Hungarian ‘Mein Kampf’ planned. The announcement by a notorious right-wing publisher that he plans to issue a new translation of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” has created a swirl of controversy here.
Saying that he wants to fight “false history,” publisher Aron Monus announced he would keep to his plans despite growing criticism expressed by local historians.
Monus has already published “Conspiracy Against Nietzsche’s Empire,” a tract which alleges that Jews paid Hitler to carry out the Holocaust.
Local historians reacted to his announcement with the assessment that a new translation of “Mein Kampf,” which was outlawed here during the Communist regime, could prove dangerous if it were not accompanied by an appropriate explanatory text.
“It would just encourage hatred,” historian Maria Ormos said in a recent interview with the English-language Budapest Week.
While admitting that she had not read any portions of Monus’ soon-to-be- published translation, Ormos said that she had read “Conspiracy,” which she described as riddled with “factual inaccuracies and uncontrolled ideas.”
Hungary’s chief prosecutor told Budapest Week that no legal steps could be taken to prevent Monus from publishing “Mein Kampf,” since that would run counter to Hungary’s anti-censorship laws.
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