'Fighting the Fires of Hate'
Traveling exhibit illustrates Nazi censorship
Allison Ferré
Issue date: 3/23/07 Section: News
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Photographs and video displays line the walls of the Special Collections Reading Room showing the censorship of Nazi Germany under its "Action Against Un-German Spirit" campaign. Censorship during World War II turned flames into a symbol of oppression and an antithetical symbol for America's freedom.
The traveling exhibit, created by the United States Holocaust Museum, was brought to Gonzaga by the joint efforts of Foley Library and the Institute for Action Against Hate.
Eileen Bell-Garrison, Gonzaga's dean of library services, found a flier advertising the exhibit two years ago and was instantly drawn to it as a means of education and outreach.
"I was struck by the use of censorship as a tool of hate and a means of preventing any thoughts contrary to Nazi Germany," she said.
Book burning is a practice that has occurred throughout history as a symbolic cleansing. The practice still occurs today and remains a potent symbol of control despite most information being electronic, said Bell-Garrison.
The way that Bell-Garrison saw censorship as propagating hate made a partnership with the Institute for Action Against Hate logical.
Jerri Shepard, the director of Gonzaga's Institute for Action Against Hate, agreed that the University setting would be ideal for this exhibit since it was German university students who organized the book burnings.
"I believe that they were doing what they thought was right for the nationalistic cause and that they were being good Germans," she said. "The question is where to draw the line between what others think is right and what we think is right."
Her goal in co-sponsoring this event is to open up dialogue about civil rights issues and differences of opinion.
Shepard has a theory that a person walks out of a good class with more questions than when they came in, and that is what she hopes the exhibit will achieve.
"People must become aware of how unaware they are," she said.
For Bell-Garrison the exhibit is about reminding students of the value of information and critical thinking and holding on to these values.
Information will always be controlled to a certain extent and censorship will be a part of life, but Bell-Garrison hopes that after viewing the exhibit people will be driven to ask themselves: What aren't they telling me?
The exhibit will be on display until May: Monday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.