Have you, by any chance, got the recent statistic about how well they have sold the book so far? 
Kind of far-fetched from Indonesia's current reality to sell such book but I don't see anything wrong with that. In my opinion, only people who obviously know Hitler and his 'nationalsozialismus' would probably buy that book.
Though, I completely understand your apprehensive towards the prospects of disastrous events that might occur because of the book, but then again it is like any other history books that have been published so far, and yes, to some lesser extent I have to agree with the stand keeper that people have the right to know.
The book itself is quite dry and tedious, probably like reading groundwork for the metaphysics of moral by Kant. So, if I were you, I'm going to save my energy to worry about something else...
I take your points, Gil, which is why I walked away. A crowd was beginning to gather so I figured "WTF?" and walked off. If anything was going to attract customers to the stand, it was the only westerner in the place making a scene.
I didn't get the name of the publisher, nor the distributor, because I was worried about losing my cool but, believe me, the stand was smothered with the Nazi swastika.
Maybe it's a generational and cultural thing. My father fought against Hitler "for the likes of me". so I naturally abhor any form of extremism and especially fascism. That symbol is ingrained in my psyche and deeply offensive.
I trust other commentators will agree.
I don't think Britain fought a war against Germany because the Nazis were racist - they fought because Germany was threatening their position in the world, was becoming a serious rival, and upsetting the nice balance of things.
i ve seen a few indonesians carry nazi memorabilia. i explained that obviously it is your choice but are you aware of what the nazis would have done to you had you been in germany at the time?
saw one indonesian guy in a mall in singapore looking at buying a nazi swasitika t shirt. i kicked him on the way out, i was wearing steel toe capped caterpillars at the time, boy did he give me an odd look
maybe in certain circles here nazi stuff is considered cool while ppl remain ignorant about the real message behind it. kinda like those fundamentalists. certainly it s diferent to sid vicious walking round paris wearing the swastika which was meant to shock but now appears to be just camp
It's a cultural thing, whilst I agree that selling Nazi memorabilia has an appalling resonance for we westerners, in Asia sixty years after the event it just doesn't have the same connotations.
Aren't our own kids guilty of a similar thing when they wear t-shirts with Mao (a mass-murderer who put Hitler in the ha'penny place) emblazoned on them or even Che, another advocate of an ideology of mass murder?
I recall the American actress Cameron Diaz getting into bother earlier this year when she visited Peru, a country badly ravaged by the Marxist psychopaths of the Shining Path, carrying a very trendy hand bag emblazoned with the Communist Red Star.
I think you're wrong about Che, Miko, as he was never in a position to practice genocide. But no matter, there are loads of dictators who caused the deaths of horrendous numbers of their citizens you could have mentioned, e.g. Pol Pot and Suharto for starters.
What I think concerns me is that whilst Indonesian authorities hound minuscule Muslim and Christian sects which are unlikely to produce mass hysteria, they ban the Marx/Engels Communist Manifesto, a Utopian fantasy subverted from their ideals by the likes of Mao and Pol Pot, yet allow Hitler's manifesto which preached ethnic hatred.
Contrary to popular belief, the book is not actually banned in Germany. Instead, the copyright is held by the state of Bavaria, which took over the rights of the main Nazi party publishing house Eher-Verlag -- including the rights for "Mein Kampf" -- after the end of World War II as part of the Allies' de-Nazification program. As copyright holder, the state has since refused to allow the book to be published, on the grounds that it would promote right-wing extremism. The German Foreign Ministry has also repeatedly recommended that the book not be published, for fear of damaging Germany's image abroad.
The book enters the public domain in 2015 and there are now calls for it to be published, with scholarly footnotes and references, to forestall neo-Nazi groups.
However, the Bavarian government has taken legal action to prevent it being published in other countries, so what I saw was undoubtedly pirated. l've no objection to it being studied by scholars, but to have it sale to the general, and generally uneducated, public?
No way.
Che might not have been in a position to commit genocide but he certainly murdered thousands and had he been in the position to commit genocide he would have done so without a second's hesitation.
Otherwise we're pretty much in agreement.
I heard of a UN report a couple of years back which said that more books are translated into Spanish in one year than have been translated into Arabic in the past thousand years.
Needless to say that Mein Kampf was one of those books translated, I believe it is a best seller in Gaza and the West Bank.
You didn't really expect the average person in the street here with the bizarre version of history taught here to recognise evil did you?
"they fought because Germany was threatening their position in the world, was becoming a serious rival, and upsetting the nice balance of things."... SAY WHAT?
wait a sec, from your description I didn't get the impression that they sell some memorabilia about Nazi too! Was it really subtle so that i couldn't even read between the lines? If they did sell some other memorabilia about Nazi, as well as the book, then I suppose, you can straight away dismiss the idea of that. Glorification about fascism in any form should not be tolerated.
"l've no objection to it being studied by scholars, but to have it sale to the general, and generally uneducated, public?"
I don't think it is wise enough to claim you know better what can or can not be sold to the society. I believe that this "generally uneducated public" has their own bizarre way to do their natural selection. Despite the fact that some ignorants might still exist but the tendency showed in the past years that this public was getting more critical. Therefore, I don't believe selling such book would have significant impact in creating the seed of racism. In that matter, yes i still stand with my opinion that people have the right to know. 
besides that, like i mentioned before, the book is boring and dull and i don't think no one is going to read it!
I've just recently visited one of the coolest book and music stores in Berlin which was located in Friedrichstrasse. forgot the name of the bookstore but it was a massive five-story building with lots of books from different languages. I was enjoying my time there until I encountered some striking image which i might never be able to forget. There was a BIG section from the bookstore specialising about nationalsozialismus and the likes. You name it, they have it there. Anyway, my point is, while I do not tolerate glorification of fascism in any form I do think we should not deny the fact that Nazism is a part of the history. Though we still need to be discreet to some extent when mentioning about some sensitive issue, nevertheless making thing as a taboo topic will only mystify it and won't bring any benefit to anyone.
Given that Indonesia only has informal contacts with the Israeli state (often through Gus Dur), and that Israel is described as 'evil' by Muslim clerics here, and given too that Muslim fundamentalism, in all its craziness, has a strong foothold here, then offering local citizens a perverted justification for the slaughter of Jews is surely not good news.
That the book was written by a madman some 70 years ago did not seem to be on display, nor did I see any other books detailing the horrors of the gas chambers, nor did I see any pirated DVDs of those movies, such as Polanski's The Pianist, which portrayed that era.
I'm not claiming to "know better" than others, but for my generation, the aftermath of World War II is embedded in our psyches. On reflection, I should have been a lot calmer and investigated further, but the display was a sudden shock. I've never encountered it before.
And the public are, as Hitler well knew, more than happy to play "follow my leader". Indonesian's are not yet accustomed to choosing their leaders. Suharto's cronies continue to control the economy and the system is still in place to let in former Generals Wiranto or Sutiyoso as the next authoritarian president.
I don't think it would take much of a mood swing among the electors for the 'good old times' to return.
Oigal, yes, what? The person most responsible for getting Britain into a war against Germany was Churchill and he couldn't have cared less about the Jews and Nazi racism, and no doubt he was a big racist himself, as were rather a lot of people then. Wars are not begun for high moral reasons, unless, to some extent, Americans are involved, they are fought for geo-strategic, power politics ones. Germany threatened Britain's pre-eminent position in the world and had to be stomped on. And a more flattering way of looking at it for Britain is that Britain had for centuries been concerned to maintain a balance of power on the Continent, to not see any one power get too big and bossy. Like Hitler's Germany. Like Prussian Germany. Like Napoleon's France. Etc. None of this denigrates the great sacrifices that individual Britons and Empire and Commonwealth people made to defeat Germany, nor impugns whatever motives they may have had for doing so, but Oigal, grow up.
Bizarre. I would've been tempted to buy it just as a collector's item.
Nonetheless, I think most of you are gravely underestimating Indonesians' thought process on this whole Hitler-Nazi thing. It's much deeper than a passing fad to wear the symbols.
As many of you know, I've never been accused of being shy or overly tactful, but the positive side of that is it affords the opportunity to engage in frank discussions with reactionary Islamists -- who are more than willing to give me a piece of their mind once they hear my point of view. The Indonesian Islamists, I've come to find out via such discussions, actually idolize Hitler BECAUSE OF how he murdered Jews.
The Indonesian fascination with the NAZIs and the holocaust really kicked into gear when Iranian Prez Ahmad Imadinnerjacket began spewing forth his shite about it and riling up Jews and Westerners. He also had a very nice visit to Indonesia last year and is a huge hero amongst the radicals, wannabe terrorists and Islamist students.
I would be willing to bet a Bintang that Mein Kampf is being published/distributed in SE Asia by some Islamist foundation with backing from MMI, PKS, HT, the Iranians or any of a handful of similar terror groups here.
Thanks, Rich. You've focussed on what was, if barely understood or articulated, my main point.
The causes of WWII are largely irrelevant now, although do let's bear in mind that Neville Chamberlain was the PM, not Churchill, who led Britain into war following Hitler's invasion of Poland.
But what concerns me are the implications here in Indonesia, or elsewhere, if Mein Kampf is widely available.
And is the Communist Manifesto still banned here?
A rare Nazi bravery award and a copy of Mein Kampf, personally signed by Hitler, were auctioned and raised thousands of dollars for Legacy (assists war widows)!!(Couriermail Bris.)
Also, more good news -Loney planet guide for China is banned there. Reports of confiscation are recorded over the data on Taiwan (SMH). (PS. I would omit ref to my site if it was an option, am not a comment whore)
"Wars are not begun for high moral reasons, unless, to some extent, Americans are involved," Is this sacarsm? If not, it took a very long time for the moral reasons for WW2 to kick in for the Americans.
Although you are right wars are not begun for high moral reasons but a glib inference that somehow the Brits started it all with "because Germany was threatening their position in the world, was becoming a serious rival, and upsetting the nice balance of things" Don't wish to consider perhaps some old WW1 treaty's or perhaps the invasion of Poland (granted this was well before USA decided to take part).
It would take far to much space to go into on J's site suffice to say it was a lot more complex than the Brits wanting to hold the "status quo".
By the way, I'll pass on the sulky personal responses thanks, although glass houses springs to mind.
I picked up a copy in Delhi 13 years ago, seen in freely for sale in many countries. Must dig it out again, don't think I made it past page 3. It's a tedious read.
Great debate - was the book available in Indonesian? I personally don't think having Hitler's book on sale will see a rise in nazi-like thinking in Indonesia, though I fully share anyone's horror in seeing the swastika trivialised to a fashion statement, or fancy-dress oufit...
More horrifying for me though is seeing companies like Sony releasing Playstation game versions of our various world wars. I find that really quite twisted.
Yes, Walter, that's my point. The book was/is in bahasa Indonesia and as I was the only Caucasian in sight for at least the two hours I was there, we can consider that the book was definitely published for an Indonesian readership.
I too don't expect to "see a rise in nazi-like thinking in Indonesia". However, although Suharto is no longer President (cf. my follow up post), there's plenty of scope for other dictatorial ex-generals to take his place. The jockeying has already begun with Messrs Wiranto and Sutiyoso doing the rounds of the political elite.
Don't worry J. We Indonesian know for sure what Hitler had done in Europe. Well, not kinda statistical data like Americans usually do. Even some of us may kind of "adore" him, but believe me, they do not see him as a role to be followed to or as inspiration, but merely they admire his bravery against the world powers.
This, too, is what most Indonesians see at Ahmadinedjad and, even, Osama bin Laden. The "psychological impact" is not the same as with most Europeans. I am sure "Mein Kampf" Indonesian edition contains comments from historian as an introduction to give readers the background of the book.
Racist comments by aliens (ET ?!?) will always be deleted from this site.
ET thinks Hitler was one of the good guys, but if you wish to take issue with him, please write to him offline, assuming expatinIndo@hotmail.com is the correct email address
J
Patung> you are well out of line with this comment, and really need to brush up on your history.
John Keegan is among the best:
http://www.amazon.com/Second-Wor...n/dp/
014011341X
Hi, I'm french, and I was leaving in Indonesia. For me the probleme is that indonesian people doesn't read books so much... It is quite hard, away from Jakarta to find some interesting book, about something else than Religion or Business... So if this store sells Mein Kampf, it's because people buy it, and read it.
So if they just read few books in their life, and that one of them is mein Kampf, I am really upset... They don't have so much sources to critic what they read, and I 'm afraid that they will believe what there is in this book... Vast problem...
I completely agree that most Indonesians have no understanding of what happened in Europe during WWII... I think the swastika and other propaganda are liked for their visual appeal (removed from their intended context of course). I see the same thing happening in my country, except in this instance shirts are adorned with big red stars, Che and Mao.
But whats the big deal about Mein Kampf being at a book fair? I've seen it for sale in plenty of mainstream bookstores, recent prints as well, and Im living in a country that fought the Nazis. My grandfather fought them and he has a copy.
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