ROME – An Italian newspaper has published Hitler’s political manifesto “Mein Kampf,” angering Italy’s premier and the country’s tiny Jewish community.
The conservative Milan daily Il Giornale gave the book free to whoever purchased the newspaper and first installment of William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.”
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The daily is publishing volumes exploring Third Reich history and defended its decision in its Saturday edition by arguing that reading “Mein Kampf” is the “true antidote to the toxins of national socialism.”
Editor Alessandro Sallusti stressed the version included critical commentary by an Italian professor of contemporary history. Sallusti also said he wanted to make readers understand “where and why absolute evil was born,” but acknowledged that protests over the publication were “legitimate” and even “understandable.”
The rambling tome lays out Hitler’s ultranationalist, anti-Semitic, anti-communist ideology, which culminated in the Holocaust and a war of conquest in Europe.
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Premier Matteo Renzi says it’s “squalid’ an Italian paper published it.
An Italian Jewish community leader, Renzo Gattegna, said it was “indecent” of Il Giornale to publish Hitler’s work.