No, we did not remove any books. Protestants don't usually read them but there are some Protestant denominations that do. The question then becomes one of the nature of these books.

Jerome distinguished between canonical books and ecclesiastical books. The Deutercanon or Apocrypha didn't become canonical until the Council of Trent in the 16th century. The Catholic church further recognized the "uncertainty" of the canon. Prior to Trent the church Fathers rejected it as canon proper and found them profitable for reading alone.

The Jews themselves never held to the apocryphal books as Canon. The Septuagint's early composition most likely did not include the apocryphal books. This is attested to by Athanasius who did not list them. Nor are they referenced by the New Testament authors when citing the Old Testament etc..

This is ultra concise with some nuance possibly overlooked but the question should not be who removed them. The question should be why the Catholic church went against the witness of the early Church Fathers and established them as canon proper when the evidence for such authority is lacking.

"Canon" had two meanings historically. One broad and one narrow. Augustine himself held to the broad meaning of the word "canon" when referencing the apocrypha.

This is precisely why the Catholics admit these books were uncertain. Uncertain is a stretch however and not completely honest. Since the early church clearly held these outside of authoritative canon or canon in a narrow sense.

It is apparent that this did not take place at Hippo or Carthage by the admission of the Catholic church alone in the New Catholic Encyclopedia:

St. Jerome distinguished between canonical books and ecclesiastical books. The latter he judged were circulated by the Church as good spiritual reading but were not recognized as authoritative Scripture...The situation remained unclear in the ensuing centuries....According to Catholic doctrine, the proximate criterion of the biblical canon is the infallible decision of the Church. This decision was not given until rather late in the history of the Church at the Council of Trent...The Council of Trent definitively settled the matter of the Old Testament Canon. That this had not been done previously is apparent from the uncertainty that persisted up to the time of Trent.

New Catholic Encyclopedia Volume 1 pg 390.