Mein Kampf

(My Struggle)

   The part autobiography and part political testament was written by Adolf Hitler in 1924 while he was incarcerated in Landsberg prison following his conviction for attempting to overthrow the government of Bavaria. Mein Kampf is filled with animus toward Jews and his radical solutions for resolving Germany’s “Jewish question.” A comparison of the book with Hitler’s speeches and writings about Jews on the eve of World War II reveals his consistent radical anti-Semitism as well as his extreme remedies in regard to the future of the Jews in Germany. The book, however, was not taken seriously by German Jews, even when he established a dictatorship in Germany. Many Jews believed that Hitler would moderate his anti-Semitic views lest he become a pariah in the world community.

   Those who argue that the Holocaust was already in Hitler’s mind when the Nazis seized power in 1933 (intentionalists) point to the autobiography as proof that he was obsessed with his hatred of Jews from the start of his political career, and that a straight road leads from Hitler’s autobiography to the ovens of Auschwitz. This view supports the argument that the seeds of the Holocaust were already planted in Mein Kampf.