Message to Adolf

Message to Adolf

Cover to the first volume of "Adolf" from the "Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works" collection.
Adorufu ni Tsugu
(アドルフに告ぐ)
Genre Drama, Historical
Manga
Adolf
Written by Osamu Tezuka
Published by Bungeishunjū
English publisher
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Shukan Bunshun
Original run January 6, 1983 – May 30, 1985
Volumes 5

Message to Adolf, known in Japan as Adolf ni Tsugu (アドルフに告ぐ Adorufu ni Tsugu, literally: "Reporting to Adolf") and known in earlier English versions as Adolf, is a manga series made by Osamu Tezuka. The story is set before World War II and is centered on three men with the name Adolf. Adolf Kamil is an Ashkenazi Jew living in Japan. His best friend Adolf Kaufmann is of both Japanese and German descent. The third Adolf is Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany. Adolf also features Sohei Toge, a Japanese reporter. Vertical, Inc. currently publishes the series in English with Kumar Sivasubramanian as the translator,[1] and Viz Media formerly published the series in English.

Plot

The story of Adolf begins in 1936 as Japanese reporter Sohei Toge travels to Berlin to cover the Berlin Olympic Games. Upon arriving, he finds that his younger brother, who has been studying in Germany as an international student, has been murdered and had connections with Communist organisations. Furthermore, all traces of information regarding his younger brother's study in Germany has vanished. It was as if he had never existed. Investigating the matter, it is later learned that his murder is connected to a document he mailed to Japan with information regarding Adolf Hitler. This information is crucial to the Third Reich as it contains proof that Adolf Hitler has Jewish blood.

A member of the Nazi Party living in Japan named Wolfgang Kaufmann is ordered to find the documents. He expects his son, Adolf Kaufmann, to become a strong supporter of Adolf Hitler. However, Adolf Kaufmann has no interest in Nazi Germany as it would mean the killing of his good friend, Adolf Kamil, who is Jewish.

As events progress, the lives of the three Adolfs intertwine and become more and more tangled as Sohei Toge searches for his brother's murderer.

Did Adolf Hitler have Jewish ancestry?

This rumor plays a central role in this story. It concerns one of the most frequently asked question about Hitler's ancestry. During the Nuremberg Trials, Hans Frank, a Nazi awaiting the gallows, made the claim that he had found evidence that Hitler's father Alois was an illegitimate child of Hitler's paternal grandmother, Maria Anna Schicklgruber and a teenage son of her Jewish employer Leopold Frankenberger, when she worked as a cook for the Frankenberger family in Graz, Austria. Given that all Jews had been expelled from the province of Styria (which includes Graz) in the 15th century and were not allowed to return until the 1860s, there is no evidence of a Frankenberger family living in Graz at that time. Scholars such as Ian Kershaw and Brigitte Hamann dismiss the Frankenberger hypothesis (which had only Frank's speculation to support it) as baseless. Frank's story contains several inaccuracies and contradictions, such as he said "The fact that Adolf Hitler had no Jewish blood in his veins, had, from what has been his whole manner so blatant that it needs no further word", also the statement Frank had said that Maria Schicklgruber came from "Leonding near Linz", when in fact she came from the hamlet of Strones, near the village of Döllersheim.[2]

Characters

Awards

Adolf won the Kodansha Manga Award in 1986 for general manga.[3]

Publications

Adolf was published in English by Cadence Books and VIZ Media. The English manga is flipped to read left to right to conform to Western practice. The newer two volume release of Adolf from Vertical, Inc. is also flipped and is published under the title Message to Adolf. The manga has also been published in Brazil by Conrad Editora,[4] in France by Tonkam,[5] in Germany by Carlsen Verlag,[6] in Italy by Hazard,[7] in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini[8] and in the Netherlands by Xtra.

Volumes

Volumes of English translations, in order:

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Message to Adolf." Vertical, Inc. Retrieved on February 3, 2013.
  2. ↑ Jewish Virtual Library.org
  3. ↑ Joel Hahn. "Kodansha Manga Awards". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on 2007-08-16. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  4. ↑ "Loja Conrad - Adolf - Vol. 1" (in Portuguese). Conrad Editora. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  5. ↑ "L'Histoire des trois Adolf (de luxe) - Manga - Editions Tonkam" (in French). Tonkam. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  6. ↑ "Adolf, Band 1" (in German). Carlsen Verlag. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  7. ↑ "La storia dei tre Adolf vol. 1". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  8. ↑ "Adolf Integral nº1 a 5" (in Spanish). Planeta DeAgostini. Retrieved 2012-09-11.

External links

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