The banning of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' may have been justified in the early years after the war, but now we have a totally different situation. 'Mein Kampf' has no magical qualities. It is a badly written book, but it offers a deep insight into Hitler's thinking.

Friday 02nd October, 04:38 AM JST

Clemens Vollnhals, a professor of history at the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research of the Technical University in Dresden, arguing that book bans should not be tolerated in a free society. “Mein Kampf” has found a new audience in Japan, where a manga version has become a minor hit. (Asahi Shimbun)

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5 Comments

shinjukuboy at 11:52 AM JST - 2nd October

The key word is "minor hit". 45,000 copies isn't even a drop in the bucket for a manga hit. The buyers probably don't even know what it is.
franz75 at 12:18 PM JST - 2nd October

"where a manga version has become a minor hit." a manga? do they have a hello kitty version of Bergen-Belsen?

More seriously, I read a copy of "Mein Kampf". Didn't learn much out it and I didn't became a fervent National Socialist after that. It is not a dangerous book. The problem is the nuts believing what is written in it...
kavikahi at 04:47 PM JST - 2nd October

This collection of notes should have been required reading after the war.
griff at 07:21 PM JST - 2nd October

what's the point of school if people can only understand a text if it is watered down into a manga version?
WMD at 01:57 PM JST - 4th October

I read Mein Kampf off the internet. Very interesting, a piece of history, nothing more.