the burning of the books represents a culmination of the persecution of those authors whose oral or written opinions were opposed to nazi ideology. many artists, writers and scientists were banned from working and publication. their works could no longer be found in libraries or in the curricula of schools or universities. some of them were driven to exile (such as albert einstein, sigmund freud, magnus hirschfeld, walter mehring, and arnold zweig); others were deprived of their citizenship (for example, ernst toller and kurt tucholsky) or forced into a self-imposed exile from society (e.g. erich kästner). for other writers the nazi persecutions ended in death. some of them died in concentration camps, due to the consequences of the conditions of imprisonment, or were executed (like carl von ossietzky, erich mühsam, gertrud kolmar, jakob van hoddis, paul kornfeld, arno nadel, georg hermann, theodor wolff, adam kuckhoff, friedrich reck-malleczewen, and rudolf hilferding). exiled authors despaired and committed suicide, for example: walter hasenclever, ernst weiss, carl einstein, walter benjamin, ernst toller, and stefan zweig.