To re-educate Germany, the Allies last week adopted a typically Nazi device. The four-power Coordinating Committee decided to reduce to pulp all "undemocratic, militaristic and Nazi" literature, museum and library material, newspapers, films and war memorials. Tombstones were excepted.
Here is how the Allies went about the suppression of ideas:
Into Berlin's press camp breezed a pretty young ex-WAC introduced as Vivian Cox, an "expert" attached to the Military Directorate. Sitting on a desk and dangling her long, nylon-clad legs, Miss Cox answered indignant newsmen's questions in a pleasant Southern drawl. How would "militaristic" be defined, asked one reporter. Replied Miss Cox: "It's the way the Germans have of waging war." How would "democratic" be defined? Said Miss Cox: "Everything American people think and call democratic." Was the order different in principle from Nazi book burnings? No, not in Miss Cox's opinion.
Just 13 years ago, the Nazis had confiscated and burned millions of "unGerman" books. The war had destroyed hundreds of thousands more. Now the Allied order would eliminate millions more. Pessimists could see the day approaching when Germans would have nothing left to read except perhaps some of Grimm's lighter fairy tales. Cracked one British officer to a U.S. colleague: "You people might yet be able to convert the Germans to your comics. . . ."
The measure found its defenders. Said one U.S. official: "At least the Germans won't be able to read Clausewitz these long summer nights." Said a Russian: "If more of them were out ploughing fields instead of reading, there would be more food." But most observers condemned the order as a piece of unenforceable foolishness which would only increase interest in the verboten books, and martyrize Germany's nationalistic spirit.
There's an art gallery on Coronado Island that used to feature a lot of Dr. Seuss art, including a collection of his old anti-Japanese posters from WWII. It was all so over-the-top it was hard not to laugh at a lot of it.
I wonder if they still have it up; it's been some years since I've been.
I'm thinking, Jules Verne, and his depiction of many cultures! I loved his books when I read as a kid and as a teen, and I'm thinking the biggest target is going to be Around the world in 80 days.
TIME magazine
GERMANY: Read No Evil
Monday, May 27, 1946
https://archive.fo/Kr17b
To re-educate Germany, the Allies last week adopted a typically Nazi device. The four-power Coordinating Committee decided to reduce to pulp all "undemocratic, militaristic and Nazi" literature, museum and library material, newspapers, films and war memorials. Tombstones were excepted.
Here is how the Allies went about the suppression of ideas:
Into Berlin's press camp breezed a pretty young ex-WAC introduced as Vivian Cox, an "expert" attached to the Military Directorate. Sitting on a desk and dangling her long, nylon-clad legs, Miss Cox answered indignant newsmen's questions in a pleasant Southern drawl. How would "militaristic" be defined, asked one reporter. Replied Miss Cox: "It's the way the Germans have of waging war." How would "democratic" be defined? Said Miss Cox: "Everything American people think and call democratic." Was the order different in principle from Nazi book burnings? No, not in Miss Cox's opinion.
Just 13 years ago, the Nazis had confiscated and burned millions of "unGerman" books. The war had destroyed hundreds of thousands more. Now the Allied order would eliminate millions more. Pessimists could see the day approaching when Germans would have nothing left to read except perhaps some of Grimm's lighter fairy tales. Cracked one British officer to a U.S. colleague: "You people might yet be able to convert the Germans to your comics. . . ."
The measure found its defenders. Said one U.S. official: "At least the Germans won't be able to read Clausewitz these long summer nights." Said a Russian: "If more of them were out ploughing fields instead of reading, there would be more food." But most observers condemned the order as a piece of unenforceable foolishness which would only increase interest in the verboten books, and martyrize Germany's nationalistic spirit.
Cracked one British officer to a U.S. colleague: "You people might yet be able to convert the Germans to your comics. . . ."
And that last paragraph looks like it came straight out of the Bee, or old-school Mad Magazine or something.
This is deceptive because JCS 1067 ordered a famine in post war Germany as part of denazification. Urinalists used to be skilled at subtlety.
There's an art gallery on Coronado Island that used to feature a lot of Dr. Seuss art, including a collection of his old anti-Japanese posters from WWII. It was all so over-the-top it was hard not to laugh at a lot of it.
I wonder if they still have it up; it's been some years since I've been.
I didn't know that, about the art gallery. I wonder now that too.
Next up will likely be Richard Scarry's Busy Busy World, if they haven't gotten at it already. I loved that book as a kid.
I'm thinking, Jules Verne, and his depiction of many cultures! I loved his books when I read as a kid and as a teen, and I'm thinking the biggest target is going to be Around the world in 80 days.