New Mein Kampf to be released - and it will debunk all of Hitler's lies
A group of academics from Munich have created an annotated edition of the book which denounces and debunks each of the dictators lies
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
A new version of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf will be published in Germany next month for the first time in 70 years.
The edition will include 3,500 academic notes to challenge his anti-semitic rantings.
The book, which translates as "My Struggle", was first written in 1924 while Hitler was in prison for a failed coup against the new German Republic.
It is widely regarded as the future dictator's political manifesto in which he details his hatred for Jewish and Slavic people and his plan to expand Germany to the east.
The book formed the blueprint for the genocidal regime which followed after the Nazis came to power in 1933.
A team of four academics from the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich has spent three years to producing the 1,948 page edition.
A 70-year-old copyright owned by the state of Bavaria - which has banned the book over fears of exploitation by far-right and neo-Nazi groups - will expire next month and anyone will be able to reproduce it.
Dr Christian Hartmann, who lead the team of academics, said if anyone could reproduce Hitler’s words it was better to have a scholarly version which refuted his lies.
He told the Times: “It was important to us to reach many people so we have tried to create a very reader friendly edition.
“We firmly connect Hitler’s text with our comments, so that both are always on the same double page. I could describe it in martial terms as a battle of annihilation — we are encircling Hitler with our annotations.
“Our principle was that there should be no page with Hitler’s text without critical annotations. Hitler is being interrupted, he is being criticised, he is being refuted if necessary.”
But Jewish leaders remain unconvinced.
Levi Salomon, spokesman for the Berlin-based Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism said in February: “I am absolutely against the publication of ‘Mein Kampf,’ even with annotations. Can you annotate the Devil? Can you annotate a person like Hitler?
“This book is outside of human logic.”
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.