A popular New Zealand online retailer has been selling books denying the existence of the Holocaust, promoting COVID-19 conspiracies and touting fake cures for diseases such as cancer.
For sale on Mighty Ape - a subsidiary of Australian retail giant Kogan.com - are books such as The Jewish Hand in the World Wars, which claims the Jews' "misanthropy" and "ruthless materialism" brought about the 20th century's biggest conflicts, and defended Adolf Hitler; and Inside the Gas Chambers, which argues they never existed.
There are dozens of other similar titles on offer, many written by prominent Italian Holocaust denier Carlo Mattogno, including Auschwitz, The First Gassing: Rumor and Reality, The Making of the Auschwitz Myth and Curated Lies, the latter of which claims there isn't "any trace" of evidence of gas chambers for executing people "at Auschwitz or any of its satellite camps".
The sheer range of Holocaust denial material for sale on Mighty Ape was spotted by Reddit user Drottcruz.
"I'm like 80 percent sure MightyApe doesn't know that this is crap on their store," they wrote, hoping it was just an oversight when the site uploaded a catalogue from a bulk supplier. "However as it stands, if there is an alt-right opinion about something, MightyApe appears to sell several books about it."
Some of the books have been available on the site for several years.
Online retail giant Amazon last year stopped selling The Jewish Hand in the World Wars after campaigners raised the alarm.
"Our store maintains content guidelines for books that address content that is illegal, infringing or that we otherwise prohibit," Amazon told London-based newspaper The Jewish Chronicle.
Despite their "repugnant" contents, Juliet Moses of the Jewish Council of New Zealand told Newshub the books shouldn't be banned.
"History shows that that doesn't work, it just pushes such ideas underground where they can fester and feed on themselves without being challenged in any way.
"But it is indeed shocking to see this on a supposedly reputable site. There are Holocaust survivors and their families in New Zealand - and of course families who lost their lives fighting the Nazis - who will be very distressed to learn that books containing such fabrications are being distributed in New Zealand."
While acknowledging it's Mighty Ape's choice whether it wants to sell anti-Semitic books, she said a warning about their contents or providing links to reputable books on the subject might be appropriate.
Dane Giraud, a member of the Free Speech Coalition and also Jewish, had similar thoughts.
"History tells us that when governments dictate what people can and cannot read, the banned materials develop an allure and power. In the case of antisemitism specifically - which is itself a conspiracy theory - banning such material risks affirming 'Jewish control' narratives, which would make censorship completely counterproductive.
"Also, publications and the thoughts behind them will still exist despite any bans; they'll just circulate underground. We need to know exactly what these people are thinking, or how could we hope to effectively counter them?"
He said while banning the books would be seen by many as "an easy fix for racism and bad ideas... censorship travels absolutely no distance in refuting toxic narratives. It amounts to a 'sweeping under the carpet'."
Germar Rudolf, the founder of Castle Hill Publishing - which published The Jewish Hand in the World Wars - has done jail time for inciting racial hatred.
Mighty Ape told Newshub it was unaware of the titles, and has "started reviewing" its catalagoue, removing some already.
"Due to the sheer volume of books published each year, many titles make their way onto Mighty Ape automatically from supplier data," a spokesperson said via email.
"We do our best to remove titles we're not comfortable selling, however unfortunately sometimes titles do slip through the cracks and we absolutely encourage customers to bring this to our attention so we can take action as we've done here."
COVID-19 conspiracies, fake cures and climate change denial
In addition to books falsely denying the Holocaust and promoting anti-Semitic narratives, Mighty Ape is selling books containing pseudoscientific claims about a range of topics.
Among them are The COVID-19 Illusion: A Cacophony of Lies, which claims the pandemic was created by "those who brought you the September 11th false flag attacks and the Jeffrey Epstein child trafficking ring"; and The Case Against Masks: Ten Reasons Why Mask Use Should be Limited, written by discredited former scientist Judy Mikovits, who promoted COVID-19 conspiracy theories in the controversial documentary Plandemic.
There are also books on how the women's equality movement supposedly ruined the world, books promoting debunked anti-vaccination claims, and a number touting fake cures for cancer, such as by blocking "fuel pipelines" in the body or shining lights up your nose.
