British anti-racism group Hope Not Hate has accused UK bookselling chains Foyles, Waterstones, WH Smith and Amazon of lending ‘respectability’ to several Holocaust denial books and far-right titles by selling the books on their websites, reports the Guardian.
Among the titles Hope Not Hate accused the retailers of selling are Did Six Million Really Die? by Richard Verrall, The Leuchter Reports by Fred Leuchter, and works by Holocaust denier and convicted criminal Germar Rudolf. The campaign organisers also highlighted the availability of the anti-Semitic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion; The Turner Diaries, which inspired Oklahoma bomber Tim McVeigh and London nailbomber David Copeland; and The Anarchist Cookbook, which contains bomb-making instructions.
Joe Mulhall, senior researcher at Hope Not Hate, called on retailers to remove the books, stating that while people have the right to write books others disagree with, major mainstream book retailers should not profit from ‘extreme hate content’. Mulhall added that making these books available helped to legitimise their message. ‘These are works which have helped inspire extreme violence and terror plots, as well as driving hate towards minorities, particularly the Jewish community,’ said Mulhall.
Read the article on Books and Publishing.