Loyalist
07-25-2009, 01:08 PM
The American Jewish Committee said on Friday it is suing the German unit of online retailer Amazon for selling books which it says question the Holocaust and "trivialize" the Nazis.
According to AJC research, around 50 works by authors including "Der Auschwitz-Mythos - Legende oder Wirklichkeit ("The Auschwitz Myth - Legend or Reality") by Wilhelm Staglich were on sale on Amazon.de this month.
Some of these books, the AJC says, are classified by the German authorities as being unsuitable for under-18s.
"It is unacceptable that books are for sale on Amazon.de that normally are only available under the counter in far-right extremist shops," the AJC said in a statement.
"We cannot let the spread of Internet sales erode laws that ban Holocaust denial and incitement to hatred of minorities in Germany," it added.
A spokeswoman for Amazon Germany said that "of course" it did not sell any books that were banned or classified as unsuitable for under-18s.
She added that in the interests of freedom of speech, it was not keen on stopping selling certain titles.
"We think that the best response to questionable literature is not removing them but more discussion," a spokeswoman told AFP.
She added that the company had recently tightened up its rules regarding books that glorify or trivialize the Nazis and that certain books had been withdrawn from sale as a result.
Source (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090724/entertainment/entertainment_germany_us_book_internet_crime_farri ght)
According to AJC research, around 50 works by authors including "Der Auschwitz-Mythos - Legende oder Wirklichkeit ("The Auschwitz Myth - Legend or Reality") by Wilhelm Staglich were on sale on Amazon.de this month.
Some of these books, the AJC says, are classified by the German authorities as being unsuitable for under-18s.
"It is unacceptable that books are for sale on Amazon.de that normally are only available under the counter in far-right extremist shops," the AJC said in a statement.
"We cannot let the spread of Internet sales erode laws that ban Holocaust denial and incitement to hatred of minorities in Germany," it added.
A spokeswoman for Amazon Germany said that "of course" it did not sell any books that were banned or classified as unsuitable for under-18s.
She added that in the interests of freedom of speech, it was not keen on stopping selling certain titles.
"We think that the best response to questionable literature is not removing them but more discussion," a spokeswoman told AFP.
She added that the company had recently tightened up its rules regarding books that glorify or trivialize the Nazis and that certain books had been withdrawn from sale as a result.
Source (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090724/entertainment/entertainment_germany_us_book_internet_crime_farri ght)