German historians want Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' republished

Wednesday 30th April, 06:29 AM JST

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redacted at 11:36 PM JST - 2nd May

"Who were the Appeasers? The British and French conservatives. "

Yeah, you mean like Churchill? LOL.

French Communists, at the outbreak of hostilities, advocated that munitions workers sabotage the plants they worked at. These are all well-known facts.

Yes, Hitler was to the right of Stalin, but that hardly stopped him from signing a non-aggression pact with Russia, did it?
jeancolmar at 09:15 AM JST - 3rd May

Appeasers: Like Chamberlain and (to repeat) the French conservatives.

Um, remember that Hitler sort of broke the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.
redacted at 09:55 AM JST - 3rd May

Germany should republish not only Mein Kampf but also Hitler's speeches. They would make edifying reading for all the sentimental Lefties - young and old - out there today.

"Basically National Socialism and Marxism are the same."

That, for example, is direct quote from Adolf Hitler, in a public speech given in February of 1941, carried in the Bulletin of International News (published by the Royal Institute of International Affairs) XVIII, No.5, 269 and reproduced in Hayek's classic Road to Serfdom.
jeancolmar at 11:23 PM JST - 3rd May

Where did Hayek get that quote? And what is the context?

Hitler said a lot of things. One thing he said (I paraphrase from memory) was that National Socialists and Marxism differ in that the former believes in private property and and the latter does not. True socialists, said Hitler, do not want to abolish private property. (I'll trace that quote if anyone is interested.)

Hitler said a lot of things in public and in private. But he ought to be judged by his actions. Who did Hitler put into concentration camps and murder? The German ruling class or social democrats, Communists, labor leaders?

Did he form an alliance with Stalin and invade Fascist Italy?

Labeling Hitler a leftist is one of the neocons big lies. (Another neocon lies is that George Orwell, a dedicated socialist, was reallly a neocon at heart.)

Neocon lies started the useless war against Iraq. Neocons and Nazis have much in common as liars.

National Socialism and real socialism--as it evolved in late 19th and 20th centuries--are diametric opposites. National Socialism is nationalistic, racist and authoritarian. Socialism is international and inclusive. I would add that real socialism--as opposed to Stalinism--is democratic, in that it wants workplace democracy.

To get back to the topic, all this goes to show why Mein Kampf and other Nazi writings ought to be made public. People really ought to know what the Nazis were about and what the Holocaust was about--it was even worse than what most people think it was.

The Nazis have been too easily demonized--to the point that just how evil they were is forgotten. Hannah Arendt spoke of the banality of evil with regard to Eichmann, the arch bureaucrat who claimed innocence because he was only following orders. But there is more to these people. Hurt nationalistic pride. Wild romanticism and utopianism. And they were foreshadowed by movements in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Once you see these people in their true light you will never be at ease with nationalistic passions. Let me underscore this: The Stalinist state was (and is) socialism gone wrong. The Nazis got exactly what they wanted, except a Reich that would exist for a thousand years.

It is easy to acknowledge evil, but it is difficult to look evil in the face. The time has come to look evil in the face.

One thing more. Profits from the sale of Mein Kampf ought to go into supporting Holocaust education.
DanManjt at 01:10 AM JST - 4th May

Redacted,

On economics, (which Hitler viewed as secondarily important) Hitler was all over the place

"Basically National Socialism and Marxism are the same." "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system" -- Speech on May 1, 1927. Cited in Toland, J. (1976) Adolf Hitler Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday Speech. May 1, 1927. p. 224

Yet, Hitler was clear to point out that his interpretation of socialism "has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism," saying that "Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not." -- Francis Ludwig Carsten, The Rise of Fascism, University of California Press, 1982, p. 137. Hitler quote from Sunday Express.

And

"Socialism! That is an unfortunate word altogether... What does socialism really mean? If people have something to eat and their pleasures, then they have their socialism." -- Henry A. Turner, "German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler", Oxford University Press, 1985. pg 77

"I absolutely insist on protecting private property... we must encourage private initiative". -- private statement made by Hitler on March 24, 1942. Cited in "Hitler's Secret Conversations." Translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens. Farrar, Straus and Young, Inc. 1953. p. 294

On yet another occasion he qualified that statement by saying that the government should have the power to regulate the use of private property for the good of the nation. --Richard Allen Epstein, Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty With the Common Good, De Capo Press 2002, p. 168

As for neo-Liberal equating of any state intervention into the economy as "socialism," I would like to hear your explanation of Japan's and South Korean's economies.

Finally, as for the Libertarian notion that any infringment upon individual Liberty by the colletictivist ethic inevitably leads to serfdom, I'd like to hear your thought on nations like Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
jeancolmar at 11:42 AM JST - 4th May

Thank you Dan Manjt. Note that the that the first quote is from 1927, when Hitler was fighting for power. The Socialists were a strong and popular power. The reality is that Hitler was not an enemy of capitalism after all. Certainly not in relation to his own finances. Hitler was rich. He made money from Mein Kampf. His hero was Henry Ford, whose anti-semitic writings in the Dearborn Independent inspired him.

It is true that the Nazis were environmentally conscious. But to make the leap of logic that that made them socialists or leftists and that environmentalists are somehow connected to the Nazis is rubbish. The Nazis also believed in sport and physical fitness. Following neocon logic that should make anyone who believes in physical fitness programs a Nazi. Hitler detested smoking (and Franco and Mussolini were also non-smokers). So does that mean that if you are a non-smoker and hate it when people blow smoke in your face while you are eating you are a Nazi? The Volkswagen was born under the Nazis. So if you own a Volkswagen and are a beetle freak are you a Nazi?

Anyway, though the Nazis did a few good things, these were mitigated by the many bad things they did. (Which mitigates any arguments that they "were not all bad"). The good things could have just as easily been done by a reasonable Social Democratic government.
super delegate at 12:18 PM JST - 4th May

"Following neocon logic that should make anyone who believes in physical fitness programs a Nazi. "

I'm sorry but I see a thread about Mein Kampf, Germany and Hitler.

Why the need to shoehorn "Neo-con" into the debate?

For that matter - what is a "neo-con"?
Zaphod at 03:39 PM JST - 5th May

There is no doubt who the most enthusiastic readers of the book will be. It falls right into the anti-semitism that is shared by the Nazis and Islam.

Moderator: Readers, Islam is not relevant to this discussion.
flammenwerfer at 05:14 PM JST - 5th May

I have never read it, but I decided to just today, I just downloaded a copy and will read on my PSP on the train.
Zen_Builder at 05:25 PM JST - 5th May

It is an eye-opening read.

Follow up with the "3rd wave" an experiment conducted in the late 60's( Movie, etc) and how the germans took it further to equal Abu Graib decades before it happened.

Scary thing is it can happen under ANY administration.
Blue_Tiger at 01:35 PM JST - 6th May

"The book has sold well in translation in the Arab world and in Turkey, where it became a surprise best-seller in 2005."

Let's see: The Arab world is dominated by Islam, a religion that in its very fabric is vehemently hostile to Jews, especially those living in Israel, and Mein Kampf is considered a "surprise" best-seller in the Arab world? Hmmmmm.....

As far as it being re-published in Germany in German, All I can ask is, what Good will it do? Here in Japan, anti-Chinese, Anti-Korean, We're-not-to-blame-for-the-Pacific-theatre-of-World-War-Two, There-was-no-rape-of-Nanjing literature has been printed in Japan for decades, and How are the people of Japan better off? Japanese-written history books deny blame for their part in World War II (or at least totally ignore it), deny any wrongdoing in China from the 1930s onward, deny their atrocities (and even the illegality of) in the Korean Occupation from 1895-1945, and then turn aroudn and wonder why the Chinese and Koreans are openly hostile to Japan at times in modern society, why the United States has had bases in Japan for 60+ years.

I can personally see only harm coming to the Germans if Mein Kampf is published in German there again. Hitler was a brutal, merciless, murdering despot who shuld never have been given a place in German Society at large, let alone lead her as Chancellor and later President.
super delegate at 01:55 PM JST - 6th May

"The book has sold well in translation in the Arab world and in Turkey, where it became a surprise best-seller in 2005."

All the more shocking in light of the fact that the Arab world (Turkey of course is not included here) has translated into their languages fewer foreign works in the last 1000 years than modern European nations like Spain do in a single year. The widespread illiteracy plays some factor in this but still it is a pretty bleak picture.
Nessie at 03:09 PM JST - 6th May

"The book has sold well in translation in the Arab world and in Turkey, where it became a surprise best-seller in 2005."

They keep it in the self-help section.
cwhite at 09:42 PM JST - 6th May

I thought they already had enough copies going around. How about they just dump a digital print on www.meinkampf.org or something.
amerijap at 04:48 AM JST - 7th May

There's no point in keeping printing media censorship, because the enormous amount of copies of translated work have been circulated to all over the world. Some people can even get a pirated edition written in German available online or in some foreign countries.