Thursday, January 21, 2016

Mein Kampf (My Struggle) is Republished in Germany


My life in Canada did not start very badly or maybe I feel that way now! I had to wake up at 05:00 AM in order to be able to catch the bus and get to work on time, starting at 07:00 AM(!) and that went on for 6 months, not that it got much better after that. Just got a little easier. D. H. helped me a lot and I quite enjoyed staying at his place and all those unforgettable memories which I have posted some here. One of the things that he showed me at the time was Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf. To this day I have not been able to understand the type of mental sickness these English-speaking people are suffering from that make them to avoid an English title for that book, say My Struggle or My Battle or something similar.
Anyways he handed me the book during one of our conversations that I don't remember what it was about and asked me to read it in order to find out why Hitler didn't like Jews! I only read a few pages, I guess and that was the time I had taken an English course at U of C. The instructor at the time, an Austrian lady, who had come to Canada when she was about a year old or so, according to her, said that it was a very difficult book to pick for that course and I agree. 
Mein Kampf version that D. H. gave me and I never return that. It has been sitting in my shelf for almost 13 years now! I realized that you can even easily download the PDF version of the book in different languages. I hope one day I am determined enough to read this book
I never read any other page of that book in the past 13 years or so unless a few times that I attempted and was discouraged by its complexity and difficulty. The book is written in 1930's German and then translated to modern English. For sure hard for someone who English is his second language. In the old country I remember there was a time that this book was in the window of many bookstores, I remember. There was a big photo of Hitler extending his arm on the cover page. Of course I never bought it but I guess anti-Semitic environment of the country, particularly from the government and of course some people, encouraged publishing and distributing of such book. 
In Canada everything is monopolized, even books. So the Jewish woman owner of the major book-store in Canada, Indigo has banned the book from his stores. I learnt that once when I checked with a store clerk and then read that in the news. 
Last week I read in the news again that the book had been republished in Germany and it was sold out quickly! I personally believe that people should not ban other ideas. So publishing this book in Germany is supported because if people don't red it, people don't know if it is wrong or not. But the book being sold out is another problem. I guess anti-foreigner way of thinking is growing in Germany. The country let more than 1.1 million Syrian  refugees in and around 5 millions Turks have already been living there for generations! I guess in a few years, there will not be much room for original Germans! Perhaps people are reading the book to find out the answer. 
(Photo: The new edition of Mein Kampf is shown here in this German bookstore. According to the news it was sold out shortly after it was put up)

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