(JTA) — For the second time in three days, the Auschwitz Museum has condemned Amazon for selling Nazi-era anti-Semitic children’s books in English and German.
“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 motivated by #antisemitism,” the museum said Sunday in a tweet.
The tweet came two days after the museum called out Amazon owner Jeff Bezos in a tweet, saying “Hateful, virulently antisemitic Nazi propaganda is available for sale not only on @AmazonUK. Books by authors like Julius Streicher can be found also on @amazon & @AmazonDE.” The tweet included a letter from Britain’s Holocaust Educational Trust calling on Amazon to “remove Nazi anti-Semitic books listed on your website.”
Streicher wrote the 1938 children’s book “The Poisonous Mushroom,” referring to Jews and calling them the “devil in human form.”
The book was used as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials, during which Streicher was convicted of crimes against humanity.
“As a bookseller, we are mindful of book censorship throughout history, and we do not take this lightly,” an Amazon representative said in a statement to The New York Times. “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.”
Over the past 18 months, Amazon has removed two books by David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, as well as several titles by George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, and books by other Nazi authors, The New York Times reported earlier this month.
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