About

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

Heinrich Heine was born in Dusseldorf, Germany to Jewish Parents. He converted to Protestantism in 1825 in order to obtain a civil service job which was otherwise closed to Jews. He resisted his wealthy uncle’s attempt to push him into business and turned to writing instead.

Heine’s importance to the Holocaust is the prophecy of his quotation chosen for this garden. Soon after the Nazis gained power in 1933, university students began burning books in huge bonfires. In one night, they burned more than 25,000 books. In 34 university towns over a short period of time, one-third of all books in Germany were destroyed as part of a policy to define Germany as an “Aryan” nation and to obliterate any literature that conflicted with Nazi ideology.

World War II begin in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

On January 20, 1942 in Germany, the Wannsee Conference approved the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” creating a plan for the systematic elimination of the Jewish people, ultimately leading to the death of two-thirds of all the Jews in Europe.