Wallis, Russell (2017). British PoWs and the Holocaust: Witnessing the Nazi Atrocities. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 182. ISBN 9781786731944.

Primo Levi, author of If This Is a Man (1947), survived Monowitz, as did Elie Wiesel, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning book Night (1960), who was a teenage inmate there along with his father. Parkison said two or three board members came by his office to discuss the book and its "rough, objectionable language." One board member, Tony Allman, said in the meeting that educators "don't need to enable or somewhat promote this stuff," according to the transcript, and cited the book's author's past history of creating graphics for "Playboy." The goal: “Terrify educators into thinking twice about how they discuss race, sex, and American history,” writes Jeffrey Sachs of PEN America, which defends writers and creative expression. This contemporary push seems to be a response to people coming forward and asking for more diverse representation in the books that are available in schools, either in the curriculum or in school libraries. I think it’s a reaction to more people asking for their voice to be heard in the discussion about how we represent identity and teach it to our kids. But this does not mean that schools should not have a clear process of which books they choose and why. It’s just that once a book is in the library, it should remain there. The Supreme Court said as much in a 1982 case that concluded the First Amendment protects not only the right to express ideas, but also the right to receive them.One thing that’s interesting and different is that, when the Nazis instigated book banning as part of their political agenda, they included young people in the role of finding and burning books. Students were given the job of finding books that fit the criteria set by the Nazis – there weren’t lists of titles like there are now, there were qualities or types of books. And students were in charge of finding those books and leading the whole ritual of burning the books in public. I’m sure it was a pretty enticing handover, to invite young people to lead this very dramatic ritual. Irving Moskowitz was the ninth of thirteen children born to Jewish immigrants from Poland. He has stated that 120 of his relatives were murdered in the Holocaust. [2] He grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and received a medical degree from the University of Wisconsin. He then moved to California where he started his medical practice, later building and managing hospitals. [3] He started the foundation in 1968. [4] At the time of his death Moskowitz resided in Miami Beach, Florida. Clinton (Tenn.) Public Library — In February 2023, the library board voted against a proposal to create a special section of their library to house books related to gender identity and sexual orientation. The conversation was spurred by challenges to “Grandad’s Camper,” “It Feels Good to be Yourself” and “Families like Mine” from members of a group that advocates for the censorship of library material with LGBTQIA+ representation. While the books were retained where they were originally shelved, members of the group went on to challenge numerous additional titles with LGBTQIA+ representation, including literary memoirs and sex education titles. The group has recently begun calling for the library director’s resignation and threatening community members who have publicly defended access to these resources. In August, the mayor of Anderson County and four county commissioners asked the sheriff to investigate whether 17 books available at public libraries, including Clinton Public Library, violate Tennessee’s criminal obscenity laws. Prosecutors have not brought charges. The types of books that the Nazis wanted removed and burned were largely political, with ideologies opposed to Nazism, including books on race and sexuality. One of the first Nazi book burnings took place at a clinic that researched and performed gender confirmation surgery and housed a library of books on the subject.

We all know, of course, where the book burnings led, where the effort to blot out ideas some did not like carried Germany — and the world. I won’t suggest that America is at the book burning stage, but it is getting worrisome — and closer. My father, who was not college educated but very smart, an old-fashioned Eisenhower Republican and a very religious protestant, read many of the assigned books. Certainly, some of it comes from racism and homophobia and the inability to talk about human sexuality. Americans watch a lot of pornography but don’t have many talks with children about the hormones behind it all.

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Monowitz held around 12,000 prisoners, the great majority of whom were Jews, in addition to non-Jewish criminals and political prisoners. The SS charged IG Farben three Reichsmarks (RM) per day for unskilled workers, four (RM) per hour for skilled workers, and one and one-half (RM) for children. The camp contained an "Arbeitsausbildungslager" (labor education camp) for non-Jewish prisoners viewed as not up to par with German work standards. The life expectancy of Jewish workers at Buna Werke was three to four months; for those working in the outlying mines, only one month. Those deemed unfit for work were gassed at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. [5] [6] [7]