Auschwitz Memorial, which preserves the site of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp, has urged Amazon and its owner Jeff Bezos to “immediately” remove an anti-Semitic children's book which is sold online.
The group tweeted that copies of Julius Streicher’s “hateful, virulently anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda is available for sale” on Amazon's US, UK, and German websites.
The call was supported by the British-based charity Holocaust Educational Trust which voiced its disgust over the fact that prominent publishers such as Amazon sold copies of Streicher’s book online.
“Nazi propaganda has no place on the electronic bookshelves of our country. We call on @AmazonUK to remove the Nazi propaganda it has on sale”, the charity pointed out on its Twitter page.
The group referred to Streicher's The Poisonous Mushroom colouring book, which was originally published in 1938 and which uses a spate of anti-Semitic troupes to teach kids that Jewish people allegedly “abuse little boys and girls”. During the 1945-49 Nuremberg Trial, the book was used as evidence against Streicher who was finally executed.
In an open letter to Amazon, Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, for his part, said that “as the Holocaust moves from living history to history, out survivors regularly raise concern that Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism still persist”.
Pollock expressed concern over the fact that “distinguished publishers like Amazon would make available products that promote racist or hate speech of any kind, let alone those from the darkest period of European history”.
He underscored that his organization believes that the problem “still has not been properly addressed given the frequency of issues of hateful items being sold on Amazon”.
Amazon Says It ‘Seriously Takes Concerns” From UK Charity
Newsweek has, meanwhile, cited an unnamed Amazon spokesperson as saying that as a bookseller, the online retail giant is “mindful of book censorship throughout history” and that it does not “take this lightly”.
"We believe that providing access to written speech is important, including books that some may find objectionable, though we take concerns from the Holocaust Educational Trust seriously and are listening to its feedback”, the spokesperson added.
They pointed to Amazon policies which govern which books can be listed for sale, added that the company invests “significant time and resources to ensure our guidelines are followed, and remove products that do not adhere to our guidelines”.
According to the spokesperson, “additionally, beyond our proactive measures, we also promptly investigate all concerns raised”.
This comes after the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim non-profit rights group, slammed Amazon for selling white supremacist material, including William Luther Pierce’s notorious “neo-Nazi race war” book titled the Turner Diaries.
The book is thought to have inspired the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, a terrorist attack which claimed the lives of at least 168 people.