the nazi book burnings was a campaign conducted by the german student union (the "dst") to ceremonially burn books in nazi germany and austria in the 1930s. the books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to nazism. these included books written by jewish, pacifist, religious, liberal, anarchist, socialist, communist, and sexologist authors among others. the first books burned were those of karl marx and karl kautsky.