Berlusconi newspaper gave away Hitler's "Mein Kampf"

The paper is owned by Paolo Berlusconi, the brother of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and was published in the middle of the local election campaign. The strongest criticism came from the ruling Democratic Party (PD). "I find it disgusting that an Italian newspaper is giving away Hitler's Mein Kampf today," wrote Prime Minister Matteo Renzi (PD) on Facebook. "#maipiù" (Never again). Milan PD mayoral candidate Giuseppe Sala spoke of shame and an insult to all those who had suffered. He said he was glad to have such a newspaper against him. The President of Parliament, Laura Boldrini, called on Twitter for respect for the memory of the Holocaust.

Il Giornale offered its Saturday edition at a higher price in combination with the book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by US journalist William L. Shirer and a reprint of the 1939 Italian edition of Hitler's 1938 pamphlet. The aim is to study evil in order to prevent it from happening again, wrote editor-in-chief Alessandro Sallusti in an editorial. In the coming weeks, the newspaper, which has a circulation of 200,000, plans to sell seven more books on the history of the Third Reich.

The president of the Association of Jewish Communities in Italy, Renzo Gattegna, took a different view. The publication was "light years away from any logic of studying the Shoah and the various factors that plunged all of humanity into a bottomless abyss of hatred, death and violence", he explained. In his defense, Sallusti explained that Il Giornale was only doing the same thing as the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich after the copyrights to Hitler's book had expired. The Institute's aim was to produce a comprehensive scholarly annotated edition of Hitler's entire work, which would make clear his theses and intentions and show the consequences. (SDA)