DOES AMAZON TOLERATE ANTISEMITISM?
5 March 2026
Amazon in Poland sells items promoting antisemitic hatred and fascism, according to the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. It may be in violation of Polish and international laws, including the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The Association publicized its concerns during the Advocacy & Policy Development Forum taking place in Brussels on 5 March 2026, organized by the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH) in cooperation with CEJI - A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe. ‘NEVER AGAIN’ had repeatedly contacted the Polish branch of Amazon, but the company stated in response: ‘the current verification methods are deemed sufficient’.
The Polish service of Amazon features numerous gadgets bearing Nazi symbols, such as the Totenkopf. During World War II, the symbol appeared on the uniforms of the SS units (SS-Totenkopfverbände) responsible for the Nazi concentration camps.
Among the items offered for sale on Amazon.pl, and brought to the company’s attention by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, are also extremely antisemitic propaganda tracts written after World War II. These include diatribes by authors such as Léon Degrelle, a Belgian SS officer who denied the Holocaust and praised Hitler, the former Waffen-SS general Felix Steiner who glorified this criminal formation calling it ‘a patriotic volunteer organisation’, David Irving, a British pseudo-historian who was sentenced to prison in Austria for denying the Holocaust, and Andrew Macdonald (William Pierce), an American neo-Nazi whose publication inspired the perpetrator of the 1995 Oklahoma City terrorist attack which killed 168 people.
Antisemitic publications by Polish authors are also available on Amazon.pl, for example ‘Studies on Judeophilia’, ‘Herrenvolk the Jewish Way’ and ‘Nazis and Shabbat Goym’ by Stanislaw Michalkiewicz, a notorious propagandist known for spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories. In May 2025, the French authorities disallowed his participation in a book fair in Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris.
Other publications sold on the Amazon Polish service include those authored by Alexander Dugin, a leading apologist for Putin’s aggression against Ukraine and the brain behind the neo-fascist ideology of ‘national bolshevism’. Dugin is infamous, among other things, for his slogan: ‘Ukrainians must be killed, killed, killed!’
Moreover, Amazon offers music releases, clothing and other merchandise by neo-fascist bands, such as the Norwegian group Burzum, associated with a style known as ‘National Socialist Black Metal’ (NSBM). Burzum is known for an open fascination with violence and cruelty. The band’s founder, Varg Vikernes, was convicted of murder and of arson of three churches.
- ‘Amazon fails to react effectively to the appearance of listings with antisemitic and fascist content, and representatives of the platform seem to ignore this problem’ – said Dr. Anna Tatar of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association.
Amazon, the world’s largest online store and trading platform, has repeatedly been criticized by organisations promoting Holocaust remembrance, including the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the World Jewish Congress, and the American Jewish Committee. The Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum has also called on Amazon to withdraw offers promoting Nazism, such as books by Julius Streicher, a Nazi propagandist convicted at the Nuremberg trial and sentenced to death, or gadgets offensive to the memory of Holocaust victims, such as bottle openers featuring images of the Auschwitz camp.
According to the Amazon Community Guidelines, it is ‘not allowed to express hatred for people based on characteristics like: race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability. It’s also not allowed to promote organizations that use such hate speech’.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is an EU regulation which came into force in 2022 that governs the responsibility of online platforms for content shared by users. The Warsaw-registered Amazon service operating on the Polish market is managed by Amazon Europe Core S.à r.l., headquartered in Luxembourg, as is the case with its counterparts in other EU Member States. The Luxembourg location is of pivotal importance within the framework of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Consequently, the Luxembourg authorities – specifically their Digital Services Coordinator – serve as the primary supervisory body ensuring Amazon’s compliance with DSA regulations throughout the European Union. Under the Act, Amazon comes within the definition of a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP), and as such has a duty to be proactive by implementing measures that reduce systemic risks associated with the spread of hate speech, disinformation and other illegal content. On 19 November 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (seated in Luxembourg) dismissed Amazon's appeal against the Commission's decision designating the platform as a ‘Very Large Online Platform’ (VLOP). In December 2025, the European Commission imposed a fine of 120 million Euro on the platform X (formerly Twitter) for violating obligations under the Digital Services Act. This was the first such decision relating to a breach of DSA provisions.
Since 2025, the Appeals Centre Europe, an out-of-court dispute settlement body set up under the DSA, made 263 decisions on disputes submitted by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. Excluding defaults, in 64 percent of the cases ACE overturned the platform’s original decision.
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organisation founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue, and human rights across the world. ‘NEVER AGAIN’ has actively participated in international civil society networks, including the Alliance Against Genocide (AAG), the European Network for Countering Antisemitism through Education (ENCATE), the European Practitioners Network Against Antisemitism (EPNA), the Global Alliance Against Digital Hate and Extremism (GAADHE), and the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH).
More information:
www.NeverAgainAssociation.org
www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity
www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ
www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association
https://neveragainnw.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/stowarzyszenie_nigdy_wiecej