Hitler's peace

“We read a great deal about organized book burnings by Nazi stormtroopers. But in fact it was the Christians who first organized book burnings as a means of promoting their faith (see Acts of the Apostles 19:19--20). One of my students at the University asked me today if I thought it could ever be right to burn a book, quoting Heine’s ‘Almansor’ in support of his argument that it could not. I told him that any volume of philosophy should be consigned to the flames if it contains any experimental or abstract reasoning regarding matters of fact, human existence, and mathematics, for such a book can contain nothing but lies and specious reasoning. His eyes widened fearfully as he whispered to me he assumed I was referring to Hitler’s Mein Kampf and that I should be careful what I said. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that actually I had been referring to the Holy Bible.” from

Vienna Diary: 1936