In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings, beginning early with MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD’s Institute for Sexual Research (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft) in Berlin. By the time of the book burning, Hirschfeld had long since left Germany for a speaking tour that took him around the world; he never returned to Germany.

The last of Hirschfeld’s books published during his lifetime, L’Ame et l’amour, psychologie sexologique [The Human Spirit and Love: Sexological Psychology] (Paris: Gallimard, 1935), was published in French in late April 1935; it was his only book that was never published in a German-language edition.

In the preface, he described his hopes for his new life in France: “In search of sanctuary, I have found my way to that country, the nobility of whose traditions, and whose ever-present charm, have already been as balm to my soul. I shall be glad and grateful if I can spend some few years of peace and repose in France and Paris, and still more grateful to be enabled to repay the hospitality accorded to me, by making available those abundant stores of knowledge acquired throughout my career.”