Amazon has removed 92 books promoting Shoah denial, sparking praise from Jewish groups ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day.
The tech giant faced growing public pressure on the issue in recent years. It has now taken down scores of volumes across 17 countries and more than 850 hyperlinks.
Material no longer sold on the platform includes the “Leuchter Report'', a 1988 document which attempts to deny that gas chambers were used to kill people.
Auschwitz Memorial previously described it as “an attempt, concealed beneath an academic-looking smokescreen of graphs, analyses, and calculations, at misinforming readers who have no access to the scholarly literature — or who are looking for precisely the sort of conclusions that Leuchter offers”.
Other books removed by Amazon include Austin Joseph App’s “The Six Million Swindle”, Wilhelm Stäglich’s “The Auschwitz Myth – Legend or Reality”, and several issues of the far-right publication, the Journal for Historical Review.
Amazon met members of the World Jewish Congress and Board of Deputies last month to discuss the move.
In a joint statement, the two Jewish organisations welcomed the removal of the material but added that more remains to be done.
“We are grateful to have been able to work together with our colleagues at the WJC to help ensure the removal of these works. However, there is still more to be done; Amazon have made it clear that they are happy to work with us to discuss the removal of further similar publications, as well as how to effectively identify and remove such works themselves.
“We look forward to continuing to work together in the future to combat Holocaust denial and ensure that antisemites cannot spread their lies with impunity on the websites of the world’s largest bookseller. We would call on other publishers, booksellers and distributors to follow this example.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: “We take concerns from the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the World Jewish Congress seriously and have worked with them directly on this matter. As a bookseller, we believe that providing access to the written word is important.
"While we are mindful of a global history fraught with book censorship, and we do not take this lightly; we carefully consider the types of content we make available in our stores and review our approach regularly, listening to feedback, evaluating our policy and investigating concerns from our customers. We invest significant time and resources to ensure our content guidelines are followed and remove products that do not adhere to our guidelines - which can be found here for books and here for non-media products.”
