Scholars are divided over news Adolf Hitler’s infamous Mein Kampf book will be sold in Germany next year for the first time since the Nazi leader’s death, after its copyright expires.
An annotated and critical edition is set to be published in 2016, after a 70-year copyright held by Bavaria comes to an end. Bavaria had refused to allow reprints of the book.
Munich’s Institute of Contemporary History’s ‘Hitler, Mein Kampf. A Critical Edition’ will add context to the hateful rant with commentary in about 3500 annotations.
Educators and political commentators are both fearful and hopeful of the development, with Germany’s teacher association eager for the book to be part of senior high school curriculum as a lesson in the horrors of political extremism, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper.
Adolf Hitler.
The infamous text could not be ignored, and should instead be explained “by savvy history and politics teachers” to help “inoculate” teens against extremism, association head Josef Kraus said.
However, German Jewish community leaders said teaching the “profoundly anti-Jewish diatribe” would be irresponsible.
German authorities will continue to prosecute anyone who publishes an unedited reprint of the book on charges of inciting racial hatred.
Despite being banned in Germany, Mein Kampf is available in many other countries, including the US.
With AFP.
© ninemsn 2015