Mein Kampf Edycja krytyczna

"Mein Kampf" (Polish: "My Struggle") is Adolf Hitler's ideological "confession of faith". He began writing it in prison in Landsberg, where he was serving a sentence for the attempted putsch in Munich in 1923. First published in 1925 (Part I) and 1927 (Part II), the book became the National Socialists' bible. In the Third Reich, "Mein Kampf" was given to newlyweds, among others. By the end of the Second World War, as many as 10 million copies had been sold in Germany alone! In the first part of the book, Hitler included a propaganda version of his biography. In the second, however, he included the basis of the Nazi movement's ideology. Citing racist theories, he argued that the Aryans were the 'master race' and that among them the Germans deserved a special position. He regarded the Slavs as only capable of slave labour. He hated the Jews, whom he wanted to get rid of after taking power in Germany. Hitler furthermore promised his compatriots the wiping out of the 1918 war defeat, the unification of the German nation, the building of a so-called Greater Germany and the acquisition of 'living space' in the East. Although these predictions were considered the buffoonery of a madman, they became a tragic reality in the 1930s and 1940s. After the fall of the Nazi regime, 'Mein Kampf' became a banned book in many countries. The German edition prepared by the Bavarian government was only published in 2016. Now the Polish reader gets a critical edition of 'Mein Kampf', compiled by the eminent historian Prof. Eugeniusz Cezary Król, an expert in the history of the Third Reich and National Socialism.