A miniseries diving into the Nazi book burnings and book thievings.

The Book Thieves travels back to May 10, 1933. On this day, the Nazis truly began their censorship and suppression of ideas deemed threatening to the Nazi regime. They coordinated book burnings across Germany, which targeted books primarily written by Jewish authors and political opponents. But they also included books whose narratives did not correspond with the Nazi ideology. These included material by author Thomas Mann, sociologist Karl Marx, the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud and many others.

However, the Nazis were not content with just eradicating intellectual opposition in Germany. They wanted to enforce ideological conformity throughout all occupied territories. Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg – also known as ERR – was created for that purpose. ERR plundered valuable literature and art from all across Europe. 

Anders Rydell, a renowned Swedish journalist, has travelled throughout Europe, seeking vanished libraries and searching for some of the books that the Nazis stole during World War II. The Book Thieves follows Rydell in his search.