‘Mein Kampf’ to Be Sold in Germany

Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s malevolent and malignant anti-Semitic manifesto, will be sold in German bookstores starting in January.

The Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History (IFZ), funded by the German government, has edited an annotated version of the book, and will publish it after the copyright held by the German state of Bavaria expires in January 2016.

For those wanting more, the book will offer 3,700 comments giving supposed analysis. IFZ’s Christian Hartmann told NBC News Hitler’s “800-page book is in great parts anti-Semitic” and “full of allusions and assertions, which are difficult to understand in the 21st century,” thus justifying the need for the copious comments.

When news broke in March that the demonic book might be released, Levi Salomon, spokesman for the Berlin-based Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism, said, “I am absolutely against the publication of ‘Mein Kampf,’ even with annotations. Can you annotate the Devil? Can you annotate a person like Hitler?”

Magnus Brechtken, IFZ’s deputy director, said, “I understand some immediately feel uncomfortable when a book that played such a dramatic role is made available again to the public. On the other hand, I think that this is also a useful way of communicating historical education and enlightenment — a publication with the appropriate comments, exactly to prevent these traumatic events from ever happening again.”

In January 2014, reports surfaced that Mein Kampf was rising to the top of the best-seller lists on ITunes and Amazon.