T-shirts emblazoned with an “I Love Heinrich Himmler†sentiment were being sold on amazon.com. The item, which features a red heart, was still on sale as of Tuesday afternoon.
An article published Tuesday in the Czech weekly Tyden called attention to the shirts professing affection for the infamous Nazi officer.
Patricia Smith, a spokeswoman for amazon, told Tyden, “Our catalog contains millions of items. With such a large number, unexpected merchandise may get onto the Web.” Smith told Tyden that amazon does not intend to stop cooperating with Direct Collection, the producer of the T-shirts. An amazon spokeswoman told JTA that the T-shirts were withdrawn from the site when it was informed about them by Tyden. Smith, informed by JTA that the link was still active, said it would be removed immediately. “The sale of these T-shirts is wrong and in bad taste,†said Michael Schneider, the secretary general of the World Jewish Congress. “We will write to amazon.com and point it out.†Amazon’s many “I love” shirts include sentiments for Primo Levi, Bon Jovi and Oprah.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.