To download the ECAJ letter in PDF format, click here.

To download the JCCV Analysis of Dymocks offerings of Mein Kampf in PDF format, click here.

Dear Mr Forsyth

Re: Sale of Mein Kampf

We are writing to you to request that Dymocks book stores cease the sale of certain editions of Mein Kampf, the principal manifesto of the ideology of the German Nazi Party published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926 and authored by its leader, Adolf Hitler. It is based on theories of racial superi­or­ity and hatred which have been thor­oughly dis­cred­ited by sci­ent­ists and other scholars.

As you would no doubt be aware, following the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany in 1933, Mein Kampf became their blueprint for waging wars of aggres­sion and genocide through­out Europe. The imple­ment­a­tion of the ideology of Nazism, as stated in Mein Kampf, resulted in the deaths of 75 million people and the dis­place­ment and injury of hundreds of millions of others between 1933 and 1945.

Most notori­ously, antisemitism was (and remains) at the core of Nazism’s racial ideology and was the pretext for the genocide by the Nazi regime of 6 million European Jews, including 1.5 million Jewish children, known as the Holocaust.

As at 1 April 2020, Dymocks stores offered for sale no fewer than sixty editions of Mein Kampf. Please find attached a document prepared by the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, the roof body of the Jewish community in that State, con­tain­ing an itemised list of each such edition. The document also provides an analysis of the nature of each edition, and the his­tor­ic­al and other com­ment­ary, if any, which is included in its contents, or asso­ci­ated with its promotion.

You will see from the document that only six of the sixty editions include detailed com­ment­ary and annota­tions from recog­nised scholars. Another seventeen editions include com­ment­ary other than from recog­nised scholars, orare accom­pan­ied by marketing material, such as online descrip­tions or back cover blurbs, which raise sig­ni­fic­ant concerns. Much of this com­ment­ary and marketing material expli­citly glorifies the Nazi regime, seeks to sanitise and rehab­il­it­ate Nazi ideology (including by down­play­ing its antisemitic nature and its central role in the Holocaust), or promotes white suprem­acist, antisemitic or other racist ideo­lo­gies. In effect, these editions lend them­selves as a recruit­ing tool for neo-Nazi and other racist groups. The remaining thirty-seven editions provide no com­ment­ary at all. Sig­ni­fic­antly, they fail to disclose the history of the imple­ment­a­tion of the ideology of Nazism, as stated in Mein Kampf.

Australia is a party to the Inter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tion on the Elim­in­a­tion of All Forms of Racial Dis­crim­in­a­tion, article 4a of which obliges all State parties to “declare an offence pun­ish­able by law all dis­sem­in­a­tion of ideas based on racial superi­or­ity or hatred, incite­ment to racial dis­crim­in­a­tion, as well as all acts of violence or incite­ment to such acts against any race or group of persons of another colour or ethnic origin”. The Con­ven­tion is given partial legis­lat­ive effect in Australia’s domestic law by the Racial Dis­crim­in­a­tion Act 1975 (Cth), Part IIA of which prohibits offensive behaviour based on racial hatred.

On 25 February 2020, the Director-General of ASIO Mike Burgess warned about the rapid increase in neo-Nazi activity in Australia. In a wide-ranging address on the security threats currently facing Australia, he said “small cells” of right-wing extrem­ists were regularly gathering to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons and to disperse their “hateful ideology”. We ask you to consider the use that such groups would make of most of the editions of Mein Kampf that are currently available from Dymocks.

Last month, Amazon banned the sale of most editions of Mein Kampf and other Nazi pro­pa­ganda books from its store, including children’s books designed to spread antisemitic ideas among young people. Amazon reportedly stated that it could no longer offer Mein Kampf for sale, as the book breaks Amazon’s code of conduct. WHSmith has taken similar action.

We are asking Dymocks stores likewise to cease selling all editions of Mein Kampf which do not contain detailed his­tor­ic­al com­ment­ary and annota­tions by recog­nised scholars.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Peter Wertheim AM

co-CEO

Contact
Peter Wertheim | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 588
e: [email protected]| www.ecaj.org.au