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German Chancellor and Fuehrer Adolf Hitler in an official 1937 photo. (AP)
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Last update - 00:00 25/04/2008
German Jewish leader backs publication of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'
By Reuters
Tags: Jewish, Adolf Hitler 

BERLIN - A ban in Germany on Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf should be lifted so the book can be published with editorial comments, a Jewish leader said on Friday.

"I'm basically in favor of the book being made publicly accessible with annotation," Stephan Kramer, general secretary of Germany's Central Council of Jews, told German radio.

Speaking on broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, Kramer said he believed such an edition should be made available online, where the book can already be read in most countries.
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Hitler dictated the work to his aide Rudolf Hess while in prison in Bavaria following the failed Munich "Beer Hall" putsch of 1923. It outlines a doctrine of German racial supremacy and ambitions to annex huge areas of the Soviet Union.

Kramer said the Central Council of Jews was ready to help with the annotating, and might even ask the Bavarian state government, which holds the rights to the book, to lift the ban.

In Germany, it is illegal to distribute the tome except in special circumstances. Nazi symbols like the swastika and performing the stiff-armed Hitler salute are also outlawed.

Published in 1925, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) became a school textbook after Hitler seized power in 1933. All German newlyweds also received a copy.

A number of historians have called on Germany to lift the ban in recent years, some of them Jewish.

Now, purchasers who can prove an academic purpose may secure an existing copy. Otherwise though, sales are banned and Bavaria, which was granted the German rights to the book by the postwar occupying powers, refused to authorize new copies.

Deutschlandfunk said Bavarian authorities had rejected the idea of loosening the restrictions on publication.

"[To do so] would get enormous political attention worldwide, and probably be met with incomprehension," it quoted the Bavarian finance ministry as saying in a statement.

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      1.   Annotation v Censorship 23:30  |  Joan 25/04/08
      2.   Why 23:55  |  msh 25/04/08
      3.   Leader? Whose leader? 23:56  |  Axel 25/04/08
      4.   Annotations? 23:59  |  msh 25/04/08
      5.   The time has come 00:04  |  The Northern Wind 26/04/08
      6.   it would not do any harm 02:16  |  enrique 26/04/08
      7.   Hitler`s inspiration 02:18  |  Friend 26/04/08
      8.   broader picture 02:55  |  hollingsworth 26/04/08
      9.   Response to friend 03:02  |  Don 26/04/08
      10.   Where can I buy an unadulterated version? 03:06  |  Lou Medel 26/04/08
      11.   annotations? 03:29  |  ben 26/04/08
      12.   I am skeptical that this will be an objective annotated edition! 03:58  |  lakshmi 26/04/08
      13.   Mein Kampf 05:19  |  Seymour 26/04/08
      14.   German Jewish leader backs publication of Hitler`s `Mein Kampf` 06:00  |  ed 26/04/08
      15.   And there are movies 06:40  |  Fritz T. 26/04/08
      16.   #13 good idea 06:44  |  Fritz T. 26/04/08
      17.   publish it!...or don`t!...but annotations? 06:51  |  eric 26/04/08
      18.   not necessary 09:15  |  Sarah 26/04/08
      19.   Axel from Germany strikes again 09:52  |  MR 26/04/08
      20.   Lou Medel (#10) 10:55  |  Michael 26/04/08
      21.   Ban is totally useless 11:33  |  jan 26/04/08
      22.   table talk a better read!! 12:08  |  Rob of melbourne 26/04/08
      23.   #5 The Northern Wind 12:42  |  MR 26/04/08
      24.   Assad is Hitler`s Love Child? 13:17  |  Rompy 26/04/08
      25.   Should NOT be published to protect the Innocent from the HORID! 13:24  |  Paul 26/04/08
      26.   Copyright expires... that`s why... 13:40  |  J 26/04/08
      27.   Herr Hitler`s book "Mein Kampf" 14:20  |  Ricardo Kolbe 26/04/08
      28.   #20: Mein Kampf is important for education/scholars too 14:26  |  Jan 26/04/08
      29.   "the plain bullshit " makes Germans very ridiculous and less ... 14:34  |  Fritz T. 26/04/08
      30.   26, an uncommented version is stronger 14:39  |  Fritz T. 26/04/08
      31.   this book was a bestseller between 1933 and 1942 14:52  |  german 26/04/08
      32.   german 15:48  |  christoph 26/04/08
      33.   In favor of censorship to "Mein Kampf" 15:48  |  Motty Levi 26/04/08
      34.   Re: #27 16:07  |  Motty Levi 26/04/08
      35.   Re: #18 16:25  |  Motty Levi 26/04/08
      36.   # 5 "Nortehrn Wind" 17:14  |  Fortuna Benmayor 26/04/08
      37.   Mein Kampf 17:14  |  Charlie 26/04/08
      38.   Mein Kampf 17:16  |  Charlie 26/04/08
      39.   Winners of WW 2 17:17  |  Sabra 26/04/08
      40.   jihad 17:29  |  Di 26/04/08
      41.   #24 Rompy 17:40  |  Lou Medel 26/04/08
      42.   Mein Kampf 17:56  |  Charles Smyth 26/04/08
      43.   Lou Medel and others 19:05  |  Charles Smyth 26/04/08
      44.   to mch from Haifa 19:44  |  Survivor 26/04/08
      45.   A foolish mistake 19:59  |  Moshe 26/04/08
      46.   Mein Kamph 21:37  |  Edithann 26/04/08
      47.   #32 21:45  |  german 26/04/08
      48.   Different Histories and their mix up 21:46  |  17 26/04/08
      49.   Hitlers "my struggle." 22:43  |  Mark Lincoln 26/04/08
      50.   Read it and yawn 23:02  |  giles k 26/04/08
      51.   Missing the point 23:55  |  MR 26/04/08
      52.   Why are people so obsessed with Nazism? 00:00  |  Kucku Muruku 27/04/08
      53.   #51 Kucku Muruku 00:37  |  MR 27/04/08
      54.   Napoleon was first 08:13  |  rob of melbourne 29/04/08
      55.   mein kampf against irony 10:04  |  steve 21/06/08
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