inappropriate for propaganda purposes. He was almost scientiically clean in a way. The words he used were common in his day and were, in themselves, not excessively offensive. The terms Jew, negro merely described a race of people, they were in common use and had no sinister connotations in themselves. He did not use more charged terms which were available. The word Hitler used the most was ‘völkisch’ which means ‘belonging to a certain race/ people’. Its actual meaning can be more positive or more negative based on context. But the word itself sounds very ‘nice’ and ‘innocent’ which is why the Nazis kept using it instead of the racist sounding “rassisch”. The best translation for “völkisch” is one that is somewhat neutral more like racialist and not racist. ‘Folkish’, ‘Populist’ and ‘Racial’ are pretty much interchangeable, however no one uses folkish or populist in common speech. These were commonly used in older translations from the 1930’s which obscured their true meaning. If you look up populist or folkish in the dictionary, you will ind a very ‘nice’ deinition which is not necessarily related to the race-oriented meaning in Mein Kampf translations of the past. MEIN KAMPF MEIN KAMPF 39 The word ‘ethnic’ may be considered too religious of a term in German. The German equivalent, ‘ethnisch’, wasn’t used in the original German texts of Mein Kampf , so it’s not an accurate translation for ‘völkisch’. However, it would be inappropriate to translate populist as racist. The word racist in English has a negative taint which was not associated with the words populist/folkish. Therefore we must be careful not to blindly substitute racist for populist even though it would be a valid word substitution based strictly on the deinition, the meaning is skewed if we do so by social perception. For these reasons, the words Populist and Folkish which were used in earlier translations were not used in the new Ford translation. The words simply have no modern meaning to the average person. Ethnic is not accurate either so race/racial was the best choice and is the most accurate translation. Populist was most often replaced with race-aware or racialist (one who uses race to make decisions or studies racial matters, usually informally) in the Ford translation. Here are some examples of the actual use of race terms in Mein Kampf : Original German: Sie hat weder das Siedlungsgebiet der deutschen Rasse vergrößert, noch hat sie den – wenn auch verbrecherischen – Versuch unternommen, durch den Einsatz von schwarzem Blut eine Machtstärkung des Reiches herbeizuführen. Ford translation: It did not try to enlarge the territory for settlement by the German race or try to increase the power of the Reich through the use of black blood , which would have been a criminal act itself. In German, both the color black and the race are called “schwarz”. In this paragraph, “schwarzem” clearly references the race. Note also that here German race is originally deutschen Rasse, however it is still neutral in meaning. MEIN KAMPF 40 MEIN KAMPF “Negro” is best translated as “Neger” in German, and “nigger” would remain “Nigger” in German with the same spelling as in English. “Nigger” is clearly a slur, “Neger” can be meant neutrally in certain contexts, and “schwarz” (the adjective) or “Schwarzer” (the noun) are politically correct. Speaking of “schwarzes Blut” (black blood), however, puts a negative spin on things. Blood is red no matter the skin color, therefore using the term “schwarzes Blut” makes racist sentiments obvious. Original German: Ich glaube im Gegenteil, daß, wenn dieses Blut der-einst eingesetzt würde, es ein Verbrechen wäre, den Einsatz für zweihunderttausend Deutsche zu vollziehen, während nebenan über sieben Millionen unter der Fremd-herrschaft schmachten und die Lebensader des deutschen Volkes den Tummelplatz afrikanischer Negerhorden durchläuft. Reynal-Hitchcock translation: ...more than 7,000,000 languish under alien rule and