mistake. There are people in power in the USA today who would love to do something similar. Libraries around the country are under assault for circulating books and magazines that take an honest and open minded approach to sexuality. Vigilance, militance and resistance are required. We can resist in many ways, but one of the most effective
is reaching out to people close to us who may be wavering or silent
in the face of the assault. Do whatever you can.
We ARE perilously close to this in the US. I only hope we can prevent it, but my faith in the American people is seriously eroded.
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