Daily Times

France risks courting the eye of another storm. For a local publisher has this week released French language editions of ‘Mein Kampf’. And although it has every right to do so, the move has raised both concern and eyebrows.

Following Adolf Hitler’s death in 1945, the Bavarian government in Germany held the copyright to his infamous memoir; effectively banning publication. However, when these rights expired back on December 31, 2015 — ‘Mein Kampf’ was suddenly in the public domain once again. In 2016, the text, became available in Germany and the US. Not everyone was happy. Least of all Holocaust charities.

This is entirely understandable. For the Holocaust was genocidal anti-Semitism. Pure and simple. Some six million Jewish citizens were murdered in the name man-made notions of a ‘master race’. That this happened on Europe’s doorstep as recently as the twentieth century remains an indelible blot on the so-called enlightened continent’s consciousness. Indeed, this goes some way to explaining why Holocaust denial is a criminal offence under EU law, thought it took until 2007 to get it on the books.

The question of publishing Hitler’s memoirs therefore becomes one of freedom of speech versus the sentiments of a persecuted minority. At least this is how online retail giant Amazon framed it in 2016, when it began selling copies of print and kindle editions of the book. However, the American publishers tried to buy their way out of it by donating proceeds to Holocaust-related charities. This was seen as blood money by many. Fast-forward to 2020 and Amazon has banned the sale of most copies of ‘Mein Kampf’. Yet in 2021, it was Poland’s turn to showcase the memoir; albeit as an academic homage to Holocaust victims while serving as a timely warning against the dismantling of democracy.

Indeed, there is a case to be made for publication as an academic tool, provided extensive annotations and commentary are in place as with the German edition. Otherwise all that remains is a text inciting religious hatred and genocide. And no one should support this. But ultimately, Hitler’s written words outlining his journey towards violent anti-Semitism casts Jewish victims as passive bystanders; to whom history is being done. All of which ought to trigger debate about how history is both documented and taught. And whether the bottom line is de-mystifying hate speech and opening it up to deliberation. *