MUNICH: An annotated edition of “Mein Kampf”, the first version of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto to be published in Germany since the end of World War II, went on sale on Friday — a volume that many hope will help demystify the book and debunk the Nazi leader’s writing.

The Munich-based Instit­ute for Contemporary History has worked for several years on the plain-covered volume, officially titled “Hitler, Mein Kampf: A Critical Edition”. It launched the book days after the copyright of the German-language original expired last month — 70 years after Hitler’s death.

Over the years Bavaria’s finance ministry had used its copyright on the book to prevent the publication of new editions. The book wasn’t actually banned in Germany, though, and could be found online, in secondhand bookshops and in libraries. The new edition “sets out as far as possible Hitler’s sources, which were deeply rooted in the German racist tradition of the late 19th century,” said the Munich institute’s director, Andreas Wirsching. “This edition exposes the false information spread by Hitler, his downright lies and his many half-truths, which aimed at a pure propaganda effect. “ “At a time when the well-known formulae of far-right xenophobia are threatening to become ... socially acceptable again in Europe, it is necessary to research and critically present the appalling driving forces of National Socialism and its deadly racism,” Wirsching said.

Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf” — “My Struggle” — after he was jailed following the failed 1923 coup attempt known as the Beer Hall Putsch.

The rambling tome set out Hitler’s ultranationalist, anti-Semitic and anti-communist ideology, which would culminate in the Holocaust and a war of conquest in eastern Europe. Millions of copies were printed after the Nazis took power in 1933, and it was published after the war in several other countries.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2016