JUDGE JALAL: Today’s case is a very contentious issue. Should one be allowed to read the book Mein Kampf. It was the book in which Adolf Hitler laid down his plan for world domination and is replete with bigotry, prejudice and hatred. However, it also reveals exactly how such a man actually took power with the support of the people, and so is a warning from history which we would ignore at our peril. Once more, you the readers of this article are the jury. You decide by placing your comments in the box below the article. With that said, I pass you over to the Prosecution.
The Reasons Why You Should Never Read Mein Kampf .
Why would any decent person want to read a work like Mein Kampf? It was written by Adolf Hitler, a man who was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people during World War 2, a man who attempted the genocide of a whole race, and a man who epitomized Evil itself. Hitler was a murderer, a monster, a racist. He was a destructive, ranting madman. A wicked, evil, depraved, immoral, and vile tyrant, unworthy of being classed as a human being. At the Nuremburg Trials in 1945-1946, the prosecutors presented a series of charges against the Nazi regime and its leader, Adolf Hitler. Hitler was of course not there, having committed suicide in the bunker in Berlin on the 30th of April, 1945, finally putting an end to the odious little man. The charges leveled against him included crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He is charged with establishing a criminal state, waging a war of aggression, and committing crimes against soldiers and civilians including deporting civilians, using them for slave labor, killing hostages, confiscating property, seizing plunder, and other acts of wanton destruction. There were crimes against humanity such as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhuman acts committed against civilian populations as well as the persecution of people on political, racial, or religious grounds.
Then there was genocide, the systematic murder of six million Jews just because they were born Jewish. Other undesirables such as gypsies, the mentally insane, political opponents, and specially targeted nationalities or ethnic groups such as Russians, Poles, and Slavs, a number estimated at five million, were also systematically murdered. Under Hitler’s personal leadership, mass murder was commissioned by the state, the secret police empowered, and the youth indoctrinated to support an aggressive and sadistic regime whose atrocities are almost too heinous to believe. Such monstrous and abominable acts included torture and experimentation on human beings in the name of science. Where ordinary people, men woman and children, were loaded onto trucks and driven to some barren desolate place, made to strip naked and stand at the edge of an open pit where they would be machine gunned to death. Where women and children were herded into churches which were then burnt to the ground with the people still inside. Where women and children were selected on arrival from packed trains at Nazi death camps and sent straight to the gas chambers. Where living skeletons were worked to death for the Nazi war machine. Where children were thrown into fire pits and burnt alive to save bullets. The monster who was responsible for all this was Adolf Hitler, and the blueprint for his regime is found in the pages of Mein Kampf.
Mein Kampf is the place where this plan was laid out for all to see beginning with his attacks on Jews on racial grounds and then linking them with the hated communists, portraying them all as vermin who were out to destroy the world. Look at the type of people who are attracted to Mein Kampf today. Its readers are the modern-day neo-Nazis with their racial hatred, intolerance, xenophobia, homophobia, and anti-Semitism. They vehemently deny the Holocaust ever took place, revere Nazi symbols, and worship Adolf Hitler. People who read Mein Kampf might be drawn towards the depraved ideology of this degenerate group whose aim is to revive all aspects of Nazism. This is why people should not have access to Mein Kampf. I support the view that this book should never be published, should be made illegal to read, and all trace of Adolf Hitler and Nazism should be erased from human memory. SAY NO TO INTOLERANCE AND HATRED ! SAY NO TO ADOLF HITLER ! SAY NO TO MEIN KAMPF !
JUDGE JALAL: I would now like to call on the Defense to give its reasons why one should be allowed to read Mein Kampf.
The Reasons Why I Should Read Mein Kampf .
When someone mentions the name Hitler today, the words murderer, monster, racist, evil, ranting, and crazed are conjured up in the mind. Yet that was not how most of the world saw him in the 1930s. Newsreel footage from the time likens him to modern-day musicians, actors, and sports stars. People were cheering him, swarming around him, and women were even fainting. The American publication TIME Magazine made him person of the year in 1938. In Germany, the excesses of the Nazi regime were blamed on his subordinates and the usual comment was, “Wait until Hitler finds out about this, he will put an end to it.” Even his sister Paula Hitler said that she could not bring herself to believe that her brother had been responsible for the holocaust. Yet in 1945 at the Nuremberg trials, the leading Nazi Herman Goering claimed that the Nazi regime was, “The will of one man and one man alone.” That man was Adolf Hitler. Hitler was portrayed as the supreme leader of the Third Reich and had full knowledge of what was going on. How did Hitler trick and deceive the German people and manipulate them in such a way that they believed in him and followed him on the path of destruction? The answer lies in his book Mein Kampf. For this reason, it is important that this book should be read.
I am sure that the natural reaction of most people when I tell them that they should read Mein Kampf is horror. People might view them as an admirer of Hitler or a secret Nazi. However, the book is hardly going to turn anyone into a racist. People tend to be afraid of Hitler and Mein Kampf just because of a name, but if they read the book, they would learn a lot about the man. From his book Mein Kampf, My Struggle, one can learn many things including Hitler’s ability to persuade, to enthuse, and to manipulate the masses. It is a formula, a dictator’s manual, on how to achieve power. Sadaam Hussein patterned his political movement, the Ba’ath Party, on the Nazi Party. Someone else may try to seize power using Hitler’s methods, so one has to know what those methods are in order to protect the constitution and the people. To characterize the book as a racist work is to oversimplify it. Germany did not follow Hitler because he was a racist, they followed him because he promised a great future, and Mein Kampf is where he promised this future. Hitler was not a ranting, crazy psychopath. The people of Germany would never willingly follow that type of man into a war. Instead they willingly followed someone they saw as a leader and a father because they believed in him. Understanding how a leader can appeal to and control a nation without being questioned is critical to identifying similar events unfolding today.
This book is not just a diatribe, a tirade, or violent criticism of the Jews and Marxists. True, there is an anti-semitic tone, which appealed to many Germans of the time looking for a scapegoat for their ills. The majority of the book discuses Germany’s difficult times after the First World War, Hitler’s political theories and the organization of the Nazi Party. In addition, surprisingly, there are many things in Mein Kampf that many of us would agree with. The difference is in the way that Hitler used them. To start off, he said that the teaching of world history in intermediate schools was in a sad state. I would agree with that with regards to American education today. He said that few teachers realize that to memorize and rattle off historical dates and events is not true history. True history is to discover the forces that cause historical events. He said that we can only know about the present from studying the past. I agree with that. History was Hitler’s favorite subject as it is mine, but whereas I want to use history to show what really happened rather than relying on the partisan propaganda of the History Channel or Hollywood, Hitler used history to promote fanatical German nationalism. Indeed that was the main point of Mein Kampf, to glorify national pride and to condemn anything which detracted from it. Hitler, however, probably would have approved of the way history is presented in American school textbooks with its fanatical glorification of American history and its careful selection of events. My criticism the way the War of 1812 is presented is that it starts in 1814 with the burning of the White House and is followed by the American victories at Baltimore and New Orleans. No mention is made of the 10 failed American invasions of Canada nor of American defeats .
Hitler encouraged reading in that it improves memory and understanding. However, he said that there had to be a sense and purpose in reading. In my school we are compelled to read as many books as possible for AR points. This is not a good way to encourage people in the enjoyment of reading. Hitler said that reading is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. He would have been horrified that it is being used for the acquisition of AR points. He said that you needed to read to acquire knowledge for your profession and to get a general picture of the world. Hitler said that you have to research your topic thoroughly to back up your arguments as a writer or speaker. Jumbled or imprecise knowledge would not be good for a doctor, teacher, or lawyer. The people who wrote the History Channel’s World War series had jumbled knowledge and as a result they presented an inaccurate version of history. You will see this in my presentation where I question the “history” presented by the History Channel. Hitler is not wrong in what he said about reading, but he is wrong in why he does it. Hitler’s books had to be about fanatical German nationalism and not be critical of it. In 1933, anti-German books were burned by university students. I, however, am going to be reading to gain specific knowledge on certain topics for the benefit of the ordinary American citizen and in the defense of the constitution.
Did you know that Hitler disapproved of smoking and drinking? Some people object to it on religious grounds, others would object to it on social and health grounds, but Hitler objected to it on nationalistic grounds in that the Fatherland needed fit and healthy mothers to give birth to fit and healthy males to fight as soldiers for the German Reich. Hitler advocated the creation of healthy social conditions for the poor and working class. He discussed the implications of poverty and children living in overcrowded rooms. The child hears the quarrels of his parents. He sees the brutality of his drunk father on his mother. He goes to school with lice in his hair. In school he shows no respect for his teachers or authority, and when he finally leaves school at the age of 14, he leaves with incredible stupidity, no knowledge, few basic skills, biting disrespect, and no manners. He would go home and follow the pattern of his father, get drunk and beat his mother. It would appear that Hitler had a social conscience in wanting to stop this, but that is not the case. I would like to break this cycle of poverty in order to produce polite, enthusiastic, healthy and respectful people who would be able to make their own way in the world and be beneficial to society. Hitler wanted to encourage the same qualities so that they would be obedient, enthusiastic German nationalists ready to fight and die for their country.
At first sight, Hitler and some outspoken Americans appear to share a common hatred, socialism. However, Hitler thought it was a good thing that socialists were trying to improve the living conditions of the working man. Hitler believed in socialism in order to raise the living standards of the Germans so that they could develop into fit and healthy soldiers. The name of Hitler’s party, the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, shows a commitment to socialism. Hitler was able to identify different types of socialism, something which many Americans fail to appreciate. The socialists Hitler despised were the Marxists/Communists as they were against nationalism and put party before country.
Another thing Americans are divided over are unions. As a casual laborer, Hitler was told to join a union. He refused. His excuse was that he knew nothing about the unions and would not be forced to join something he did not understand. I totally agree with that sentiment. People should know what cause they support and why. Hitler ultimately did not join the union as he had learned to distinguish between the union as a group of well-meaning people trying to raise the living standards of the workers and the union as a tool of the Marxist party promoting a political class struggle and trying to destroy the State and social order.
He encouraged an interest in politics as being the realm of the thinking man. He said that those people who take no interest in politics have lost all right to complain.
Hitler had a good insight on human nature which I can use to my advantage. Hitler saw it as the struggle to rise in the class system of the time. People struggle to better themselves and rise from the working class to the middle class. Yet the bitter battle to do this tends to kill off any human sympathy for the class they escaped and destroys any feelings for the misery of those left behind.
I can apply this to today’s society and the issue of immigration. 99.2% of all Americans are descendants from immigrants. 89.2% of those are descendants of people who escaped the miseries and deprivations of their home countries, the very same thing today’s poor immigrants are trying to escape. However, many modern-day Americans show no mercy to those who face the same problems as their ancestors. The many illegals in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, is a case in point. Many legal Hispanics agree with the hard line taken by the government over immigration. They try to ensure that no illegal person tries to come to this country illegally and they treat the illegals in our society badly. It seems that they have forgotten their roots and that their ancestors were in no way different to the person trying desperately to start a new life for himself and his family in the U.S. today. Hitler’s insight on human nature is right. People show no sympathy to the group they have left behind, and fear being dragged back into that group or being counted as one of them.
Would you say that Hitler was a compassionate person? Did he display any kindness to people or animals? He recounts a story prior to joining the German Workers’ Party where he would wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning and place bread crumbs on the floor for mice to eat. He says, “I would watch the comical little animals scramble for these morsels. I had endured enough starvation in my life that I could well imagine the hunger and delight of these little creatures.” I find it quite astonishing that a man like Hitler could display human qualities such as compassion. Yet that is what he writes in Mein Kampf. In World War 1, Hitler was an ordinary soldier, but a good soldier. He never complained, performed the dangerous tasks of a runner, was wounded twice, and received two Iron Crosses. One of them was an Iron Cross First Class, something which he wore with great pride throughout his life. He was recommended by his commanding officer, Hugo Gutmann, a Jew. Gutmann died in the United States in 1962 at the age of 81. Curiously, Gutmann still continued to receive a war pension after the 1935 Nuremburg laws denied such rights to Jews who fought in World War 1. Later, it appears he was arrested by the Gestapo, but was released. He left Germany with his family just before World War 2 started. Does this imply that Hitler did not hate all Jews, and may have even been instrumental in Gutmann’s departure from Nazi Germany? It is an interesting issue to ponder.
Hitler’s experiences in Vienna shows how one man can overcome obstacles that are put before him. If he had used this experience to promote something different to fanatical nationalism, we might be applauding his determination to overcome adversity.
Hitler was the greatest demagogue in history. As a political leader he gained his support not from rational argument, but by appealing to the prejudices and popular desires of the masses. As Hitler said,” To be a leader means to be able to move masses.” In the pages of Mein Kampf he is quite open on how to be successful as a demagogue. The masses of people are not won over by rational argument as their understanding of issues is feeble. Also, people quickly forget things. They way to win people over is through propaganda covering a few points with stereotyped formulas and a message that must never be changed. He added that when you tell a lie, tell a big lie. Vehemence, passion, and fanaticism are the great magnetic forces that attract the masses. Only those who are passionate themselves can arouse passion in others. He would use all of these in his speeches. Hitler realized the propaganda value of the spoken word and how people react to it. He would deliberately repeat violent words such as, smash, force, ruthless, and hatred. He deliberately used gestures and emotional language lashing himself up into a state of near hysteria. He would scream and spit out resentment. It might look like it was the actions of a raving madman, but it was a deliberate ploy by him and the audience would groan, hiss, sob, and cheer, under the spell of the powerful emotions of hatred and exultation. Propaganda was not just confined to the spoken word. There were posters, the flag with its black swastika in a white circle in a red background, there was the salute, the uniform, the hierarchy of ranks. There were mass meetings and mass demonstrations intended to create a sense of power and a sense of belonging. Hitler realized that violence and terror have their own propaganda value and that physical force attracts as many as it repels. He used the brown-shirted SA as a political fighting force and not a debating society. They were used as part of a deliberate campaign of intimidation. They were used to attack other speakers and to defend Hitler. Some of the people beaten up by the SA thugs actually came back later and requested to join the party and become SA men themselves. People like strong leaders and like to be told what to do. The masses feel neglected if given too much freedom. Hitler would have approved of some News channels today where simple non-changing messages are shouted at people watching on their TV sets. It seems that certain people have learned from Hitler how to control the minds of average Americans.
In conclusion, the information in Mein Kampf will be both beneficial and essential in understanding tyranny. By reading Mein Kampf, one can be familiar with the methods used by those who try to manipulate people for personal gain. There are also many aspects of Mein Kampf that can help one to understanding of human nature. Mein Kampf does have a utilitarian or practical value, namely in stopping people like Hitler from ever achieving power in the future. That is why it must be read .
JUDGE JALAL: Thank you both sides for presenting your case. Now it is up to you, the Jury, to cast your vote in the comment boxes below this article as to whether you think Mein Kampf should be read today.