Title
The Books He Didn’t Burn
The Books He Didn’t Burn
Broadcaster
ZDF/ARTE
Release Date
2023
Runtime
90 Minutes
Team
Written and directed by: Jascha Hannover and Claus Bredenbrock
Cinematography: Andy Lehmann, Jimmy Kets
Film Editors: Sandra Brandl, Kalle Satzger
Music Composer: Steve Willeart
Producers: André Schäfer (Florianfilm DE), Juergen Buedts (Las Belgas BE), Gregory Zalcman (Take Five BE)
Festivals
Raindance Film Festival, UK
New York Jewish FF, USA
Boca Jewish FF, USA
Houston Jewish FF, USA
Kumu Documentary, Estonia
More tba
World Sales
Cargo Films & Releasing (USA)
Supported by
Film und Medienstiftung NRW
Creative Europe Media
Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF)
International TV Sales
SBS (Australia)
RTBF (Belgium)
Canvas (Belgium)
Ceska TV (Czech Republic)
Canal+ (Poland)
TV3 (Spain)
RTS (Switzerland)
Rialto (New Zealand)
THE BOOKS HE DIDN’T BURN takes a critical look at the history of Western thought by examining the remains of Adolf Hitler’s private library. The dictator and mass murderer owned 16,000 books at the end of his life, 1,200 of which are kept in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C today.
The documentary follows American historian Timothy Ryback, who studied these books for almost a decade. Hitler’s private library shows that he sprang from a long line of racist and anti-semitic thinkers and writers, many of them representing the intellectual mainstream of their time. The hateful ideas in them paved the way for Hitler – and influence far-right extremists until this day.
