Germany’s largest umbrella organization for Jews is criticizing Amazon for allowing third-party vendors to sell pro-Nazi products on its site.
Josef Schuster, head of the Berlin-based Central Council of Jews in Germany, called it “absolutely unacceptable” for T-shirts, stickers and books glorifying the Nazis or inciting hatred against minorities to be sold on Amazon.
The online retail giant has a “great moral and social responsibility,” and shouldn’t try to hide behind the notion that it is merely a “supplier,” Schuster said in an interview with the German media group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), according to a translation from The Local.
“What we expect from a company such as Amazon, and from competent authorities, is that they immediately withdraw these articles from circulation and systematically launch legal proceedings,” Schuster said.
Josef Schuster is the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. (Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ via Getty Images)
Schuster pointed to books such as “The Jew as World Parasite,” a virulently anti-Semitic pamphlet published by the Nazi Party near the end of World War II. The book was being sold on Amazon in Germany for about $22.50, the Local reported early Saturday.
A search for the title on Monday produced a few brokenlinks. HuffPost has reached out to Amazon for comment.
RND also pointed to T-shirts being sold on Amazon that bear far-right slogans, such as “Brown even without the sun,” and “Nordic rage knows no mercy.” Products with those slogans were stillavailable on Amazon on Monday.
Amazon’s policy on “offensive and controversial materials” states that the company doesn’t allow products that “promote, incite, or glorify hate or violence towards any person or group.” However, the company says it maintains the right to make a determination on the “historical value” of the item.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (3rd L) leaves after the opening of the exhibition 'Berlin 1933 On the Path to Dictatorship', tracing Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany in 1933 to mark 80 years since he became chancellor, on January 30, 2013 at the open-air documentation center Topographie des Terrors in Berlin. (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)
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