GOOD BOOK A BESTSELLER

 

Interest in NS memorabilia has
not diminished since the 1940s.

Mein Kampf copy nets $66,000
Combined News Services Friday, 28 October 2005



LONDON—An anonymous buyer has paid $66,000 for
a rare signed first edition of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. So announced the auction house Bloomsbury, which had anticipated no more than $45,000 from the sale.

The book was sold on behalf of a collector and comes as part of a lot of signed postcards and other stationery from high-ranking National Socialists.

The work—which translates as "My Struggle" and which outlines the principles of racial idealism—became the bible of National Socialism in the Third Reich. The book is thought to have been among the German Leader's private papers found in one of his offices after the end of World War II.

Two Volumes

Originally called "Four Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice," the book was written when Hitler was in Landsberg prison after the failed Munich Revolt of 1923.

Dictated to Rudolf Hess—also imprisoned for his role in the uprising, who later became Hitler's deputy—it was published as the first volume of Mein Kampf in 1924, following the Führer's release.

The book auctioned was this volume. About 500 copies were originally printed.

A second volume was written shortly after Hitler's release from prison and was added to the work. By 1939 it had sold 5,200,000 copies and had been translated into 11 languages.

School Textbook

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Mein Kampf became a standard school textbook and all German newlyweds were given a complimentary copy.

Today the work still cannot be sold in some countries—notably the "free and democratic" Federal Republic of Germany!

*Several editions of MEIN KAMPF are available in English and German, hardcover and softcover, from: NS Publications PO Box 188 Wyandotte MI 48192. Send SASE or $1 for details.