US retail giant Target and the bookstore Barnes and Noble announced on Tuesday they are no longer selling four books that promote Holocaust denial.
The removal comes in response to letters of protest from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Jewish group said.
“We assume these large online booksellers do not mass-market books promoting terrorism or pedophilia,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC associate dean and global social action director. “At a time of surging antisemitic hate crimes here in the US, it is beyond the pale that a book would be marketed by someone who insults the memory of six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide.”
The books that have been pulled off the shelf include Not Guilty At Nuremberg, a book written by notorious Holocaust denier Carlos Porter; and the German-language novel Der Auschwitz-Mythos: Legende oder Wirklichkeit? (“The Auschwitz Myth – Legend or Reality?”), by Wilhelm Stäglich, a former officer in the German army during World War II and a neo-Nazi party member.
Two other German-language books no longer sold by both companies are Germar Rudolf’s Eine Zensur Findet Statt! (“A Censorship is Taking Place!”), written to protest German authorities’ ban on his antisemitism and Holocaust denial, and Was Ist Wahrheit? (“What is Truth?”), by the French Communist Paul Rassinier, one of the earliest Holocaust deniers.
In response to the center’s request, Target responded, “We appreciate the time you have taken to share your concerns about this book. It’s never our intention to offend our guests with the merchandise we carry. Please know that we have removed this book from our assortment.”
Barnes and Noble wrote, “As soon as we are made aware of any such offending titles, we take prompt action to remove offending titles in accordance with our policy, as we did with Not Guilty at Nuremberg. We had not been aware of this title’s existence on barnesandnoble.com. Upon receipt of your correspondence, in accordance with our content policy, we immediately removed it from our website. We also alerted Lightning Source, who have assured us that they also have deleted this title from their books for sale.”
SWC said this is just the beginning of demanding all retailers remove antisemitic books.