Wiesenthal Centre to British Education Minister: Act Against Amazon UK Online Sales of Nazi School Texts

February 19, 2020

In a letter to British Education Minister, Gavin Williamson, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, congratulated Williamson on his reappointment, but raised a clear and present educational danger.

Samuels recalled "addressing in 2014 the Education Committee of the European Parliament on the prevalence of books that incite to hate and violence, that were on display at the International Frankfurt Book Fair. Based on our findings, each year the Fair authorities removethese volumes and warn the offending publishers - recidivists are banned - on grounds of contravening their contract which prohibits such incitement."

The letter noted that, "a British MP on that Committee passed this information to then Prime Minister David Cameron. The PM then stated on British television that such texts would be blacklisted and forbidden from UK schools."

The Centre brought to the attention of the Minister, "the current online sale by Amazon UK of the most hideous Nazi texts, calling for the killing of Jews as 'race defilers, poisonous snakes, devils in human form, abusers of children,' now in English translation and published by Third Reich Books, sold on Amazon."

"There is the irony of 'The Poisonous Mushroom,' 'The Jewish Question in the Classroom' and 'The Mongrel,' all written by Julius Streicher - the editor of the notorious antisemitic Nazi newspaper 'Der Sturmer' - but whose 'Political Testament' is also for sale in English on Amazon, while banned by law in today’s Germany," emphasised Samuels.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=the+poisonous+mushroom&i=stripbooks&crid=21AKLYDIVKLO0&sprefix=tHE+pOISONOUS%2Caps%2C223&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_13https%3A%2F%2F

The Centre argued, "likewise, in the case of Alfred Rosenberg, who was executed at Nuremberg as a war criminal, among the evidence presented was his antisemitic books, such as 'The Jew's Trail through the Ages,' now on sale in several editions on Amazon UK."

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfred-Rosenberg/e/B00LLPSHH6?ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vu00_taft_p1_i1

"Mr. Minister, we urge you to take the necessary measures against Amazon to prevent these and related outrages from poisoning another generation. This is not an issue of 'freedom of expression.' It is a prelude to bigotry and eventually ends in murder," concluded Samuels.

For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization numbering over 400.000 members. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO).