‘Mein Kampf’ giveaway in Italy angers leaders and readers

The Italian newspaper Il Giornale has sparked outrage after giving away free copies of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” the dictator’s autobiography and political manifesto, with a paid supplement to Saturday’s edition. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called the move “sleazy” and Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, said it was a “vile act.”

Il Giornale, a conservative daily newspaper published in Milan, distributed free copies of an annotated edition of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” to readers, Reuters reports. “Know it in order to reject it” was the justification given by the tabloid, writes Al-Jazeera.

The paper is owned by Paolo Berlusconi, brother of Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who served as its publisher from 1977-94.

This weekend, Il Giornale started selling a multi-installment history of the Third Reich, with the annotated copy of “Mein Kampf” given away free for readers who bought the first installment.

The newspaper’s editor, Alessandro Sallusti, explained in an editorial the decision to give away Hitler’s book.

“Studying evil to prevent it from happening again, perhaps in new and deceptive guises,” Sallusti wrote. “That is the real and only purpose of what we have done.”

Not everyone bought the newspaper’s explanation. In a post on Twitter, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called the move “sleazy,” and offered his “affectionate embrace to the Jewish community,” adding a hashtag that translates as “Never again.”

Renzi’s sentiments were echoed by Gattegna, Union of Italian Jewish Communities president, who said the giveaway “is light years away from all logic of studying the Shoah and the different factors that led the whole of humanity to sink into an abyss of unending hatred, death and violence.”

“Mein Kampf” was effectively banned in Germany for decades, as the copyright was owned by the state of Bavaria, which forbade publishers to print editions of the book.

That changed earlier this year, however, after the copyright expired. An annotated version of the book has been available in Germany since January, although many observers believe publishing a version of the book without annotations would violate the country’s “Volksverhetzung” laws, which prohibit inciting hatred.

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