Amazon changes mind on sale of Mein Kampf and Nazi books

Amazon has banned the sale of most editions of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and other Nazi propaganda books.

The e-commerce giant would not comment on what had prompted it to change its mind on the issue, but a recent intervention to remove the books by the London-based Holocaust Educational Trust received the backing of leading British politicians, The Guardian reports.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “As a bookseller, we provide customers with access to a variety of viewpoints, including titles that serve an important educational role in understanding and preventing antisemitism. All retailers make decisions about what selection they choose to offer and we do not take selection decisions lightly.”

Hunters

Last month, Amazon got caught up in a Holocaust row after releasing a new series, Hunters, on its Prime Video offering.

Starring Al Pacino, this features a band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York who discover hundreds of high ranking Nazi officials are conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the US.

The show has been accused of bad taste, particularly for fictional scenes set in Nazi death camps. The Guardian said it was “dangerously insensitive” and “fetishised the horrors of the Holocaust, with stylised violence and a total lack of morals”.

Meanwhile, the Auschwitz Memorial tweeted to its one million followers: “Auschwitz was full of horrible pain & suffering documented in the accounts of survivors. Inventing a fake game of human chess for @huntersonprime is not only dangerous foolishness & caricature. It also welcomes future deniers. We honour the victims by preserving factual accuracy.”

The Memorial also retweeted a letter from the Holocaust Educational Trust to Amazon asking that children’s books by Nazi Julius Streicher, who was executed for crimes against humanity, be removed from sale.

“When you decide to make a profit on selling vicious antisemitic Nazi propaganda published without any critical comment or context, you need to remember that those words led not only to the #Holocaust but also many other hate crimes,” it said.