Seldom does one name infuriate the entire populace of the planet as does the name of Adolf Hitler. He has been called many things, dictator, terrorist, fascist and genocidal maniac. Yet, what could have driven him to these crass atrocities against mankind? What could have motivated one man to initiate a war against an entire race, wanting to the end the existence of the Jews? In this memoir, written during his incarceration at Landsberg Prison for high treason, Hitler writes about his childhood, his family, his relationship with his mother and his affection for his sister. He sounds like an ordinary man, and he doesn’t come across as the tyrant and destroyer that he is known to be. Yet, his anti-Semitism seeps through his words, for despite his thanks to the Jewish doctor who treated his mother and the teacher who instilled a love of history in him, he began to begrudge the position Jews enjoyed in Europe and in his home country. Upon his release, he was poised to take his position as a humble man, but he set out to recreate the NSDAP, waiting for a chance. He found it with the Great Depression, and rose to the seat of Chancellor, and eventually declared himself the dictator of Germany. This memoir, his only published work, formed the foundation of his anti-Semitic principles and his fascist propaganda. By his name, millions were slaughtered, sent to silent death throes in gas chambers. By his symbol, the befouled Swastika, his men redefined genocide on a global scale, beginning a chain of events which would culminate in mankind’s greatest cataclysm: the Second World War.