I am Russian and I bought this book to have my own opinion about Hitler – not filtered by the media or society as it is obvious that he could not make only wrong and stupid decisions and yet lead Germany to become world’s second power (second only to allied countries of Europe + UK + USA + Soviet Union) – in just a few years.

It took me less than 10min of scanning through the book to FIND WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR: the Soviet schools and propaganda completely misinformed everyone by saying that Hitler insisted Russians were oligophrenic idiots deserving complete extermination. In the book he says:

“Russia furnishes the most terrible example of such a slavery. In that country the Jew killed or starved thirty millions of the people, in a bout of savage fanaticism and partly by the employment of inhuman torture. And he did this so that a gang of Jewish literati and financial bandits should dominate over a great people.”

I did not know Russians were great people in Hitler’s opinion. Neither I could see that Russia was attacked by Hitler to overthrow the Jewish government. Am I missing something? What is the point in distorting that picture these days?

I think I will read the book completely now although after 5min of reading I was going to give it less stars under the following review:

1. I don’t have time to finish this book now because it is correctly named and it is not a brief political manifest but a personal story that will rather suit a person researching small details on how Hitler came to certain ideas and conclusions. But it is rather too long and lacking structure for a modern reader trying to understand the core motives of Hitler by going through a concise text.

So I will look for another book and leave this one not read until I have some spare time to have interest in Hitler’s emotions / feelings and small details.

An interesting coinciding detail by the way is the fact that Weimar Constitution is too detailed and includes issues that were obviously not important enough to be there such as “Within the entire Reich, uniform postage stamps are used.” – why would it be at the top of the legal hierarchy?

2. There are too many references to prostitution and sex. It is hard to see that as something important because condoms and porn with masturbation have obviously solved the issues of infections which could be very significant 100 years ago. Yet I doubt that a country correctly implements human rights for women if so many young women eventually find it reasonable to trade their body for a few dollars and have their anuses torn while being filmed (porn actresses). I doubt that they had correct education on the effects of certain excercises on their body and ability to have healthy children. And lives of prostitutes are even worse. Hitler’s opinion on a related subject:

“In our present educational system a balance will have to be established, first and foremost, between mental instruction and physical training… Our system of education entirely loses sight of the fact that in the long run a healthy mind can exist only in a healthy body.” – that though leads to Hitler to ideas that physical training prevents young men from excess sexual thoughts which is not supported by research.

3. Some remarks are still clearly true:

“What other country in the world possessed a better-organized and administered business enterprise than the German State Railways, for instance?”

Deutsche Bahn is certainly the best and the most organised railway system from my experience and from what I read in the news so far – only comparable to the Japanese railways. It is worth noting that Deutsche Post / DHL is also world’s largest courier companiy so Germany does succeed in government corporations unlike countries that tend to privatize everything.

4. You may find interesting that some general statements are not too far from correct forecasting in the opinion of many people given some global issues such as the climate change:

“Here, as elsewhere, one may defy Nature for a certain period of time; but sooner or later she will take her inexorable revenge. And when man realizes this truth it is often too late.”

Although the preceding thought is not about the climate change due to excess consumption and population growth (and you don’t need a special book to understand Hitler’s opinion on that) but this one:

“For instead of strong, healthy children, blessed with natural feelings, we shall see miserable specimens of humanity resulting from economic calculation. For economic considerations are becoming more and more the foundations of marriage and the sole preliminary condition of it. And love looks for an outlet elsewhere.” – That does not apply to Russia attacked by Hitler though. In this country we had that happening only after we were taken over by the Western countries some of which ultimately lie to the East of us.

Or this one again could definitely appeal to population of any “developing” country tired of corruption and dishonest incompetent traitors in their governments:

“This confidence is in its turn, nothing else than the result of an unshakable inner conviction that the government and administration of a country is inspired by disinterested and honest goodwill and on the feeling that the spirit of the law is in complete harmony with the moral convictions of the people. In the long run, systems of government are not maintained by terrorism but on the belief of the people in the merits and sincerity of those who administer and promote the public interests.”

Therefore the book is definitely dangerous in societies suffering from corruption and destructive business practices as people tend to perceive authors as either completely correct or completely wrong based on whether the author addresses their pain. Statements about Jews never having their own civilization are not correct in the legal sense (but I did not read the book completely to understand what Hitler meant by the word civilization).

It does not mean that any book should be banned – it is the corruption and dishonesty should that should be eliminated, but not the discussion on what is right and what is wrong.

5. I find Hitler’s attempt to write such book somewhat understandable as it is a good way to structure and analyse many things for yourself when you want to be consistent and make sure that one part of your views does not conflict another – making your thoughts public always works that way – if you don’t notice inconsistencies – the public will certainly help you. However, that way of “self-psychoanalysis” is also naive as you will definitely say too much trying too be honest with the public, but you will never be appreciated for your honesty becoming a target for your signs of immaturity and need for support instead.

6. The fact that Hitler pays so much attention to his feelings does not fit the typical stereotype of Nazi Germans as cold and heartless people by the way.

7. The final point is the sad irony of this life: those who run away from Hitler’s ideas by promoting just consumption and comfort without any moral and reasonable limits are likely to place themselves in a situation where a new Hitler is impossible to avoid and they will have no choice but to become one themselves or extinct (I mean the climate change and extreme population growth coupled with global pollution, environment destruction and resource depletion)