In the year since the exclusive copyright on Mein Kampf ended—a year in which nativist, anti-immigrant ideas gained political footing in Europe—the publisher that won the rights to reprint an annotated version of Hitler’s racist manifesto has announced that sales were overwhelming, selling out six print runs. “The new version,” reported The Daily Mail, “has copious notes explaining Hitler’s paranoid racism to deter readers from ever believing his twisted gospel.” (The publisher’s statement can be read here in full, in German.)
Still, 85,000 copies of the book sold in the first year that it again entered the public domain. In fact, the new publishing of Hitler’s gross vision reached No. 2 on a German bestsetter list in Febraury, just two months into the new run. In April it became a No. 1 bestseller. English and French versions are reportedly planned.
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Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.
