New French version of Mein Kampf renders turgidity and confusion of the original Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 10:45 The 1934 French translation of Hitler's "Mein Kampf", copies of which are still in circulation, made Hitler's rambling anti-Semitic prose intelligible. The French re-translation stays close to the original. AP - Matthias Balk A new, critical edition of Hitler’s ranting anti-Semitic manifesto Mein Kampf is to be published in French on 2 June 2021, publishers Fayard announced this week. Sober and heavily annotated for context, the re-translation desanctifies the Führer by staying close to his "unintelligible" original text. Advertising The 1,000-page Historiciser le mal (Historicising Evil) is a hefty 3.6kg tome with a plain white cover – not what you'd call a coffee table book. Fayard's marketing approach owes something to today's cigarette packaging: you want people to buy the product but know they shouldn’t be enjoying the experience.