It Pays the Bills

A controversy has erupted after reports that a British charity set up to aid German Jewish refugees accepted royalties from the sale of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" -- even though the group no longer accepts the royalties.

The public announcement that the German Welfare Council no longer accepts the funds followed a report in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper last month claiming the charity had received more than $675,000 from Hitler's work.

The council disputed the Telegraph's numbers, saying it had received an average of $5,400 a year from the royalties for the last quarter-century. Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf'' in prison in 1924 after his failed Beer Hall putsch, and it was first published in 1925.

When he became chancellor of Germany in 1933, the book became a required school text. It sold in the millions, and for many years was Hitler's main source of income. -- Richard Allen Greene, Jewish Telegraphic Agency