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?!

I suggest binning it. Burning without an audience would be preferable but I understand with the lack of rain would not want a possible fire risk.

Amazon has got something right by refusing to sell it.

"And if he was" is hardly me saying I am unashamedly proud of my DP's family two generations ago possibly being Nazi party members . If they were, they were hardly unique. People really need to try and understand the prevailing conditions in interwar Germany, and what motivated those living there to do what they did, to join in with what they joined in with.

(As an aside, British people have always seemed rather proud that we have never had a dictator here in modern times, that we didn't have the climate of terror which drove people to betray their neighbours and join in with things they shouldn't have joined in with. I'd say that the past couple of years have shown that this potential has always been bubbling away under the surface, actually)

People these days surely can acknowledge what their ancestors did without feeling they need to apologise for it all the time. Confronting their history of the first half of the 20th century is something Germany has done much better than Japan, for example.

Mein Kampf is an important book, just the same as Das Kapital is an important book, which can also be implicated in the deaths of millions of people.

Why would you want to bin an important piece of history?

I doubt a museum would be interested, even the first edition print was in the tens of thousands of copies, there will be loads more floating around. A second hand book dealer might take it off your hands.

try the Bodleian in Oxford

Wouldn't they already have a copy?

I'm not an expert and I'm not saying the OPs copy won't have monetary value, but it won't be anything like the same as a very early autograph copy such as that.

My university library certainly had copies in both English and German, many years ago. I would see if you can donate, because as others have said some people buying an early edition may well see it as a "trophy" to go with other Nazi artefacts, because the actual text is very easily obtainable.

Hitler liked destroying books he didn't agree with as well.

How about you just choose not to read it rather than advocate destroying historical records that other people may well be interested in learning more about.

You don't do irony, do you?

Indeed. @Skatewing
Care to share your list?

This seems like a grim question but is it signed? A first ed in English is likely worth around £200-£1000 depending on the condition, a signed copy is worth £20k+ and there's tons of them floating about although none in english I don't think. I can well understand not wanting to make a profit from it, that wouldn't sit right with me either.

Personally, I would take it to your local antique shop as a first port of call who will be able to put you in touch either with a rare book dealer or an auction house. Personally (because I can afford to), I would then donate the proceeds to either a veterans charity, and LGBT hostel, a charity that help asylum seekers, a charity that helps the disabled or of course, a Jewish charitable organisation. However, Hitler would have been just as appalled to think of the proceeds from his book going to help you and your family given I'm assuming you're British - so if you do need to keep the money, you shouldn't be made to feel guilty about that by strangers on the internet.

We've got to be more grown up about awful historical objects as your sensibilities evolve. It's a brilliant, brilliant thing that the world is becoming more tolerant and inclusive, but that inclusivity came at a very high price. That price was the lives and experiences of those who came before us and whos suffering opened our eyes to how wrong our thinking was. Erasing that history then suggests that the victims shouldnt be remembered either.

Objects like this one should be treated as curiosities - so alien to our thinking and way of life now that they're traded and bought and sold with a value gleened from how juxtaposed they are to our way of life now. For example, at our local garden centre there's an antique shop that has a man catcher which was used in 17th century Louisiana to punish slaves who tried to escape plantations.. it's a huge wooden pole with a metal collar on the end. This is in rural staffordshire. There's a confederate flag and a painting of 'happy' slaves working in fields in the same part of the shop and the owner will happily come and tell you all about how he bought the collection from a local historian who'd had them from a bristolian colleague who'd specialised in the history of enslaved people and the British empire. He also used to use it to give talks on the history of Bristol and its links to slavery.

I'd like to think Hitler would be spitting feathers if he knew his books were so rare and forgotten that we're finding them in attics and it's opening discussions on what a bloody nutcase he was. It's very unlikely to fall into the hands of someone who wants to use it as inspiration - those people have access to it online already. Much more likely it's going to go to someone like me with a ridiculous collection of banned/ controversial/ naughty books and it will rarely be opened again. I have a 1955 copy of Lolita, it doesnt mean I'm in to 12 year olds..

Unsigned sold for £150
www.davidduggleby.com/auctions/15012021906/0/3031/HitlerAdolfMeinKampf1939HurstBlackettTwovolumesinoneEnglisht.aspx?search=

Incidentally OP and everyone talking about how this is a first edition: Mein Kampf was first published in 1925 so whatever edition this is may not be particularly rare.

It's a first UK edition, obviously. There are earlier US editions in English.

The 1939 edition is the first unexpurgated translation in English.

If you’re willing to sell it, I’ll buy it

Offer it to a university

Why? Just curious what you would do with it.

You guys realise destroying one copy of a book doesn't 'erase it'. There are literally thousands of that book floating around. It's not Hitler's original manuscript or annotated by Goebbels. The fact that is old doesn't make it 'an historical artefact'. I binned a paperback Anne Rice the other day because I couldn't repair it, have I destroyed Anne RICE?! Mein Kampf is widely available, unless this copy has something more unique than being old, annotations by a fascist, signed, whatever, you can probably happily dispose of it and thus not run the risk of profitting off people with a hard on for Hitler.- The Uni will likely have it's own copy and in unlikely to want this unless it specialises in the area.

It's not a rare book. Relevant museums will all have copies already, I honestly wouldn't bother IWM or anybody else with the offer. They likely get 100s of offers a year of it.

I understand the history of book and ideas destruction associated with him and his ideas, but objections don't quite track IMO. He wanted there to be no way other than his; destroying an old book which advocates ideas that are unilaterally considered bad, knowing that there are copies in the relevant places for study doesn't have the same energy and impact.

The fact is that millions of books get pulped and go to landfill because they're just not wanted any more. You don't have to give this one any more headspace than that; it's an old book, it's not rare, nobody wants this particular copy, so out for recycling it goes.

Presumably selling it is banned because selling Nazi memorabilia is extremely problematic - and consequently banned in some otherwise liberal countries - because some people are collectors/traders because they genuinely celebrate Nazism.

It's not the historical record for godsake. It's a copy of a book that a quick search shows over a hundred unis in this country alone have copies of in English and German. No one is going to forget the existence of Medin Kampf if the OP doesn't find somewhere to donate it to and quite rightly decides not to make money by selling a fascist item to an unknown buyer.

They will have loads of copies already!

You don’t seem to understand that you don’t get to tell other people what to read.

Have you actually read the book? If not, you should. It’s appallingly written, but it tells you much about the mindset that caused so many millions of deaths.

There is nothing noble about what you are trying to do here.

It could be argued that this could contribute to the repeat of history, though rewriting and forgetting the past.