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[Janyce Brits]

Athalf-past twelve in the afternoon of November 9th, 1923,those whose names are given below fell in front of theFeldherrnhalle and in the forecourt of the former WarMinistry in Munich for their loyal faith in the resurrection oftheir people:

So-called national officials refused to allow the dead heroes acommon burial. So I dedicate the first volume of this work to themas a common memorial, that the memory of those martyrs may be apermanent source of light for the followers of our Movement.

After years of uninterrupted labour it was now possible for thefirst time to begin a work which many had asked for and which Imyself felt would be profitable for the Movement. So I decided todevote two volumes to a description not only of the aims of ourMovement but also of its development. There is more to be learnedfrom this than from any purely doctrinaire treatise.

This has also given me the opportunity of describing my owndevelopment in so far as such a description is necessary to theunderstanding of the first as well as the second volume and todestroy the legendary fabrications which the Jewish Press havecirculated about me.

In this work I turn not to strangers but to those followers ofthe Movement whose hearts belong to it and who wish to study itmore profoundly. I know that fewer people are won over by thewritten word than by the spoken word and that every great movementon this earth owes its growth to great speakers and not to greatwriters.

Nevertheless, in order to produce more equality and uniformityin the defence of any doctrine, its fundamental principles must becommitted to writing. May these two volumes therefore serve as thebuilding stones which I contribute to the joint work.

In placing before the reader this unabridged translation ofAdolf Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, I feel it my duty to callattention to certain historical facts which must be borne in mindif the reader would form a fair judgment of what is written in thisextraordinary work.

The first volume of Mein Kampf was written while theauthor was imprisoned in a Bavarian fortress. How did he get thereand why? The answer to that question is important, because the bookdeals with the events which brought the author into this plight andbecause he wrote under the emotional stress caused by thehistorical happenings of the time. It was the hour of Germany'sdeepest humiliation, somewhat parallel to that of a little over acentury before, when Napoleon had dismembered the old German Empireand French soldiers occupied almost the whole of Germany.

In the beginning of 1923 the French invaded Germany, occupiedthe Ruhr district and seized several German towns in the Rhineland.This was a flagrant breach of international law and was protestedagainst by every section of British political opinion at that time.The Germans could not effectively defend themselves, as they hadbeen already disarmed under the provisions of the VersaillesTreaty. To make the situation more fraught with disaster forGermany, and therefore more appalling in its prospect, the Frenchcarried on an intensive propaganda for the separation of theRhineland from the German Republic and the establishment of anindependent Rhenania. Money was poured out lavishly to bribeagitators to carry on this work, and some of the most insidiouselements of the German population became active in the pay of theinvader. At the same time a vigorous movement was being carried onin Bavaria for the secession of that country and the establishmentof an independent Catholic monarchy there, under vassalage toFrance, as Napoleon had done when he made Maximilian the first Kingof Bavaria in 1805.

The separatist movement in the Rhineland went so far that someleading German politicians came out in favour of it, suggestingthat if the Rhineland were thus ceded it might be possible for theGerman Republic to strike a bargain with the French in regard toReparations. But in Bavaria the movement went even farther. And itwas more far-reaching in its implications; for, if an independentCatholic monarchy could be set up in Bavaria, the next move wouldhave been a union with Catholic German-Austria. possibly under aHabsburg King. Thus a Catholic bloc would have been createdwhich would extend from the Rhineland through Bavaria and Austriainto the Danube Valley and would have been at least under the moraland military, if not the full political, hegemony of France. Thedream seems fantastic now, but it was considered quite a practicalthing in those fantastic times. The effect of putting such a planinto action would have meant the complete dismemberment of Germany;and that is what French diplomacy aimed at. Of course such an aimno longer exists. And I should not recall what must now seem "old,unhappy, far-off things" to the modern generation, were it not thatthey were very near and actual at the time Mein Kampf waswritten and were more unhappy then than we can even imaginenow.

By the autumn of 1923 the separatist movement in Bavaria was onthe point of becoming an accomplished fact. General von Lossow, theBavarian chief of the Reichswehr no longer took orders fromBerlin. The flag of the German Republic was rarely to be seen,Finally, the Bavarian Prime Minister decided to proclaim anindependent Bavaria and its secession from the German Republic.This was to have taken place on the eve of the Fifth Anniversary ofthe establishment of the German Republic (November 9th, 1918.)

Hitler staged a counter-stroke. For several days he had beenmobilizing his storm battalions in the neighbourhood of Munich,intending to make a national demonstration and hoping that theReichswehr would stand by him to prevent secession.Ludendorff was with him. And he thought that the prestige of thegreat German Commander in the World War would be sufficient to winthe allegiance of the professional army.

A meeting had been announced to take place in the BrgerbruKeller on the night of November 8th. The Bavarian patrioticsocieties were gathered there, and the Prime Minister, Dr. vonKahr, started to read his official pronunciamento, whichpractically amounted to a proclamation of Bavarian independence andsecession from the Republic. While von Kahr was speaking Hitlerentered the hall, followed by Ludendorff. And the meeting wasbroken up.

Next day the Nazi battalions took the street for the purpose ofmaking a mass demonstration in favour of national union. Theymarched in massed formation, led by Hitler and Ludendorff. As theyreached one of the central squares of the city the army opened fireon them. Sixteen of the marchers were instantly killed, and twodied of their wounds in the local barracks of theReichswehr. Several others were wounded also. Hitler fell onthe pavement and broke a collar-bone. Ludendorff marched straightup to the soldiers who were firing from the barricade, but not aman dared draw a trigger on his old Commander.

Hitler was arrested with several of his comrades and imprisonedin the fortress of Landsberg on the River Lech. On February 26th,1924, he was brought to trial before the Volksgericht, orPeople's Court in Munich. He was sentenced to detention in afortress for five years. With several companions, who had been alsosentenced to various periods of imprisonment, he returned toLandsberg am Lech and remained there until the 20th of thefollowing December, when he was released. In all he spent aboutthirteen months in prison. It was during this period that he wrotethe first volume of Mein Kampf.

If we bear all this in mind we can account for the emotionalstress under which Mein Kampf was written. Hitler wasnaturally incensed against the Bavarian government authorities,against the footling patriotic societies who were pawns in theFrench game, though often unconsciously so, and of course againstthe French. That he should write harshly of the French was onlynatural in the circumstances. At that time there was noexaggeration whatsoever in calling France the implacable and mortalenemy of Germany. Such language was being used by even thepacifists themselves, not only in Germany but abroad. And eventhough the second volume of Mein Kampf was written afterHitler's release from prison and was published after the French hadleft the Ruhr, the tramp of the invading armies still echoed inGerman ears, and the terrible ravages that had been wrought in theindustrial and financial life of Germany, as a consequence of theFrench invasion, had plunged the country into a state of social andeconomic chaos. In France itself the franc fell to fifty per centof its previous value. Indeed, the whole of Europe had been broughtto the brink of ruin, following the French invasion of the Ruhr andRhineland.

But, as those things belong to the limbo of a dead past thatnobody wishes to have remembered now, it is often asked: Whydoesn't Hitler revise Mein Kampf? The answer, as I think,which would immediately come into the mind of an impartial criticis that Mein Kampf is an historical document which bears theimprint of its own time. To revise it would involve taking it outof its historical context. Moreover Hitler has declared that hisacts and public statements constitute a partial revision of hisbook and are to be taken as such. This refers especially to thestatements in Mein Kampf regarding France and those Germankinsfolk that have not yet been incorporated in the Reich On behalfof Germany he has definitely acknowledged the German portion ofSouth Tyrol as permanently belonging to Italy and, in regard toFrance, he has again and again declared that no grounds now existfor a conflict of political interests between Germany and Franceand that Germany has no territorial claims against France. Finally,I may note here that Hitler has also declared that, as he was onlya political leader and not yet a statesman in a position ofofficial responsibility, when he wrote this book, what he stated inMein Kampf does not implicate him as Chancellor of theReich.

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