What to do with Mein Kampf?!

[Bannedcontent]

My late DF was a history buff and after he died we gave a lot of his books to charity but kept a few.

Among them was an English translation of Mein Kampf. It’s a first edition from 1939.

I held on to it as a historic artefact but would now like to move it on.

I can’t sell it on Amazon or eBay as it’s banned.

So the question is: do I bin it? (YABU)
Do I donate it to a library or something? (YANBU) Where?!

So your FIL's father was an important Nazi?

Pretty sure that was a reference to book destroying by the nazis when they didn't like what the books said...

It's a sad world when controversial / abhorent ideas can't even be read about. Without understanding the thinking of these people what's to stop history repeating itself. Those saying burn it are weird.

Not had time to read the thread but just Google and you'll find lots of professional auctions sell these. And they fetch a big price. It could be worth 10s of thousands. One example: www.google.com/amp/s/www.thelondoneconomic.com/must-reads/rarest-ever-signed-copy-of-adolf-hitlers-autobiography-mein-kampf-is-up-at-auction-119000/amp/

DO NOT BIN IT OR DONATE. Your dad would have wanted you to have that money.

It was given to people. Most regimes had something new borns or newlyweds got. You didn't need to be important in the party at all

We can't just ban stuff we prefer to forget about. Mein Kampf is an important book, because it allows us to look into Hitler's mind and understand what drove him to his horrendous excesses. Someone suggested burning it without any apparent sense of irony. Book burning is not a good look.

It's a direct quote. I'll quote it yet again in case you didn't read it the first time:

To suggest banning or destroying a book makes one no better than the Nazi's [sic]

Like others have said, I'd donate to a university library for the historical interest and because they would likely have experience of dealing with similar materials. Yes there may be other translations available but a first edition from 1939 would hold some academic interest for someone working in that area. You might find an individual member of staff (from History or perhaps even a German department) might take it off your hands if a university library isn't interested. I'm not saying I would like it as such, but if someone offered it to me (I work in a vaguely related area) I probably wouldn't turn it down despite my distaste at the contents, though I'm not sure I would want to publish any research on it in the end so it would probably just sit on a shelf with the spine turned towards the wall... I certainly have colleagues who I imagine might find it of historical interest too, and who I would trust to handle it appropriately.

I don't think it's a signed copy. Plus it's a later one, 1939. Could fetch a bit, though not as much as this.

And if he was?

My DP is German. His great grandparents and their friends might well have been Nazis - it was pretty common at one time in Germany 🙄.

Well yeah it doesn't because they destroyed books...

Mein Kampf is not 'an important book'. Anyone who has read it or who understands anything about antisemitism and German history would know this. It is not a brilliant insight 'into Hitler's mind'.

there are many excellent books by actual historians for anyone who is interested, not a shit load of raving racist bullshit written by a genocidal maniac loser. Which is bought almost universally by neo-Nazis and other fuckwits.

Let's try this again, slowly.

The reason the Nazis were Very, Very Bad People is not 'because they destroyed books'.

Let's try this agin very very slowly.

In this context, talking about books, yes.

'And if he was?'

It just slightly blows my mind (as someone whose entire extended family were murdered by the Nazis) that people can be so unashamedly proud of that history.

I'm another one who would genuinely buy it off you.
Fascinated by this period in history, human psychology and what would possess someone to commit the abhorrent things he did.
I am about as far from a Nazi-ist as you can get.
I am suprised so many people say to bin it.
Please don't do that. In your position I'd donate it to a local university.

Fuck me. Let's try one last time. The quote said.

Suggesting destroying books makes you no better than the Nazis.

This is Not True. Because the Very Bad Thing the Nazis did wasn't destroying books. It was torturing and murdering many millions of people.

Do you get it yet?

Ask the British Library. It could be valuable. It's a piece of history.

Anyone who's read Mein Kampf will tell you it's an incredibly turgid, boring and semi-coherent rant about how evil big business is and how it's all run by those nasty Jewish people. You can get the exact same sentiments from reading Karl Marx. Oh, and how France and Britain did dear ol' Deutschland dirty. And how Vienna's gone really degenerate and Bavarian culture is the best, evaaaahhhh.

Dull as hell. I think most self-respecting fascists probably just go on 4Chan now. So I wouldn't worry about it corrupting anyone.

Then read one of the many, many books written by actual historians and scholars not the incoherent manic ramblings of a racist cunt.

Gosh, there are a lot of Nazi apologists on this thread. What a shock

Museum.
Books are about understanding. Acknowledging this book played a part in the manifestation of an evil ideology. The book also shows the power of propaganda, an insight to mind of an evil psychopathic mind and the devastation and obliteration it caused.
Hiding, toppling or burning the badness doesn’t make it go away. Acknowledge it, for the piece of crap it is.

Probably not since everyone who had a baby was given one at that time.
And even if he was how is that anything to do with us? I never even met FIL let alone his father .

My DH is a collector of WW2 artefacts and I would be interested in buying it.

We are talking about books here. You can go around it as you want to, but we are talking about books. We are not doscussing the whole genocide, well genocides, annexing land, burning down villages, changing directions you deive on roads, hunting people, etc. We are discussing books. A particular thing nazis also did. Hence, why, in context of destroying books, destroying books someone doesn't like doesn't make them any better than nazi regime. In context of books and censorship.

This place

www.boothbooks.co.uk/

Might be interested in buying it.