I’m only going to say this once.
I believe Donald Trump is telling the truth when he says he’s never read Mein Kampf.
He may have had some excerpts or the cliff notes read to him, but Trump is far too busy texting and watching TV to actually read a book. That’s not to say that Trump doesn’t admire ol’ ‘Dolph. Hitler didn’t just hate Jews, He also hated the French, Romas, Slavs, Homosexuals, Africans, Liberals, Communists and Socialists. So broad-minded! What’s not to like, eh Donnie?
Trump may well think that Mr H was a very fine person.
As a history student, I tried to read a translation of Mein Kampf. It was not an easy read, even to skim. The tone of the book is one long screech. Germans I know tell me that wasn’t the translator’s fault. It sounds like the rant of a half-educated man rambling away in a prison cell. That’s because it it’s the collected rants of a half-educated man rambling away in a prison cell. Hitler was in that cell serving a rather brief sentence for trying to violently overthrow the Bavarian state government.
But he loved dogs.
Hitler had a knack for attracting people who adored him so much that they never interrupted him and shared his stilted version of reality. One of these people was Rudolph Hess. Hess voluntarily joined Hitler in prison to serve as his personal secretary and type up his rants into a book.
To be precise, Hitler didn’t write Mein Kampf, rather he dictated it to Hess. Hess and Emil Maurice, (another early admirer of the silly mustache) did some amateur editing on the raw text.
Bernhard Stempfle, an antisemitic journalist and ordained Roman Catholic priest, read and corrected the galley proofs and did some copy editing on Hitler’s crapperpiece.
Hitler was a by his own description a Catholic.
When Hitler rose to power, a lot of his early admirers and colleagues who knew some sketchy things about his past disappeared. Back in the 1920’s, Hitler was allegedly boinking, or at least grooming his niece. When the teenager faced just what a horrible situation she was in, she used Uncle Adolph’s pistol to shoot herself. Or she might have been murdered. Bernhard Stempfle was probably aware of this bit of incest. He was last seen in Dachau Concentration Camp, working to make himself free from breathing. Stempfle was eventually “shot while trying to escape” while also having a broken neck, WTF?
Hitler loved children.
None of the people who produced the pile of pseudoscience, hate and bad grammar that became Mein Kampf was an accomplished professional writer or editor. To top it all off, the publisher was Max Amann, a businessman who had been Hitler’s platoon sergeant in the First Word War. Axmann was one of the original members of the Nazi Party and served as the party’s business manager. His knowledge of publishing was limited at best.
Hitler didn’t drink alcohol.
When the book was published in 1925, sales were slow. When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, it became a sudden bestseller. Hey, tastes change, right? Most of the German’s who bought it never actually finished reading it. If the local Party official stopped by for tea, it looked good sitting on the mantel. Like a red hat.
Hitler loved opera, especially Wagner.
Any non-fool who picks up the Austrian Corporal’s book will quickly realize that the author was a raging narcissist asshole. If Mein Kampf comes in a condensed, large font edition with pictures and extra pages for coloring and stickers, Donnie might have Alina Habba read it to him. If Trump says he didn’t read it yet, I believe him. If you find a copy with traces of Adderall and orange greasepaint stains on the dust jacket, you might cause me to reconsider.
Very fine people indeed!
Several influential French and British politicians should have taken the book more seriously.
Right there with all the hate and pseudoscience, was a plan to conquer Europe.
Bonus world domination included.
When a Nazi tells you who he is, believe him.
Trump doesn’t need to read a horrible racist screed.
He’s livin’ it!
Did I mention that Hitler was a vegetarian?