1940

Book, 11.8 x 16.9 x 2 cm.
Materials: paper, ink

Mein Kampf is an autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Originally published in two volumes in 1925 and 1927, it was then abridged and became a best seller with more than five million copies sold by 1939. The book provides the outlines of Hitler’s racist ideology. It describes the origins and developments of Hitler’s anti-Semitism, and his sentiments against Marxism and communism, which he believed to be weapons of Jewish descent. Identifying Germans as representatives of the superior Aryan race, Hitler argues for the extermination of the “international poisoners”, and also declaring the need for German future expansion towards the East and the creation of a Lebensraum (living space) at the expense of inferior nations. Thus, the book provided the blueprint for the Nazi’s military campaign and genocidal actions during the Second World War. In 1940, a special compact version in a red cover, the Tornister-Ausgabe, or Knapsack Edition, was released for German soldiers fighting on the front line.