Hitler's Mein Kampf

     

A Line to Murder

    Murder: When One Isn't Enough

    Wynter's Way

    Parlor Girls

https://bookswelove.net/stover-karla/ 

for information and books purchases

            Once upon a time, an Austrian man was doing time in Landsberg Prison on charges of treason. Landsberg consisted of four brick-built cell blocks built in a cross-shape orientation.” This allowed guards to watch all wings simultaneously from a central location. The prison, which was used for holding convicted criminals and those awaiting sentencing, was also designated a Festungshaft (meaning fortress confinement). Its facilities were similar to modern protective custody unit. There was no forced labor, the cells were reasonably comfortable, and visitors were allowed. The Austrian’s sentence was five years and during that time, he received many visitors. However, his favorite pass-time was writing and he had plans for a two-volume book which the author wanted to call Four and a Half Years [of Struggle] Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice. When volume one was done, the editors were his chauffeur, Emil Maurice, and his friend and confident Rudolf Hess. The author was, of course, Adolf Hitler. At his publisher’s suggestion, the book was retitled Mein Kampf in which Hitler outlined his political ideology, his plans for Germany’s future, and the reasons for his antisemitism. The book came out on July 18, 1925 and, much to the prison governor’s disappointment, initial sales were disappointing. If the book ran into enough editions, it would "enable Hitler to fulfill his financial obligations and to defray the expenses incurred at the time of his trial. However, following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, it became a best seller in Germany. In fact, it made so much money, Hitler eventually had a large tax debt which was wiped out (of course) when he became Germany’s chancellor.

“Through aggressive marketing, the publisher pressured the public, German institutions, and Nazi organizations to purchase copies. The Nazi propaganda machine's transformation of Adolf Hitler from a common German soldier and politician into an infallible, God-like leader greatly boosted sales as well. By the end of 1944, more than 12 million copies had been printed; most of them after 1939.” Eventually there were commemorative editions: for weddings, birthdays, Hitler’s birthday, and Braille editions. In 1934, the French government unofficially sponsored the publication of an unauthorized translation. It was meant as a warning. Since its first publication in India, Mein Kampf has gone through hundreds of editions, sold over 100,000 copies and has been translated into various Indian languages.

Then the war ended.

    “In May 1945, the Allies began to systematically remove Nazi propaganda (including books, maps, films, statues, flags, and symbols) from Germany’s libraries, universities, stores, buildings, and city streets.”  They “removed Mein Kampf and other Nazi texts from circulation and prohibited their re-publication. American authorities subsequently transferred the copyright to the Bavarian government. The Bavarians “used their legal power to prevent the re-issuing of Mein Kampf in Germany and elsewhere, with the exception of the English-language versions. In spite of its efforts, though, the Bavarian government was never able to fully stop the reprinting.  Up until 2015, when its copyright expired, Bavaria accepted royalty payments for the book and then redistributed the money to various charities.

In the United States and “According to the Boston Globe, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has been publishing "a greatly abridged edition" since 1933 but only began donating proceeds from the book to Jewish-related charities in 2000.” Recently, however, it began donating 'funds to projects having nothing to do with the Holocaust or anti-Semitism,” said actions angering many Jews and Jewish organizations.

It’s hard to know what to do with any literature of this nature. The only person who had a legitimate claim to the royalties was his nephew Leo Raubal (Hitler's half-sister’s child), but Leo refused to have anything to do with the book or the profits. 

“Unfortunately, the publisher failed to recognize the sensitivity around this book," said Josef Blumenfeld, founder of PR firm EdTech180 and a former executive at HMH. "“I’m sure HMH was well-intentioned when it tried to broaden the use of funds" 

This barely touches what is an enormously complicated issue. I suggest watching Mark Felton's YouTube video on the subject.