Celebrate George Orwell's birthday by reading his (scathing) 1940 review of Mein Kampf

[sl8]

From https://lithub.com/celebrate-george-orwells-birthday-by-reading-his-scathing-1940-review-of-mein-kampf/

Celebrate George Orwell’s birthday by reading his (scathing) 1940 review of Mein Kampf
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Dan Sheehan
By Dan Sheehan
June 25, 2020, 2:18pm

One year after the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia (and a full year before the New York Times decided it was a good idea to publish an excerpt from Der Führer’s poisonous opus), celebrated writer, literary critic, and vocal opponent of totalitarianism George Orwell (who was born 107 years ago today) reviewed Mein Kampf.

He was, as you can imagine, not a fan.

As Orwell notes right off the bat, a previous edition of autobiography—published just a year before—seemed invested in presenting Hitler, despite the laundry list of atrocities he had already carried out, “in as kindly a light as possible”:

It is a sign of the speed at which events are moving that Hurst and Blackett’s unexpurgated edition of Mein Kampf, published only a year ago, is edited from a pro-Hitler angle. The obvious intention of the translator’s preface and notes is to tone down the book’s ferocity and present Hitler in as kindly a light as possible. For at that date Hitler was still respectable. He had crushed the German labour movement, and for that the property-owning classes were willing to forgive him almost anything. Both Left and Right concurred in the very shallow notion that National Socialism was merely a version of Conservatism.

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[captain queeg]

1. I think his term "property owning classes" really strikes at the heart of current rethugs

As long as they can “get theirs” they are ok with anything because they live in a different, parallel society.

[empedocles]

2. The plurall 'classes' gives the phrase a lot of 'reach'.

[Igel]

3. You'd like his

"What is fascism?" just a year later, then.

Since then, sadly, the word "fascism" has only broadened its meaning.

[Lord Ludd]

4. Article got Orwell's (nee Eric Blair) DOB wrong

He was born 117 years ago (1903).