kampf over mein kampf
From the New York Times:
Hitler’s copyright on “Mein Kampf,” in the hands of the Bavarian government since the end of the Nazi regime, has long been used to keep his inflammatory manifesto off the shelves in Germany. But with the expiration date looming in 2015, there is a developing showdown here over the first German publication of the book since the end of World War II.
Experts at the respected Institute of Contemporary History in Munich say they want to prepare a critical, annotated version of the book for release when the copyright expires 70 years after Hitler’s suicide in his Berlin bunker.
The German government isn’t budging, however, on its commitment to keep all Nazi literature including Mein Kampf out of print.
I understand the intention and that Germans aren’t guaranteed the same freedom of speech, but the effort to suppress the book seems unrealistic IMO, especially given the realities of new media. The German edition of Mein Kampf is of course out there to anyone who wants to get it, so why not let these historians put out a new critical edition? It may be a naïve American viewpoint, but I simply believe that we are better served when we evaluate stupid ideas and dismiss them for their folly than when we suppress them or try to run from them.
