CAA commends Waterstones for removing “Deluxe” edition of “Mein Kampf” from online sale after we reported it

Waterstones has removed from sale a “Deluxe” edition of Mein Kampf after Campaign Against Antisemitism alerted the bookseller to the listing on its website.

Mein Kampf was the Magnus opus and manifesto of the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler.

The retailer explained that it receives title information for its website through an automated feed from Nielsen. Although Nielsen and Waterstones both provides a level of scrutiny for the books that come through, the size of the catalogue reaches tens of millions of titles and some undesirable books make it through the filters.

Waterstones concluded: “This listing has now been removed from our database and the title will not be available to purchase via our website or our bookshops. Once again, thank you for highlighting this issue.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We commend Waterstones for immediately removing the ‘Deluxe’ version of Mein Kampf from its website after we contacted them. Such vile antisemitic rhetoric has no place on the virtual shelves of a major retailer, let alone being marketed as a superior collector’s item. With websites relying more and more on automations, it falls to groups like ours to ensure that online filters work and that sellers are held to account. To its credit, Waterstones has repeatedly taken antisemitism seriously and removed racist propaganda from sale.”

In 2020, Waterstones agreed to remove all books by the conspiracy theorist and antisemitic hate preacher David Icke.