Editorial to the Baltimore Sun, January 11, 2016

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf - Mruck, Armin Page 1 of 1 Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Mruck, Armin Mon 1/11/2016 1:36 PM To:talkback@baltimoresun.com <talkback@baltimoresun.com >; Dear Editor: I have followed with some interest the Sun's coverage of the recent annotated edition publication of Hitler's Mein Kampf, which has been largely the work of the prestigious Munich Institute for Contemporary History. Hitler himself did not write the book. While he was in prison after the failed Putsch in Munich In November 1923 he served time for about one year. One of his party followers was Rudolf Hess. To him he dictated his thoughts. Hess, later, after Hitler had come to power in 1933 became his Deputy, only in the later phase of World War II to leave the Fuehrer and fly to Great Britain. The book was published first through the Franz Eher Verlag in Munich. By the year 1937 it had gone through 276 editions. A first English edition appeared in 1931. In 1938 the reputable U.S. publisher Houghton and Mifflin came out with the Englich edition of Mein Kampf for the U.S. public. Still today and in all the years after 1938 the book was easily available in the U.S. including libraries of universities. In German universities the book was also available for research by faculty and students Actually, from my point of view, the book reads more easily in English than in German. Hitler wrote the book in his rhetorical style. Much of what he wrote was not original. Chapter Six, in German "Kriegspropaganda" (War Propaganda), one of the more interesting chapters, leans heavily on the French author's LeBon treatise "About Mass Psychology". His thoughts on anti-Semitism have their origin in widespread European anti-Semitism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries , In France the Jewish Captain Dreyfus, member of the General Staff, was accused of treason and sent to the French penal colony, called Devil's Island only to be rehonorated because of false charges after many years of prison. Vienna, the city in which he lived for a number of years before World War I was a hotbed of anti-Semitism. Hitler's hero was the rabid anti-Semite Lueger whom he once called the great man of the century. Having lived in Germany in the 1930's it was almost taken for granted that one would own a copy of Mein Kampf — which does not mean that all the owners read it. Finally, it might be of interest to know that a valuable treatise of Hitler's book was published by the German Bechtle Verlag in 1966 under the title "Hitlers Mein Kampf-origins, structure, style, changes, sources, value of sources, annotations. "The author was Werner Masur. https://outlook.offlce.com/owa/ 1/11/2016