Offered for sale is an EXTREMELY RARE ORIGINAL STALAG EDITION OF ADOLF HITLER’S BESTSELLER ‘MEIN KAMPF’. ONE OF ONLY A HANDFUL OF COPIES KNOWN TO EXIST TODAY! The book is rebound and the dust jacket is a facsimile
Mein Kampf, published by the NSDAP in English intended for British POW’s. The first British prisoners were made during the invasion of Poland and the French campaign of 1940, followed by Brits who were captured in Greece and Crete. The book was given to British POW’s to make them find favor with the Third Reich and possibly join the British Free-Korps, as this unit was made up of former British POW’s. It is the only English publication Eher Verlag ever produced of Mein Kampf.
For years, the Stalag Edition was believed to have only one surviving copy (in the British Museum Library)—absurd on its face. It was unconvincingly touted to be James Murphy’s translation with some editing. For one thing, Murphy used “Motherland” where the Stalag edition uses “Fatherland” when referring to Germany. Whereas Murphy uses “fortunate” to talk about Hitler’s birthplace the Stalag uses “omen.” There is a decidedly mystical aspect to the Stalag edition plus it simply reads better. The wording lacks the awkwardness that Murphy gives to long sentences. The Stalag flows better and it is more comprehensible. Most likely, an unknown German took Murphy’s translation and completely reworked it. Herr X, perhaps, understood English better than James Murphy understood German.
There is no copyright page but a best guess is that it was published in 1942 because the title page logo looks identical to the 1942 German language People’s Edition as does the Hitler frontis photo. It is obvious that such editions would only be printed when there were English speaking POWs to read them. A survey of collectors/museums/ public libraries in 2015 then discovered only 4 copies that survived the war and de-Nazification. One copy is in the British Museum. two private collectors we know each own a copy and one was owned by a dealer on ABE which sold it to an unknown buyer. The present copy offered here, rebound and with facsimile dust jacket, is only the 5th to surface in the past 30 years. There might be others, but one could understand that POWs, when liberated, would not have wanted to keep a copy of the book by the man that was so hated in Britain and caused such destruction.
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