About the author
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was the leader of the Nazi Party and dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, responsible for the Second World War in Europe and the Holocaust. Mein Kampf (1925), written in part in prison, sets out his antisemitic, racist, and expansionist ideology. It is included here only as a primary historical document — the object of critical study and unambiguous moral condemnation — so that the machinery of genocidal ideology can be recognised and resisted, never as a legitimate point of view.
Synopsis
Part autobiography, part political manifesto, Mein Kampf outlines Hitler's racial antisemitism, pan-German nationalism, anti-Marxism, and the political programme that became National Socialism. It is the foundational document of the ideology that produced the Holocaust.
Quote to notice
Direct quote · Public domain“The state is a means to an end. Its end lies in the preservation and advancement of a community of physically and psychically homogeneous creatures.”
Hitler defines the state as a racial instrument — its legitimacy lies in serving the preservation of a racially defined people, explicitly subordinating politics to racial biology.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Arendt, Paxton, Wiesel, and any antifascist and anti-racist analysis. This text is a document of genocide, not a contribution to political philosophy.
Reading note
This is a hate document and racial propaganda text, not a philosophical argument. It has no value as political reasoning but enormous historical significance as the ideological blueprint for the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. Should only be approached through the annotated scholarly edition and alongside comprehensive antifascist, historical, and survivor testimony.
Best paired with
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism; Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism; Elie Wiesel, Night.