Thursday, 7 May 2015

Mein Kampf heads for the public domain -- and maybe a readers' warning

As is well known, Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf (in English "My Struggle") is coming out of life-plus-70 copyright on 1 January 2016 (see earlier 1709 Blog posts here, here, here, here and here).

Given that this work will be in the public domain, where it can be freely copied and republished, and given that the book's notoriety is also a basis upon which calls for its suppression have been met by arguments founded on freedom of speech and on its historical and cultural significance, Hate Prevention, a French initiative, is calling for new versions of Mein Kampf to bear an appropriate "warning" with regard to intolerance and hatred of others.  Speaking for the initiative, Dr Jean-Marc Dreyfus, Reader in Holocaust Studies at the University of Manchester (right), mentions that it is in no way confined to cautioning with regard to antisemitism, since homosexuals, Sinti and Roma were also victims of the creed of Mein Kampf's author.

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