ALGEMEINER
Richard Ferrer
September 3, 2014

The publishing world is plagued with simple-minded books. Toe-curling examples include Kardashian Konfidential by Kim Kardashian, Learning To Fly by Victoria Beckham and the autobiographical oeuvre of Sharon Osbourne. All would benefit from concise editor’s notes at the start of each chapter to help the poor reader navigate the dross.

But of all the rambling, incoherent nonsense ever committed to paper, Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is the book in most need of explanation. And, following a historic conference of German government ministers this summer, that’s precisely what it’s about to get. Written by the Nazi dictator during his stretch in the slammer in 1924, this guidebook for the misguided outlines the author’s warped worldview and served as the blueprint for Auschwitz.

Adolf was hardly God’s gift to grammar. His psychotic prose make Kardashian read like Kipling. But, credit where it’s due, he certainly had a way of putting his feelings on paper. According to Adolf the Jews are (deep breath…) “Parasites, liars, dirty, crafty, sly, wily, clever (oh, suddenly a compliment?!), spongers, middlemen, maggots, blood suckers, monsters…”You get the gist……

A recent surge in e-book sales saw it top Amazon’s Propaganda & Political Psychology chart and even grab a spot in iTunes’ Politics & Current Events list. The Kindle edition will only set you back $3.56, while a free e-book version has been downloaded more than 100,000 times from archive.org. In March, two signed copies sold for nearly $65,000 in a Los Angeles auction. It is, however, outlawed in the author’s birthplace of Austria and adopted state Germany, where reprints have been banned since 1945. This all changes next year when German copyright law sees the book freely enter the public domain 70 years after the author’s death……

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‘Mein Kampf’, Entering the Public Domain, Must be Put in its Place