Italy daily publishes Mein Kampf to anger

A rightwing Italian newspaper was on Saturday giving away free copies of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic manifesto Mein Kampf in a move which sparked both shock and condemnation.

“Know it in order to reject it” was the justification given by conservative tabloid Il Giornale, which is owned by Paolo Berlusconi, brother of former premier Silvio Berlusconi. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi quickly denounced the initiative on Twitter, writing: “I find it sordid that an Italian daily is giving away Hitler’s Mein Kampf. I embrace the Jewish community with affection. #neveragain”

It was also denounced by Italy’s 30,000-strong Jewi-sh community, which is one of the oldest in Europe. “It is a vile act, light years away from any in-depth learning or study about the Holocaust,” said Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Commu-nities, describing the initiative as “indecent”.

Explaining the move, Il Giornale said it was an attempt to educate.

“Reading Mein Kampf is a real antidote to the toxicity of national-socialism,” said the paper which published a 1937 version of the manifesto containing annotations by the historian Franc-esco Perfetti. It said the text was being freely distributed alongside the first of a series of eight history books on the Nazi Third Reich. which would be sold with the paper.