In Poland, an annotated edition of "Mein Kampf" printed in 3000 copies
Adolf Hitler's manifesto, published in 1925, entered the public domain in 2016. REUTERS / Fabrizio Bensch
Text by: Sarah Bakaloglou Follow
3 min
Poland followed in the footsteps of Germany which had also published an edition of the book “Mein Kampf”, annotated in 2016, a unique publication in the world.
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From our correspondent in Warsaw
,
Eugeniusz Krol, a historian specializing in Nazi history, worked on this edition for three years.
This is a very long edition since the book will be 1000 pages, almost half of which will be notes (there will be 2000 in all).
This project did not come about without difficulty, since originally, the publication of Adolf Hitler's manifesto was to be done in cooperation with the Polish Academy of Sciences.
But in 2016, reports the daily
Rzeczpospolita
, this aroused the opposition of some of the researchers, due to the very controversial nature of the text, and the project was abandoned.
Finally, a Polish publishing house took up the torch and the book will be printed in 3000 copies.
A "
tribute to the victims
"
For the historian behind this annotated edition, it constitutes a tribute to the victims.
He had to face different types of reactions, especially among his colleagues.
He tells in an interview that some recommended him not to touch on this subject, because it would offend the memory of the victims and their relatives, that it could also feed the speech of the extremists, or that he would expose himself to lawsuits.
In Poland, there is a law which prohibits the promotion of fascist content.
But for the historian, this text has a scientific character.
He also specifies that until today, the only translations that could be found on the internet were poorly translated from English, and were not accompanied by any critical element.
"
This work is a warning for the future,
" said the historian.
A work for scientific purposes
Only 3000 copies will be published, the price is deliberately high, a little over 30 euros, and no promotion of the book is planned.
The publishing house is also considering donating part of the profits to the Auschwitz Museum Foundation.
Asked by the press, the museum director also reacted to the news of the publication, saying he understood the interest of an edition for scientific purposes.
Historian Eugeniusz Krol has in any case declared that he does not expect it to have the same success as in Germany, where the reissue, initially with a circulation of 4,000 copies, had finally sold 85,000 copies.
The Munich Institute for Contemporary History, which published the text, noted that buyers were mainly "
consumers interested in history and politics, as well as educational professionals
."
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