Rome, June 13 (RHC)-- The Italian newspaper Il Giornale has come under fire for offering free annotated copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf with one of its supplements.  The conservative paper was owned by fomer Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, until he had to hand it over to his brother, Paolo, after a 1990 law prohibited ownership of newspapers and television channels simultaneously.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi described the decision as "squalid" while others criticized the paper for using the book to increase sales.  The paper argued the move would 'educate' readers about the evils of Nazism.

Hitler published the anti-Semitic manifesto in 1925, eight years before he came to power.  He became military and political leader of Germany from 1933 to 1945, launching World War Two and causing the deaths of millions, including six million Jewish people under Nazi rule.

The give-away was described as "a vile act" by Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.  Gattengna added that the move was "light years away from any in-depth learning or study about the Holocaust."

The copyright of Mein Kampf expired earlier this year.  Previously, copyright was held by the regional government in Germany's Bavaria, which banned reprinting of the book.  After the copyright expired, Germany's authorities allowed an annotated, critical version of the book, with academic notes, to be published.  The publication of other editions is restricted in Germany, under incitement laws.