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Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf

AlphaOmegaX

AlphaOmegaX

New Member
Has anyone read this? I've been eager to just to see what it is like. Should I read it? It's somewhere around twenty two dollars at the local Borders.

~Josh
 
Well, if you have to, you have to. And if you want to, you want to.
But $20 strikes me as exorbitant to pay for such a pile of useless trash that has caused the world so much misery. I think you would do better to read one of the more comprehensive and up to date histories that have been published. By now, after all these years, historians have unearthed enormous amounts of information about the period and they include clear portrayals of what the man was about, what he believed and what evil he did. I'll dig and come up with some names in case you are interested. They are just not at my fingertips.
Peder
 
AlphaOmegaX said:
Has anyone read this? I've been eager to just to see what it is like. Should I read it? It's somewhere around twenty two dollars at the local Borders.

~Josh
Click to expand...

You probably be able to find a much cheaper copy somewhere, such as at a second hand shop.
 
For an excellent take on the whys and wherefores of Adolf Hitler, I would suggest Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography by John Toland. Its the best I know. Toland is a master at this business. Another you might try is Hitler: Legend, Myth & Reality by Werner Maser.

Far more informative than reading the tripe Hitler wrote. IMO.
 
Hmmm. Ok thanks guys. I just wanted to read Mein Kampf because I think it was written by Hitler. Wasn't it? I wanted to see his view on things. How did he think and whatnot.

~Josh
 
AlphaOmegaX said:
Hmmm. Ok thanks guys. I just wanted to read Mein Kampf because I think it was written by Hitler. Wasn't it? I wanted to see his view on things. How did he think and whatnot.

~Josh
Click to expand...
Josh,
Yes indeed it was written by him. And many people have said that it laid out the background for anyone to see of the horrors he set in motion during the war. I however am still very doubtful that his book is the most balanced or truthful view of himself or what motivated him. But it's been a long time since I tried to read it and I haven't been interested enough to seek out critiques of it. To me the War and the Holocaust speak infinitely louder about him than anything he could say for himself. But to hear it in his own words, Mein Kampf is indeed one source.
Peder
 
Peder said:
Josh,
Yes indeed it was written by him. And many people have said that it laid out the background for anyone to see of the horrors he set in motion during the war. I however am still very doubtful that his book is the most balanced or truthful view of himself or what motivated him. But it's been a long time since I tried to read it and I haven't been interested enough to seek out critiques of it. To me the War and the Holocaust speak infinitely louder about him than anything he could say for himself. But to hear it in his own words, Mein Kampf is indeed one source.
Peder
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Indeed. I must read it. I must see his view. Thank you Peder.

~Josh
 
I also tried to read this book some years ago, when I was twentyish. It was impossible to read! Two or three paragraphs into a chapter and it was pure bogment. He simply wasn't a writer, just a disgruntled, pissed off guy with VERY long-winded explanations of his early days ... Truly, I can scarcely say it was even about him because of its pure unreadability.

There was a thread about this on another forum I go to and one reply suggested that the few sales were after he was chancellor and that people didn't actually read it. So it wasn't the book itself that convinced anyone of his ideology.
 
bren said:
I also tried to read this book some years ago, when I was twentyish. It was impossible to read! Two or three paragraphs into a chapter and it was pure bogment. He simply wasn't a writer, just a disgruntled, pissed off guy with VERY long-winded explanations of his early days ... Truly, I can scarcely say it was even about him because of its pure unreadability.

There was a thread about this on another forum I go to and one reply suggested that the few sales were after he was chancellor and that people didn't actually read it. So it wasn't the book itself that convinced anyone of his ideology.
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Ahhh it's that bad huh? I'll be sure to keep that in mind lol

~Josh
 
I have a copy of the book myself, but I haven't finished reading it either. I suppose if you wanted to reach your own conclusions about him rather than the psychological interpretation of someone else then go ahead and read it.
 
In retrospect, i suppose I am getting to think that any reading about the period, even of Mein Kampf, can be a good thing. The war and the Holocaust are getting to be along time ago, and pretty soon the only way to learn about them will be through reading, especially for the majority of people now who were not even alive at the time or didn't have relatives who were affected. Unfortunately, the Holocaust does not make pleasant reading at all, so the topic might not get read very much. All of which is a shame because, if we are supposed to learn from history, then this history has some features that are conspiring against our learning from it. Once upon a time it was a big thing; now I'm not sure what today's younger generation thinks about it all or how they inform themselves, if at all. So I'm glad that someone is making the effort to read about it.
One of the last,
Peder
 
Peder said:
...now I'm not sure what today's younger generation thinks about it all or how they inform themselves, if at all.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, virtually everything I know about the Holocaust has come from books I've chosen for myself. I think the more depressing aspects of world history are woefully under taught in American schools these days. Up until High School the only things I knew about the Holocaust were learned from reading The Diary of Anne Frank, and a few fictional accounts (none of which were assigned). In High School I learned a little in US History, but not much. I'd guess that a lot of people my age know no more than they can learn from Schindler's List.
 
The Smithsonian's Holocaust Museum is touching, horryfing and extremely sobering. If you ever get to D.C. please see it. You will learn so much about the Holocaust, its villians, its heros and its survivors.

The part that got me right in the gut was as you are nearing the end you walk through a narrow hallway. Beneath your feet are thousands and thousands and thousands of shoes that were taken from those interred and murdered in one of the Nazi camps.
 
drmjwdvm said:
The Smithsonian's Holocaust Museum is touching, horryfing and extremely sobering. If you ever get to D.C. please see it. You will learn so much about the Holocaust, its villians, its heros and its survivors.

The part that got me right in the gut was as you are nearing the end you walk through a narrow hallway. Beneath your feet are thousands and thousands and thousands of shoes that were taken from those interred and murdered in one of the Nazi camps.
Click to expand...

I've been, and I agree. The shoes were incredible.

The New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston is also amazing. In 1996, less than a year after its opening, I did set design and construction on a play called We Will Remember (so I guess I did do a little in High School). We were finalists in the Boston Globe Theatre Competition, so we performed in Boston. Our director took us to the monument and told us that it had inspired him to write the play that we were doing. He had us all walk around and explore the monument before the performance. It was very sobering, but he said he didn't want us to lose sight of the play's "mission" while we played in Boston. I've been back dozens of times since then because it is a peaceful place in a busy city.

Back to the topic at hand, although she writes fiction, Ursela Hegi is a great author for those looking to learn more about Germany during that time period. Hmm...I should make a thread in our new Historical Fic forum...
 
There was a video documentary on PBS a few years ago called Shoah that I found really informative and wrenching. It was mainly interviews with survivors intercut with images of the concentration camp locales as they were at the time of the documentary - onsite, and the local environs, including some interviews of non-camp survivors, that is, people who were there at the time but not in the camps. It was a really quiet and powerful statement. That was one I had to keep watching, despite its length.

The only way one can know the contents of Mein Kampf is by taking a gander, wherever you can find it. See if you don't agree that there really isn't a book there, just page after page of public ramblings.
 
To all,
I am encouraged to see that there is more knowledge and less silence than I have imagined.
My own experience of the subject goes back to my childhood at the time itself, fortunately living safely in the United States. I remember the actual news coverage of the opening of the camps by Allied soldiers and it was just appalling. But the thing that had the most impact on me was a letter my father showed me, written by one of the servicemen (a son of a friend) who actually was among the first to reach one of the camps. He described in handwriting for page after page the survivors he had seen -- grownups and young children -- and I was crying by the time I finished it. Since then I have never had enthusiasm to read or see much more, feeling that I already knew the horror of the story in a way that could not be expanded upon. In, fact, though I am aware of the books, shows and monuments that you mention, and have reverence for them, I have by choice not read or seen them. I know, for example, that I couldn't possibly read The Diary of Anne Frank, or visit a Holocaust Museum, with any degree of composure at all. It was all just too terrible for words.
Peder
 
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