Amazon bans Mein Kampf, removes Hitler’s author page

E-commerce giant eliminates listings for most editions of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto and deletes his author page.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Amazon, the world’s largest online marketplace, is banning the sales of most editions of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf. The decision was reported on Monday by UK newspaper The Guardian.

Second-hand sellers of Hitler’s notorious polemic against Jews received emails from Amazon informing them that their listings violate the site’s policies, The Guardian reported. It’s unclear if second-hand sellers will be penalized retroactively for offering the book.

The ban doesn’t apply strictly to second-hand sellers. Mainstream publishers that sell first-hand copies of the book also saw their listings removed. Adolf Hitler’s author page on Amazon, which allows users to follow for updates and see related content, has been deleted.

However, one version of Mein Kampf will stay on Amazon. A 1943 translation by Ralph Manheim, according to the listing description on Amazon, “has taken particular care to give an exact English equivalent of Hitler’s highly individual, and often awkward style.”

Manheim’s translation includes a foreword by journalist Konrad Heiden, who meticulously documented the Nazi persecution of Jews from abroad after being expelled from Germany in 1933. Sources close to the matter explain that the decision was made to leave one version of Mein Kampf for educational purposes.

For several months, the London-based charity Holocaust Educational Trust has made repeated pleas to the Internet retail giant to remove Mein Kampf with the backing of several UK politicians.

The decision comes after previous moves to delete Nazi-related products from Amazon. In February 2020, the site banned sales of The Poisonous Mushroom, an anti-Semitic children’s book penned in 1938 by Nazi party leader Julius Streicher. In December 2019, after a public outcry, Amazon removed listings for Auschwitz-themed Christmas tree ornaments and mousepads.

When asked what prompted Amazon to remove Mein Kampf, a company spokesman offered this statement: “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 anti-Semitism. All retailers make decisions about what selection they choose to offer and we do not take selection decisions lightly.”