SWC Again Blasts Amazon for Monetizing Nazi and Neo-Nazi Paraphernalia

January 12, 2023

Human Rights NGO asks, Why Is Amazon Marketing Swastika Necklace, then urging buyer to also purchase face masks associated with neo-Nazis?

 
LOS ANGELES – The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is blasting Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) for allowing the marketing and sale of Nazi and neo-Nazi paraphernalia on their website.
 
The SWC reached out to Amazon via e-mail yesterday demanding that they remove these items immediately and that the mass-marketing behemoth to immediately put in place systems that will end the monetization of hateful products. Amazon has yet to respond to the SWC’s latest request.
 
(Pictures of the paraphernalia and customer comments from Amazon can be found here.)
 
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action at the SWC, issued the following statement:
 
“Amazon needs to immediately remove and update their site to stop recommending all Nazi, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist paraphernalia. Amazon is the nation’s go-to-online store for every imaginable product. In an era when 63 percent of all religious-based hate crimes in America target America’s Jews—2.4 percent of the US population, at a time when Blacks are again the number one target of race-based hate crimes, Amazon should not be using its business model to market hateful symbols and neo-Nazi paraphernalia.
 
"While the SWC is prepared to work with Amazon to identify and bar anti-Semitic and other items associated with hate groups, this is not the first time that we are complaining to Amazon.
 
"One year ago, we sent a letter to Jeff Bezos following a protest by the SWC. Amazon removed more than 20 Nazi propaganda films that were either on sale in Amazon’s online portal or available for streaming on its Amazon Prime video network. The letter we issued last year urged that, ‘These films should be viewed – if at all – in a history class where educators can expose the lies of Nazi Germany, its violent racist ideology, and its genocidal hatred of the Jewish people.’"
 
The original letter can be viewed here.
 
The SWC held earlier protests that date back to 2017 (letter to Jeff Bezos) and 2020 (to officials in France, UK, and Germany):

February 2017 - letter to Bezos over Amazon.de promotion of “Die Rothschilds: Eine Familie beherrscht die Welt" (“The Rothschilds: A Family that Controls the World”).
https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/wiesenthal-centre-to-jeff.html
 
January 2020 - letter to French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet
https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/french-justice-minister.html
 
February 2020 - a letter to British Education Minister Gavin Williamson over the sale of Nazi books on Amazon UK:
https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/wiesenthal-centre-to-british-3.html
 
April 2020 - protest to Amazon Germany CEO, Ralf Kleber
https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/wiesenthal-centre-slams-hate.html
 
 
For further information, please email Michele Alkin, Director of Global Communications at malkin@wiesenthal.com or Shawn Rodgers at srodgers@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. Media may also contact James Lambert, Vice President of Rubenstein Public Relations, at jlambert@rubensteinpr.com. 
 
 
About the Simon Wiesenthal Center  
 
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is a Jewish global human rights organization researching the Holocaust and hate in a historic and contemporary context. The Center confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity, stands with Israel, defends the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations. With a constituency of over 400,000 households in the United States, it is accredited as an NGO at international organizations including the United Nations, UNESCO, OSCE, Organization of American States (OAS), and the Council of Europe. 

Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Simon Wiesenthal Center maintains offices in New York, Toronto, Miami, Chicago, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Jerusalem. 

 
###