The survey which was conducted in 140,000 secondary school classrooms was intended as a means to understand which works by Italian authors were the most popular, but the Italy's education ministry received a nasty shock after the unwelcome entry.

Mein Kampf (‘My Struggle’), is the partly-autobiographical work that outlined Hitler's ideology, and formed the basis for Nazism. It was written while he was imprisoned following his failed Putsch in Munich in November 1923, and published on 18 July 1925. Independent UK reported.

Alessandro Fusacchia, from the Italian ministry for education, called the choice “particularly nasty” but added that the book was not eligibile for the vote in any case, because the pupils were asked to select books by Italian authors that had been published since the year 2000.

“We are investigating, but we were convinced it was not a bad interpretation of the request, but rather a free voice,” he said.

However he went on to praise the high level of participation and the variety of other books that were selected, calling it a “great celebration of books and reading”. Independent UK added.

The other top three books selected by students were Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue (‘White As Milk, Red As Blood’) by Alessandro D'Avenia, Io Non Ho Paura (‘I'm Not Scared’) by Niccolo Ammaniti, and Gomorra by Roberto Saviano.

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