World Mein Kampf Sales Soar

Totally Jewish ^ | Mon, Aug 7, 2006 | Allan Hall

[bereanway]

I thought I had read in the past that an edited version of Mein Kampf has been very popular in many Arab cultures for some time.

[Mo1]

Scary

[Jeff Chandler]

Now that Israel has become strongly associated with Western Civilization, the United States, and George W. Bush, antisemitism is in vogue.

[Mo1]

yea and it's scaring the hell out of me
it's like history repeating itself

[Titan Magroyne]

Wouldn't surprise me if so. They've certainly taken the section on propoganda to heart.

[John Semmens]

I read Mein Kampf as part of the literature for a college course in European history between WWI and WWII.

What's really scary is that such insane drivel seems to inspire so many people.

A frighteningly large percentage of the human species is crazy.

[coconutt2000]

It seems to me that another actual world war is in the offing.

This current War on Terror is a global war on terror, but it isn't being fought with the vigor and dedication that the previous world wars were fought. With the exception of the U.S. and a few allies, the rest of the world is treating the war on terror like it treats the war on drugs, or the war on the human slave trade - they ignore it except when it becomes inconvenient to do so, and then they deal with a small portion of it, and get on with ignoring the rest of it.

World war is one of those things you don't have to ask yourself if we're in one. If we're in one, there is absolutely no doubt about it.

[AbeKrieger]

This is not censorship, this is a copyright violation issue. Copyright holder has every legal right to prevent publication.

[Tzimisce]

Consider who's buying.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

I read Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto while in High School. It gave me an understanding of the extremist totalitarian philosophies that threatened freedom. You need to understand your enemy.
Amazing that these discredited philosophies that caused the death of millions still have a draw in this day and age.

[GovernmentShrinker]

No doubt some of the sales are to people with evil agendas, but there's no reason why normal people shouldn't read this book. It has tremendous historical significance. And the notion of a government entity holding a copyright to a book which it didn't write, when that copyright wasn't sold to it by the original writer/copyright holder, is repugnant. Why should the government of the state of Bavaria be allowed to restrict dissemination of a book in countries whose laws permit its dissemination, especially of a book which is of substantial interest to many legitimate scholars?

I'm happy to say I have a copy in my personal library. I haven't read it, but at least one of my revolving cast of college student boarders has. Several years ago, a student who rented a room from me for the summer, just after returning from a semester abroad in Germany in a program focusing on Holocaust studies, happened upon the book on my shelf and read it. Her purpose was certainly not to fuel neo-Nazism, but rather to gain a deeper understanding of how that tragic segment of history came about.

[sgtbono2002]

Mein Kampf is popular because we now have Chavez, Ahmadinejhad ,Kim Jung Il and a Dying Castro all who have planned or now plan on being the new Hitler.

[griswold3]

And my German mother says she had no idea all this was going on right in front of her.

[CatoRenasci]

I think everyone should read Mein Kampf. To read it in hindsight is to better forearm onself against the new prophets of fascist murder. In fact, anyone who can read German should read it in German: the English translation is probably better written than the original, which is powerful but clearly not the work of a well-educated man. (Unlike, say Nietzsche, who wrote some of the best German prose in the 19th century)

I never understood banning Mein Kampf in Germany: I'd have forced every high school student to read it just before touring the death camps as part of their required education.

[Americanexpat]

I bought a copy about 10 years ago. Read two chapters put it back on the book shelf abd haven´t had the desire to read any more. Anyone who can read that and be inspired is a lunitic anyway.

[GovernmentShrinker]

This sounds more like a copyright-stealer than a copyright-holder. Just how did the government of Bavaria "inherit" the copyright? But aside from the copyright issue, something with this much historical and political significance simply shouldn't be subject to copyright beyond the lifetime of the author.

[Sonny M]

Of course it is.

Question, you think enforcing copyrights equals censorship?

Reading this article, I think the real anger isn't this book getting sold, it looks more like people are mad they aren't getting paid.