Mein Kampf

Colin West

03/24/01

Period 2

Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while he was in jail after he tried to take Germany over in the beer hall putsch. The book is a collection of his thoughts on all matters and while he makes several very interesting points he offers little or no proof to back these up. The book starts out talking about his childhood and how his father was a civil servant and wanted young Adolf to be a civil servant also. Adolf wanted to be an artist though. He after his father died he moved to Vienna to become an architect but he was denied by several artist schools, most of which were run by Jews. Adolf was first introduced into politics when he walked in on a meeting of anti-communist propaganda and at first he thought it was completely ludicrous. After spending some time at these meetings he remarks on how people would always listen to him and how he had a way with using words

emotionally to get his point across. From here the book turns more into a rambling of different political ideals and he builds the foundation of his anti-Semitism. Something I found interesting was when he gave 3 options for a country to expand. Number 1 is to industrialize and build your country from within. Number 2 is to open colonies surrounding your country. And number 3 is what he calls, “The acquisition of new soil.” In the mind of Adolf Hitler the only viable way to expand a country was to conquer new land and continue to expand its territories. Case in point, when he tried to conquer the world during World War II. Adolf Hitler was a diluted man and he wrote a diluted book. He may have been closer to world domination than any other man in the history of the world.

Some things I will never forget about this book are the emotion and gripping statements he makes about

nationalism and pride. This, in my opinion, was what convinced an entire nation to act immorally, irresponsibly and unethically. Hitler may have been a raving lunatic but he was an amazing psychologist and he used propaganda and nationalistic hate better than anyone ever has. It is an important lesson to learn what happened during the Third Reich and remember to never be blinded by unjustified hate and anger just because another person tells you to.