Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ Soars to Top of E-book Charts
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Adolf Hitler’s memoir, Mein Kampf, or My Struggle in English, has risen to a level of popularity not seen since its release in 1939. As of this writing you will see der Fuehrer’s face staring back at you out of the 3 and 4 spots in on iTunes’ book store.
Mein Kampf has been a nothing short of an e-book blockbuster, on both iTunes and Amazon, even though the physical edition is a rarity that hasn’t made the New York Times bestseller list since its US release in 1939. The phenomenon isn’t exactly new, but it’s getting talked about thanks to an in-depth post from Chris Faraone at Vocativ.
Faraone’s theory is that Hitler’s polemic is benefiting from what he terms the “50 Shades phenomenon.” People might not want to be caught reading 50 Shades of Grey on the subway, or buying it in person, he reasons, but they’re curious about the content—which is why the Romance Writers of America says its genre sells a disproportionate number of eBooks.
User reviews strongly suggest similar motives are at work for Hitler readers. That may make sense, but Jewish leaders are concerned. “While the academic study of Mein Kampf is certainly legitimate,” the head of the World Jewish Congress tells ABC, “we think that responsible companies shouldn’t profiteer from the sales of hate books.”
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Hitler’s Willing Executioners by Daniel Goldhagen dispels any notion that the German people were simply pawns – or unaware. In fact, volumes of evidence now suggests that although the Nazis played at secrecy, not only did the German people know what was going on, but so did the Allies. FDR made a concerted effort to keep the Holocaust out of the American zeitgeist, because he feared that we would not be as willing to fight a war for the Jews, as we would one for Democracy.
MM my friend, you’ve opened a can of worms, and now I can’t stop. Few subjects stimulate my typing fingers as much as this one.
I had a copy years ago, in German. I couldn’t get through it either and it wasn’t because I can’t read German. I also have a copy of the infamous “Protocols” printed in California by a self-styled Christian group. It goes unread too along with the collected lectures of Father Coughlin.
I do hope any interest in this crap is academic, but listening to the kind of verbiage so popular with the American Right, I do worry.
Guess who initially published the “Protocols” in English. None other than Henry Ford.
Although pretty much everybody already knows this:
Bayer – the Big Pharma company – manufactured Zyklon-B. Bayer also used children for experiments. I will spare you the gruesome details.
Prescott Bush (George’s Grandfather) – President of Standard Oil – sold millions of barrels to the Nazis up until it became illegal in 1942. After that, he continued to profiteer off the German war effort by sending the oil to Spain and Argentina.
IBM manufactured and continued to maintain the tabulating machines that the Nazis used for tracking and deporting individuals throughout Europe.
AUDI which originally stood for Auto Union Deutsche Industrie built engines that were used at Treblinka to pump Carbon Monoxide gas into the gas chambers. That was before the discovery of Zyklon-B and after they tried using engines from 2 captured Soviet tanks. In fact, of all the companies who either contributed to the war effort or profited off the use of slave labor – only Volkswagen has paid any reparations to the families.
Nazi gold – largely stolen from occupied countries – was gleefully stored in Swiss banks.
My point? Hitler wasn’t without help and support, and not all of it came from Germany.
I’m also a fan of the genre and have read dozens and dozens of books on the Third Reich, and WWII in general. I’ve hungrily devoured every movie about the era, and DOWNFALL might well be one of the best. Schindler’s List did a great job with the Holocaust. I am going to try and read Mein Kampf again, given it’s been about 50 years since I read it last. I will keep you guys posted as to my progress 🙂
Boy in the Striped Pajamas is another excellent one, if you haven’t seen it Mike. Same thing The Pianist. Defiance with Daniel Craig and I think it’s Liev Schreiber as brothers I watched those. Schindler’s List took me two or three times to get through it all. I kept crying during the movie and stopped watching it. Read the book and cried too. Elie Weisel’s Night is another book had me in tears almost all the way throught it. Books like that trouble me way too much but I know they have to be read just so it never happens again. I just don’t think I need stare in the abyss that is the mind of Hitler at all. I’ll leave that to way stronger people than me and they can tell me about it.
Seen it twice Jess, and will watch it again. Read Night, saw the Pianist. Probably saw Schindler’s List 10 times 🙂
Don’t think I could read this at all. If I want to see anything about Hitler, I will go to When Hitler found out (insert crazy stuff here) from the Downfall movie parodying him. At least I can laugh about that. Maybe it’s because hate groups have doubled in number, maybe more, since you know who is a black guy, was voted in to become POTUS. It really pisses them off.
Hitler had such a problem with FDR’s Polio. The idea that America (a country that he had great respect for) could elect not only a Jew lover, but a crippled one, no less… I can only imagine how Obama’s election would have driven him crazy.
This is fascinating, MM. I have a copy and have read it several times. In all honesty – and I say this as one who has spent years studying the 3rd Reich and Nazi Germany – it really is the rantings of a lunatic. One must read it in order to fully understand the twisted logic and phony pseudoscience that led to the genocide of 6M European Jews, and another 8M non-Jews. What’s critical, I think, is the motives of the reader. If you’re reading it to attempt an understanding of the Holocaust – as I did – then it is a necessary albeit confusing read. If you’re reading it out of some form of idolization, then you need therapy.
Here’s what I would say to perspective readers of Mein Kampf. This book is self important, ego driven, confusing and somewhat boring. From the intellectual standpoint – as an insight into one of the great broken toasters of all time – it’s academically necessary to read. But I can tell you first hand, if you can actually make it through that book – and take anything positive or insightful from it, then you’re a better man than I.
You have my respect for wading through that, I don’t think I could do it and I love learning things.
ty. 🙂
David I can’t quite figure out why the sales are soaring. I don’t buy the “I didn’t want people to see me reading it” argument. What do you think?
I agree. First off, people need to read this stuff, for the same reason that the Auschwitz and Dachau sites need to be preserved. Or, for that matter, the plantations of the American South, sites like Wounded Knee and Sand Creek and places like Parchman Farm and Attica. They all need to be preserved and studied. He who cannot learn from History is doomed to repeat it.
I don’t think anyone who is honestly trying to learn something from Mein Kampf has anything to hide. The only problem is you won’t learn that much from it. It’s page after page of “Listen to me. I’m such a victim. I’m the only one who knows the answer. Listen to me.”
If people really want to understand Hitler, they should read Hitler and Stalin – Parallel Lives by Alan Bullock. And if you want to glean an insight into Hitler’s self-destructive, bipolar, necrophiliac proclivities, read up on the the Battle of Stalingrad. From the strategic military standpoint, Hitler made mistake after mistake, and tried to fix those mistakes by intransigence, demagoguery and idealism.
Good choices David. Read them all.