Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Mein Kampf (which means My Struggle) is a book by written by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler following the failed Beer Hall Putsch after which he was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to five years imprisonment. It combines elements of an autobiography with an outline of Hitler's Nazi party agenda and goals. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and volume 2 in 1926.

During this time in prison, Hitler underwent something of an epiphany with regards to his use of violence: from now on everything was to be done in a legal manner. With non-violence in mind and Hitler's ability to understand people, Hitler felt that he needed to make sure that the public knew what he stood for, so began to dictate a book to friend and fellow Nazi Rudolf Hess.

In Mein Kampf, one very prominent aspect is the violent anti-Semitism of Hitler and his associates. Hitler uses the main thesis of “The Jewish peril”, which speaks of an alleged Jewish conspiracy to gain world leadership. The book describes the reasons he became increasingly anti-Semitic and militaristic, especially during his years in Vienna, Austria.

After Hitler’s rise to power, the book gained enormous popularity and became the virtual Bible of every Nazi and all German soldiers received a free copy. By the end of the war in 1945 there were almost 10 million copies in print.

Germany does not allow any copying or printing of the book though owning and selling used copies is not illegal.

All text from Wikipedia

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The following quotes from Mein Kampf were taken from just a single chapter:

• "Jew’s know how to create the illusion that this is the only way of preserving the peace, and at the same time, stealthily but steadily, they conquer one position after another, sometimes by silent blackmail, sometimes by actual theft, at moments when the general attention is directed toward other matters"
  
• "Wherever I went, I began to see Jews, and the more I saw, the more sharply they became distinguished in my eyes from the rest of humanity."


• "it became positively repulsive when, in addition to their physical uncleanliness, you discovered the moral stains on this 'chosen people.'"
  
• "Was there any form of filth or profligacy, particularly in cultural life, without at least one Jew involved in it?"
  
• "for the first time I recognized the Jew as the cold-hearted, shameless, and calculating director of this revolting vice traffic in the scum of the big city, a cold shudder ran down my back."
  
• "I didn't know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their [Jewish] tongues or their virtuosity at lying. Gradually I began to hate them."

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This site would be used during History 20 - Unit Two: The Toalitarian State.

In this unit students focus on:

1. How the pervasive nature of totalitarian regimes affected the rights of the citizens of those totalitarian nations.


2. How the inclination of totalitarian regimes to utilize state violence at both the domestic and international levels was to continue.


3. How the inability and/or unwillingness of the international community, particularly the Western democracies, to confront the aggressive tendencies of these totalitarian regimes was to have profound consequences.

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This website could be used in a variety of ways for a variety of assignments.

If teaching a unit on the Holocaust, I would use the site and have students comb through it looking for examples of Hitler's political agenda regarding the Jews. He spells out a lot of what his overall goals are in the book (though the idea for the Holocaust was several years away at the time of publication) but there are plenty of examples on his beliefs.

By having the students look for specific things in the text they will learn and practise the basic research skills of finding information; classifying information into meaningful categories; distinguishing between relevant and less relevant information; and,
summarizing information.

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World War I is often referred to as a turning point in world history. Its consequences were to significantly impact the course of history in this century and Hitler believed that the German people were made scapegoats by the French and even the ruling German party.

Another assignment or way to utilize the site would be a research project on Germany and the conditions which made that war a possibility and an actuality.

The Treaty of Versailles was not kind to Germany and Hitler, who served in the German army, always felt betrayed by the terms Germany was forced to surrender. In Mein Kampf Hitler discusses the "betrayal of the German people" and teh effects the Treaty had on Germany. Using the online version of Mein Kampf students could do a research project or paper discussing Hitler's views on the Treaty.

One such assignment could be "A Trip back in Time" where a student or students research and present a 5 minute oral report with a suplimentary paper to be handed in, on the topic as if they were actually there witnessing the event. Everyone in class will experience it as if they were there too, thus getting Hitler (or an average German citizen's) perspective on the Treaty.