Man Owns Copy of Racist Manifesto, Fiancee's Family Outraged -- But Does He Have a Good Reason?

The story, posted to an anonymous forum, featured a sleepover where an infamous manifesto was discovered leading to family strife. Overwhelmingly, however, the fiancé's ownership of the book -- and his specific reasons for why -- lead to the Reddit community fully supporting him and his personal library.

Read on to see why!

"I live with my fiance in a one bedroom apartment," the post began. "It's quite small and we don't have an office. We have a bedroom, living room, bathroom and kitchen. Plus, a little balcony."

Which "means that our books stand in the bookshelves in the living room," OP (original poster) explained.

"My fiance is a historian. A proper historian. He has a degree and works at university teaching classes. His field of expertise is Germany from 1930-1960. That obviously includes the most infamous person of that time and the book he wrote while imprisoned," the Redditor continued to clarify, giving background and context. "We have those books (it's two massive books that are heavily noted and contextualized historically, as you cannot buy the thing as is anywhere. It also says so in the title) Besides that we don't have any 'souvenirs' from that time. We have a lot of other books, articles, etc. laying around."

Then came the beginning of the conflict.

"So on Friday we had my brother and his gf over. It got too late and we invited them to stay on our couch. The next morning, the GF was in a horrible mood, refused to talk to us, and made my brother leave after coffee."

"Then, on Sunday, my brother calls me to 'talk' and 'confronts' me with the books they found," OP recounted. "He said it was highly inappropriate. Those books don't belong in a household and that we needed to put them away when guest came over. I was just puzzled because my whole family knew what my fiance did."

"He then said I owe his GF an apology, and he wanted me to show him how we deal with my fiance's 'issue,'" the Redditor went on to recall. "I just told him this was all very ironic. And this is where I might be the AH [a--hole]."

"I said that it was not my fault, his GF couldn't read. Because if she did, she would have read on the covers that it was a 'critical view on the manuscript of___'. That this fake [outrage] was childish and that he could call me when both of them grew up."

"Since then, my mother has been hounding me," OP concluded their original post. "But my father thinks this is hilarious."

First off, many a reader wanted to know why OP omitted the title of the book and the dictator they were referring to.

OP first explained they didn't want the post flagged to moderators considering the sensitive topic, but did link in the comments to an academic text that offered criticism on Hitler's "Mein Kampf," which itself noted that it was a "critical edition" with 1,966 pages. The nazi leader's original manifesto was less than half that length.

OP then went on to say, after some questioned if the brother's GF was a descendant of people oppressed by Hitler, "[as far as I know] his GF is not belonging to a group directly victimized at that time."

The Redditor also noted that their "brother knows what my fiance does."

After many a reader commented that OP's mother must view their brother as the "golden child" and had other criticisms for her reaction, the Redditor replied in additional updates: "My mother is not a narcissist." And later explained after further questioning: "Because she is terrified of family rifts. So she always begs everyone to just turn the other cheek. Even the person that was wronged. She then asks you to be the bigger person etc."

The top comment on the post noted: "I can't blame anyone for being unsettled by those books. Their very existence is wrong. But if we ignore their existence, we're asking to repeat the errors of earlier generations. The fact that your brother and his GF totally missed the fact that your fiance is an historian just shows that they're either daft or looking for a fight. Also, I'm guessing that these books are not exactly prominently displayed and are shelved among loads of other historical texts."

While another noted that even a non-historian may have reason to read the book: "People should read more of stuff they disagree with: then at least they are informed about it and can rebuff it. When you recall that Europe was destroyed largely because of the delusions and persuasions of that one person, it becomes worth learning from history, instead of repeating it. There are still people out there with the same beliefs."

Meanwhile, another Redditor shared: "So, my great grandma was liberated by the soviets in 1945. She lost her whole family to the nazis. Her son, my grandfather, was also a historian, like your boo. Specializing in ww1, ww2 and the genocide of my people. I have all his books (died in 2006). All (over) 500 of them. With names like 'Hitlers Germany,' 'the real odessa,' you get the idea. Anyone who knows me knows which side of history I stand on. The maintenance workers at my apartment, not so much. 'You got a lotta Hitler books...' 'yep, he tried to eliminate my bloodline.' 'Understood.' Your brothers gf needs to educate herself, and maybe grow up and be an adult. 'Hey, what's up with this book?' 'Oh, it's blah, blah, blah, educationcommunicationcrazy concept' NTA Dumb people gunna dumb, ignorance is not cute."

To which OP replied: "Yes!!!! My fiance burns for this topic. He would have LOVED to explain to her and to talk to her about why it makes her so uncomfortable. But calling me and demanding s--t is where I am not okay with things."

What do you think?