RARE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF HITLER’S MEIN KAMPF – PRINTED IN PREPARATION FOR THE INVASION OF BRITAIN – TO GO UNDER THE HAMMER IN NORFOLK
A rare English first edition of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, printed in 1940 in anticipation for a German invasion of Great Britain, will go under the hammer in Norfolk this week.
The book – My Struggle in English – was written by the Nazi leader in 1925 as an autobiographical manifesto, while he was imprisoned following his part in the 1923 attempted Munich coup.
The book is part of Keys Auctioneers and Valuers two day Books and Ephemera Sale, which take place on Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th February in Aylsham, and has a pre-sale estimate of £300-£400.
The 1940 edition is the only official unabridged version of the book, and was produced in Munich during the second year of World War Two, as part of the preparations being made to invade Britain, an operation known as Operation Sealion.
“Mein Kampf remains a highly controversial work, full of unpleasant racist and antisemitic polemic, but it is undeniably an important part of 20th century history,” said Keys head of books Andrew Lindsay-Bullock.
“The book’s publication has always been contentious, although when an annotated edition was finally published in Germany in 2016 – the first since the Second World War – there was a consensus that allowing the book to be disseminated and read widely would help demystify Nazism and root it out in society.”
Other books in the two day sale include:
- A huge two volume set of botanical prints depicting the plants, vegetables, fruit and trees grown in the garden at Highgrove (‘The Highgrove Florilegium’), signed by King Charles (when he was Prince of Wales), which is being sold to raise funds for the Priscilla Bacon Hospice appeal (estimate £3,500-£4,500)
- A fascinating ‘court roll’ (essentially like a census) for the village of Lopham in Norfolk dating from 1560, consisting of 130 ‘membranes’ of vellum written by hand in neat copperplate (estimate £400-£500)
- A 2009 first edition of Hilary Mantell’s Wolf Hall, with its original dust jacket (estimate £60-£90)
Full details of the sale, which takes place at Keys’ Aylsham salerooms and live online at bid.keysauctions.co.uk, can be found at www.keysauctions.co.uk.