98 years have passed since the publication of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf or My Struggle. Even before the question arises whether it is worth reading because of its historical value, in many places around the world its publication itself is illegal. The artificial intelligence Perplexity tells us about the wars surrounding its distribution, which continue almost a century after its publication:
In Germany, after the end of World War II, it was determined by the Allies that the copyright of the book should belong to the state of Bavaria, where Hitler lived at the time. The state ruled that, as the rights holder, it simply prohibited the printing of the book, thus preventing its distribution, although existing copies from the 2016s and <>s continued to circulate. However, in <>, after the copyright expired, an annotated version of the book was published in Germany.
In Austria, immediately after World War II, a law was passed that prohibited all Nazi activity throughout the country, including printing, distributing, selling or purchasing the book Mein Kampf. The penalty for violators is imprisonment of 5-20 years. Poland and Guatemala also banned Mein Kampf in the past, and in Russia it is still banned. In the United States, Amazon banned most editions of Mein Kampf and other Nazi propaganda books on its website in 2020, but outside merchants continue to sell it through the site.
In Israel, of all places, there is no law that prohibits the translation, printing or distribution of Mein Kampf – but anyone who runs to look for it in the nearest bookstore is likely to be disappointed: for quite understandable reasons, the book was never published in Israel, and the only time such an attempt was made, by the Hebrew University in the 90s, the publication of some of the chapters with comments aroused such harsh criticism that it was decided to remove the book from the shelves. Since then, no such attempts have been made, but only a few copies of the book are available in various institutions across the country.
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