Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ and the Holocaust
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.
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.