For decades scholars have pored over Hitler’s autobiographical journey/political treatise, debating if Mein Kampf has genocidal overtones and arguably led to the Holocaust. For the first time, Hitler’s 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 Hitler’s 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 Fuhrer’s actions and policies turn genocidal during the Third Reich and whether Mein Kampf presaged Nazi Germany’s 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. Hitler’s 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.
List of Figures Contributors Acknowledgements Foreword, Timothy Ryback Introduction Part I. The Mise en scène of Mein Kampf, 1924-2016 1. Focus Landsberg: A Bavarian Town and its History Tied to Hitler, Karla Schoenebeck (Independent Scholar, Germany) 2. Mein Kampf: Part of the Right-Winged German Post-War Literature, Othmar Ploeckinger (Brandeis University, USA) 3. Mein Kampf: The Critical Edition in Historical Perspective, Magnus Brechtken (Institute of Contemporary History, Germany) Part II. Maintaining Power 4. Hitler, Leadership and The Holocaust, Paul Bookbinder (University of Massachusetts Boston, USA) 5. Violence in Mein Kampf: Tactic and Political Communication, Nathan Stoltzfus (Florida State University, USA) and Ryan Stackhouse (Independent Scholar, USA) Part III. Eugenics and Aesthetics in Mein Kampf 6. Blood, Race and the Holocaust, John J. Michalczyk (Boston College, USA) 7. Degeneracy: Attack on Modern Art and Music, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Boston College, USA) and Barbara S. Gawlick (Boston College, USA) Part IV. Mein Kampf and the Crusade against Germany’s ‘Enemies’ 8. The Auroras of the Final Solution: Intimations of Genocide in Mein Kampf, Michael Bryant (Bryant University, USA) 9. Pathway to the Shoah: The Protocols, ‘Jewish Bolshevism’, Rosenberg, Goebbels, Ford, and Hitler, David Crowe (Chapman University, USA) 10. Marxism: Enemy of the People in the Political Party and Military System, Melanie Murphy (Emmanuel College, USA) 11. Being Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf as Anti-Semitic Bildungsroman, Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College, USA) Part V. Religious Overtones in Mein Kampf 12. Mein Kampf: Catholic Authority and the Holocaust, Martin Menke (Rivier University, USA) 13. The Apocalypse of Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf and the Eschatological Origins of the Holocaust, David Redles (Cuyahoga Community College, USA) Part VI. Epilogue 14. Holocaust Education and (Early) Signs of the Erosion of Democracy, Tetyana Kloubert (Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Germany) Appendices Notes Bibliography Index
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.
Reviews for Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ and the Holocaust: A Prelude to Genocide
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 *
