Educators urge Amazon to drop Nazi propaganda

Two organizations that educate the public about the Holocaust are calling on Amazon to stop selling Nazi propaganda, rekindling a debate over what should be sold through the world’s biggest digital marketplace.

The Holocaust Educational Trust, which trains students and teachers across Britain, posted a letter on Twitter on Friday calling on Amazon U.K. to stop selling books by Julius Streicher, founder of the Naziera anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer.

Karen Pollock, the trust’s chief executive, cited “The Poisonous Mushroom,” an illustrated children’s book by Streicher, published in 1938. The text, which likens Jews to the devil, was “designed to brainwash an entire generation of children that Jews were inherently evil,” she wrote in an email.

The book was used as evidence at the Nuremberg trials, during which Streicher was convicted of directing and participating in crimes against humanity. “The front cover alone draws on longstanding and offensive antisemitic tropes,” Pollock wrote in the letter. Throughout his life, Streicher was committed to advocating the annihilation of Jews.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum’s Twitter account shared Pollock’s letter, along with screen grabs of several other anti-Semitic texts by Streicher sold on Amazon. “Such books should be removed immediately,” the museum wrote.

On Friday afternoon, Amazon did not appear ready to commit to a course of action.

“As a bookseller, we are mindful of book censorship throughout history, and we do not take this lightly,” Amazon said in a statement.