"It turned out that the fear the publication would promote Hitler's ideology or even make it socially acceptable and give neo-Nazis a new propaganda platform was totally unfounded."

"To the contrary, the debate about Hitler's worldview and his approach to propaganda offered a chance to look at the causes and consequences of totalitarian ideologies, at a time in which authoritarian political views and rightwing slogans are gaining ground."

Said the publisher of a new (annotated) edition of "Mein Kampf," which had not been available in Germany since World War II and is now a bestseller there.

The publisher claims that the book is being bought by "customers interested in politics and history as well as educators" and not "reactionaries or rightwing radicals." But how do they get information like that? The linked article cites "data collected about buyers by regional bookstores." What? Bookstores interrogate people about why they are buying a particular book?! You go into a bookstore in Germany, select "Mein Kampf," walk up to the counter, and the clerk confronts you about why you are buying it? That seems unlikely to produce honest answers. Wouldn't nearly everyone — whatever their real motivation — make a guarded reference to their interest in understanding history?