Book commissioned by Hitler with data for US and Canadian Jews goes on display
137-page German-language volume detailing how many Jewish people there were in north America can now be viewed by the public
A book commissioned by Adolf Hitler and which he would have used to continue the Final Solution in the United States and Canada is on display in Ottawa by its new Canadian owners as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Titled: “Statistics., Media, and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada,” the 137-page German-language volume compiled in 1944 was part of Hitler’s personal library, and contained city-by-city statistical details about Jewish communities in the U.S. and Canada.
The book presents a harrowing view of what might have happened if the Nazis had won.
The volume was acquired in June 2018, by Library and Archives Canada for £3,400 ($4,500) and was its first buy using public donations.
Acquiring the book was a “contentious” issue, Library and Archives officials Michael Kent and Guy Berthiaume said, because of potential pushback from critics who think the volume “glorifies” Hitler.
But the potential benefits for researchers and as an educational tool outweighed those risks, they said.
“While it is certainly a creepy item,” Kent said, “the decision to acquire was simple in light of our mandate,” he told CTV News.
According to news reports, the book was compiled by Heinz Kloss, a German linguist and Nazi sympathiser who travelled to the U.S. in 1936 and 1937 to compile the data.
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