Hitlers Mein Kampf and the Holocaust: A Prelude to Genocide

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For decades scholars have pored over Hitlers autobiographical journey/political treatise, debating if Mein Kampf has genocidal overtones and arguably led to the Holocaust. For the first time, Hitlers Mein Kampf and the Holocaust sees celebrated international scholars analyse the book from various angles to demonstrate how it laid the groundwork for the Shoah through Hitlers venomous attack on the Jews in his text. Split into three main sections which focus on contexts, eugenics and religion, the book reflects carefully on the point at which the Fuhrers actions and policies turn genocidal during the Third Reich and whether Mein Kampf presaged Nazi Germanys descent into genocide. There are contributions from leading academics from across the United States and Germany, including Magnus Brechtken, Susannah Heschel and Nathan Stoltzfus, along with totally new insights into the source material in light of the 2016 German critical edition of Mein Kampf. Hitlers views on Marxism, violence, and leadership, as well as his anti-Semitic rhetoric are examined in detail as you are taken down the disturbing path from a hateful book to the Holocaust.

Reviews

With in-depth studies of Mein Kampf as a genre (an anti-Semitic Bildungsroman), analyses of its context, esthetics, and its religious overtones, this collection of essays illuminates the most lethal and darkest of books. The close readings of Hitler's language of crusade against the enemy and of his prophetic and apocalyptic discourse show how his breviary of hate led to the Holocaust, and how rhetorical violence can become a pathway to mass murder. * Clemence Boulouque, Carl and Bernice Witten Associate Professor in Jewish and Israel studies, Columbia University, USA *
Hitlers Mein Kampf and the Holocaust is a very important anthology about one of the most influential books in modern world history, written by Adolf Hitler in 1923/24 during his imprisonment in the small Bavarian town of Landsberg am Lech. After its first appearance in 1925 it was destined to unfold its fatal effect as an ideological manifest of National Socialism. The anthology sheds light on key aspects of the complex history of the impact of Mein Kampf and represents a standard work on this subject. * Stefan Paulus, Research Associate in Faculty of Philology and History, Augsburg University, Germany *

Author Bio

John J. Michalczyk is Professor and Director of Film Studies at Boston College, USA. He is the author of Filming the End of the Holocaust (Bloomsbury, 2014). He is also the editor of Medicine, Ethics, and the Third Reich: Historical and Contemporary Issues (1994), Resisters, Rescuers, and Refugees: Historical and Ethical Issues (1997) and, with SJ Raymond G. Helmick, Through a Lens Darkly: Films of Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing (2013). Michael S. Bryant is Professor of History and Legal Studies at Bryant University, USA. He is the author of A World History of War Crimes (Bloomsbury, 2021), Confronting the "Good Death:" Nazi Euthanasia on Trial, 1945-53 (2005) and Eyewitness to Genocide: Jewish Witnesses, West German Courts, and the Operation Reinhard Trials, 1956-1966 (2014). Susan A. Michalczyk is Associate Professor of the Practice at Boston College, USA.