Washington: Sales of Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) — the antisemitic manifesto penned by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1924 while he was serving a prison sentence in Germany — have been restricted by online retailer Amazon.
“Booksellers were informed in recent days that they would no longer be allowed to sell a number of Nazi-authored books on the website including Hitler’s autobiographical screed and children’s books designed to spread antisemitic ideas among children,” wrote The Guardian.
The various editions of Mein Kampf have collectively had thousands of Amazon reviews, with many individuals giving the book five stars.
Jewish campaign vs free speech
Since the late 1990s, Jewish groups and leading Holocaust education charities have campaigned to stop Amazon from selling copies of Mein Kampf but the retailer had traditionally defended the right of free speech and the need for students to understand Hitler’s thinking when it comes to selling a book which is legal to publish. Most Nazi publications are easily available to download for free from other websites
Kindle eBook editions of Mein Kampf have also deleted Mein Kampf from Amazon’s listings.
Other Nazi publications including the children’s book ‘The Poisonous Mushroom‘ written by Nazi publisher Julius Streicher, who was later executed for crimes against humanity after running the Nazi Der Stürmer newspaper, have also recently removed from Amazon’s listings.
Customers looking to purchase Streicher’s The Mongrel were able to buy the illustrated children’s guide to “the Jewish question” for £7.61. The book described itself as offering a “dozen stories about dangerous or harmful animals, each followed by an unflattering comparison to Jewry”.
“The company is mindful of book censorship throughout history but is taking concerns from the Holocaust Educational Trust seriously,” Amazon acknowledged last month.
‘Mein Kampf’ reinstated
After disappearing for a few days, “Mein Kampf” is once again being sold directly by Amazon. But secondhand copies and those from third-party merchants appear to be still prohibited, a distinction that sellers said made no sense.
But on Amazon’s subsidiary AbeBooks, which operates largely independently, hundreds of new and used copies of “Mein Kampf” are available.
“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.”