Should "Mein Kampf" Be Banned?

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As the following article explains, *Mein Kampf * (Hitler’s autobiography written while he was in prison and before his rise to power) is about to be published amid furor that it will reignite a Nazi mentality in Germany. The publication of the book has been banned in Germany since the end of World War II. How, in your opinion, should the proposed publication be banned or defended? On what grounds?

washingtonpost.com/world/europe/mein-kampf-a-historical-tool-or-hitlers-voice-from-beyond-the-grave/2015/02/24/f7a3110e-b950-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html
 
Charlemagne_III said:
How, in your opinion, should the proposed publication be banned or defended? On what grounds?
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You are specifically talking about banning or defending in Germany, right? Because in your home country the book has been available for quite some time. Since it hasn’t been challenged there’s nothing against which to defend it in the USA.

Also “banned” seems to be a bit of a strong phrase to communicate that a copyright holder didn’t want it reprinted.
 
Charlemagne_III said:
As the following article explains, *Mein Kampf * (Hitler’s autobiography written while he was in prison and before his rise to power) is about to be published amid furor that it will reignite a Nazi mentality in Germany. The publication of the book has been banned in Germany since the end of World War II. How, in your opinion, should the proposed publication be banned or defended? On what grounds?

washingtonpost.com/world/europe/mein-kampf-a-historical-tool-or-hitlers-voice-from-beyond-the-grave/2015/02/24/f7a3110e-b950-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html
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My first thought was look at what the fundamentalist Islamic groups are doing based on some teachings from the Qu’ran. Should that one be banned? I don’t think banning books will solve anything anymore than banning liquor during the Prohibition. Rather, the information published ought to be refuted with other writings and education.
 
Nazi organizations have been prohibited in Germany since 1945. Certainly, anti-semitism and state socialism have been reborn under other labels. The poor writing style of Hitler’s book probably means that it will not become very popular.
 
PaulfromIowa said:
Nazi organizations have been prohibited in Germany since 1945. Certainly, anti-semitism and state socialism have been reborn under other labels. The poor writing style of Hitler’s book probably means that it will not become very popular.
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Is that last part sarcastic? Twilight, 50 Shades, both extremely popular despite very poor writing.
 
Banning is what tyrants and Nazis use to direct people’s minds.

I am not a German. But I believe folks **should **read Mein Kampf so as to understand what their grandparental generation was faced with.

ICXC NIKA.
 
I read it - in both English and German - for German class in college decades ago. It is turgid, tough-going reading in any language. Also quite dated. Today’s readers, whose attention span has (according to the media, which itself has been very much dumbed-down) been much eroded by the Internet, may find it quite difficult to either stick with or get anything out of. All of that said, it certainly shouldn’t be banned; banning books is what Hitler did.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
it certainly shouldn’t be banned; banning books is what Hitler did.
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I agree, but look at all the talk about banning it now…amazing to me, how quickly the govts of the world are trying to pick up right where Hitler left off…Surely they cant be that ignorant as not to recognize this…right?
 
It is groups LIKE the Nazis that ban books, burn books, not us. I can understand why Germany with her guilt ridden, complicit, citizens would want to ban it. They woke up from a nightmare that they took part in. [not all of them of course]

But no, if we ban books, we become what ISIS is and what the Nazis and other totalitarian groups were.

By the way, Mein Kampf was anything but inspiring to me, but then again, something might have been lost in translation, and it was a different time and generation. Germans were living under the stigma and hardships of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler was a master orator but that sure did not come across to me in the English version of “My Life.”
 
I’m surprised this is even a question. History is history. The book was prominent during an extremely important period, and if you’re interested in WWII history, it’s worth reading. It provides context. You’re never going to understand World War II if all you read is material from the allies; if you’re serious about it, you need to understand what Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito were thinking and how and why they did what they did. Are we going to ban every work of writing that is associated with tragic events? Are we going to ban everything that provides a point of view we don’t like? Don’t get me wrong, I do not want to undermine what happened in the holocaust, but how can we learn from history if we hide pieces of it away in a dark little corner and only present the facts we like?
 
Butaperson said:
I’m surprised this is even a question. History is history. The book was prominent during an extremely important period, and if you’re interested in WWII history, it’s worth reading. It provides context. You’re never going to understand World War II if all you read is material from the allies; if you’re serious about it, you need to understand what Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito were thinking and how and why they did what they did. Are we going to ban every work of writing that is associated with tragic events? Are we going to ban everything that provides a point of view we don’t like? Don’t get me wrong, I do not want to undermine what happened in the holocaust, but how can we learn from history if we hide pieces of it away in a dark little corner and only present the facts we like?
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I’d read it myself, except I won’t have the life to read everything I would like to read.

ICXC NIKA
 
Absolutely not. Hitler laid out precisely what he was going to do. It’s ugly, etc.,…but it is a warning to all of us.

John
 
oldcelt said:
Absolutely not. Hitler laid out precisely what he was going to do. It’s ugly, etc.,…but it is a warning to all of us.

John
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Maybe we should read* Mein Kampf*?

Or as old George Santayana opined:

“Those who refuse to study the past are condemned to repeat it.”

On the other hand:

Even when you study the past, you might still be condemned to repeat it.

My guess would be that Germany will have nukes before Iran gets one.

What they would do with it is anybody’s guess.

We pretty well can know what they would have done with it in 1944.
 
Charlemagne_III said:
Maybe we should read* Mein Kampf*?

Or as old George Santayana opined:

“Those who refuse to study the past are condemned to repeat it.”

On the other hand:

Even when you study the past, you might still be condemned to repeat it.

My guess would be that Germany will have nukes before Iran gets one.

What they would do with it is anybody’s guess.

We pretty well can know what they would have done with it in 1944.
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But if you do study the past, you can take a shortcut when forced to repeat it.

I don’t believe we have anything to fear from Germany even with nukes; just as Britain was our enemy in 1812, and they have nukes, yet we need not fear them.

ICXC NIKA.
 
Should “Mein Kampf” Be -]Banned?/-] Burned

:yup:

Book burning can be good.

Depends on the book…
 
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