Criticism Of Mein Kampf

Doing some background research, I learned that Hitler never actually sat down to write his book, “Mein Kampf.” Instead, between the years of 1923 and 1924, he paced back and forth in his prison cell, dictating the book to Rudolph Hess. The original title Hitler had picked for the book was “Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice,” but the editor of the book decided it was best revised to “Mein Kampf.”

While reading the book, it is as though Hitler was there speaking in detail about the early years of his life, the first years of the Nazi Party, his plans for a better Germany, and his ideals and thoughts about politics and the races of man. Hitler divides humans into categories based on physical appearance, establishing higher and lower orders, or types of humans. At the top, according to Hitler, is the Germanic man with his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Hitler refers to this type of person as an Aryan. He asserts that the Aryan is the supreme form of human, or master race. In following this way of thinking, if there is a supreme form of human, then there must be others less than supreme, the Untermenschen, or racially inferior. Hitler assigns this position to Jews and the Slavic peoples, as well as the Czechs, Poles, and Russians.

"...it [Nazism] by no means believes in an equality of races, but along with their difference it recognizes their higher or lesser value and feels itself obligated to promote the victory of the better and stronger, and demand the subordination of the inferior and weaker in accordance with the eternal will that dominates this universe."

Hitler then states the Aryan is also culturally superior.

"All the human culture, all the results of art, science, and technology...

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...d by political treachery at home.

When Mein Kampf was first released in 1925 it sold poorly. People had been hoping for a juicy autobiography or a behind-the-scenes story of the Beer Hall Putsch. What they got were hundreds of pages of long, hard to follow sentences and wandering paragraphs composed by a self-educated man. However, after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, millions of copies were sold. It was considered proper to own a copy and to give one to newlyweds, high school graduates, or to celebrate any similar occasion. But few Germans ever read it cover to cover. Although it made him rich, Hitler would later express regret that he produced Mein Kampf, considering the extent of its revelations. Those revelations concerning the nature of his character and his blueprint for Germany's future served as a warning to the world. A warning that was mostly ignored.