A new issue of Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf, or “My Struggle,” is due to be released early next year. While the state of Bavaria, which owns the German copyright to the book, has not reissued Mein Kampf in years, its copyright is set to expire in December. The new edition will be in its original German and is heavily annotated. The Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History, the organization putting out the new edition, believes that the new edition will serve as a purposeful academic tool rather than one for inciting fascism and anti-Semitism. Critics of the publication feel that its release comes at an inopportune time. Anti-Semitism in Europe is rising, especially after the deaths of four shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris in January. The Community Security Trust, a British charity which ensures the safety of the U.K.’s Jewish community, anticipates that reports from 2014 will show a sharp increase in anti-Semitic attacks. Do you believe it is appropriate to reprint Mein Kampf?


Prof. Paul Jankowski (HIST)

Mein Kampf is an awful book—false, turgid, bursting with the effrontery of the half-learned. Once Hitler was in power, innumerable editions of the book he had dictated in Landsberg prison in 1924 came out, with the grammatical errors cleaned up but little else changed. The violent racial project in the east with its vista of conquest, the fusion of domestic with foreign war, the rapture with publicity techniques, propaganda, lies and violence, the anti-Semitism—a farrago of lies, half-truths and delusions spills from its pages. If only more statesmen of the 1930s had read Mein Kampf and taken it seriously, they might have grasped whom and what they were dealing with, before it was too late. As for today, no one who isn’t an anti-Semite already is going to become one after reading it, and the rest of us can only learn from it. After all, it’s there.  Yes, let them re-publish it.   
Prof. Paul Jankowski (HIST) is the Raymond Ginger professor of History. 

Prof. Steve Dowden (GRALL)
The republication of Mein Kampf is necessary and overdue. In order for Germans and Austrians to confront the past, the past must not be suppressed or censored—or represented by the circulation of unreliable, underground editions. We all need to know and understand what was in that book. We need to know why and how it was able to exercise its venomous influence in its day. Its day is now long past, but our need to understand is not. That Mein Kampf should appear now in a critical edition is a positive development. 
Prof. Steve Dowden (GRALL) is a professor of German. He has expertise in modern German literature and culture.
Erica Evans ’15
I do believe it is important to reprint Mein Kampf, so that it can be used as a reminder of the power of hate. Refusing to reprint Mein Kampf would be an effort to forget history. When I studied abroad in Berlin, I would walk past a synagogue on my way to school. What sticks out strongest in my memory is the sign on the synagogue, explaining that it was set on fire during Kristallnacht. The last line of the sign simply said, “Never forget” By reprinting Mein Kampf, Germany is ensuring that the tragic history remains alive and recorded so it can never be repeated. With the disturbing increase of anti-Semitic attacks in Europe, there has never been a more relevant time. Just because something is objectionable, it does not mean it should be discarded; instead, it is important that it be kept preserved.
Erica Evans ’15 is an undergraduate departmental representative for the German language and literature program.

Zach Cardin ’15
Evelyn Beatrice Hall, Voltaire’s biographer, summed up his beliefs about free speech: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Barring any book from publication because of the ideas expressed is inappropriate. It is easy to allow speech that one agrees with, but the true test of democracy is how it treats the most distasteful speech. It is unreasonable to suspect that the reprinting of Mein Kampf will put European Jews in immediate danger. It would also be unethical for the Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History to make a profit off this hateful book. They should donate the revenue to reinvigorate Europe’s Holocaust education program. Those concerned about the rising anti-Semitism in  Europe should redouble their efforts to expose the dangers of racial bigotry in the marketplace of ideas. Hitler burnt books, we should respond to them.
Zach Cardin ’15 is an undergraduate departmental representative for the History department. 

Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL/WMGS)
Yes, and it is long overdue. Othmar Ploeckinger writes about this in my volume Right-Wing Radicalism Today: Perspectives from Europe and the U.S. (2013): “The edition will have to make clear that Hitler’s book and its ideology belong to the past, and only by treating it this way can the symbolic relevance the book has reached in right-wing groups in recent years be eliminated.” Thousands of illegal copies of Mein Kampf are circulating in Europe today. Illegally printed copies are shared on the Internet and revered in neo-Nazi circles. A critical edition can help challenge the notion that the book presents a valid assessment of its time. The German satirical magazine Titanic spoofed the critical edition by suggesting that all footnotes in the book will simply say “nonsense.”  But we know that an entire generation of German readers enthusiastically embraced and executed these crazy ideas. Millions bought and read the book. We also know that anti-Semitism and racial superiority, even though vehemently rejected by the majority of the German public and its officials today, continue to be popular among a sizable portion of the population, and not only in Germany. Adolf Hitler being the author lends the book a powerful aura. A critical edition destroys that aura and reveals the true ideological distortion of Hitler’s and his generation’s minds. 
Prof.  Sabine von Mering (GER/WMGS) is a Professor of German and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Director, Center for German and European Studies. She has expertise in German-Jewish dialogue.
Elise Sobotka ’15
The reissuing of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is not only appropriate but necessary.  While the manifesto is, of course, infamous for its aggressive anti-Semitism, it can and should be used as an academic tool. Our greatest defense against history repeating itself is understanding how and why events like the Holocaust occurred.  Primary sources are often the best way to do this.  It would be harder to understand Hitler’s actions without his autobiographical writings. Undoubtedly, there has been a recent increase in anti-Semitism and xenophobia throughout Europe, particularly in Germany.  However, I believe that making the text available for study and criticism is more helpful than censoring it. One theory for this recent increase is that most of the Holocaust generation has passed away; firsthand accounts of 1930s and 1940s Germany are no longer so readily available.  Therefore, having a primary resource like Mein Kampf could help fill this gap.
Elise Sobotka ’15 is an undergraduate departmental representative for the German language and literature program. 
Fei Xu ’16
Despite the strong opposition, Mein Kampf should be published in Germany. Hitler is no doubt a nightmare, but he is also, frankly speaking, a successful politician. A successful politician does not necessarily equal to a good politician. The difference is that the successful one knows how to seize power while the good one is for the benefit of human beings. Mein Kampf helps us look into and understand the mind of Hitler, and surprisingly find similarities existing in some people who pursue power today. We can avoid repeating the tragedy only if we know the history. In addition, Hitler came to power because he was, unfortunately, favored by that particular time. The extremely heavy punishment, hyperinflation and humiliation from the WWI winners generated Germany the strong will for revenge, which is also a lesson for everybody at present. In summary, I think Mein Kampf, with appropriate annotations, is a publication that prevents these traumatic events from ever happening again. 
Fei Xu ’16 is an undergraduate departmental representative for the German language and literature program.  instead look long and hard at the Russia situation writ large.