Tag: fascism

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DOES AMAZON TOLERATE ANTISEMITISM?

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

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THE AGGRESSOR WEARS A BROWN SHIRT. A NEW REPORT BY ‘NEVER AGAIN’ ASSOCIATION

The so-called civic patrols against migrants, brutal assaults on an Azerbaijani student and several Indians at a worker hostel, are just a few examples of racism and xenophobia in Poland from recent weeks. The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has published the new ‘Brown Book’, which documents some of the attacks on minorities that happened in 2023 and 2024.

Dr. Anna Tatar, who co-authored the report, explains, ‘This escalation of violence comes as no surprise. We have warned countless times that when politicians instigate fear or hostility towards migrants and refugees, street violence will always follow’.

‘NEVER AGAIN’s ‘Brown Book’ lists racist and xenophobic physical assaults, acts of discrimination, and desecrations of cemeteries or monuments to the Holocaust. It includes racist incidents committed by football hooligans, too. In addition, the report documents hate speech in the Polish public debate, especially on social media.

Rafal Pankowski, co-founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, Professor at Warsaw-based Collegium Civitas, and Rotary Peace Fellow at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, says, ‘Hatred towards minorities is a global issue. This is why solidarity with all the victims of discrimination and violence is so important’.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association was founded in 1996 as an independent anti-racist organisation, which runs the ‘Brown Book’: ongoing documentation of events with xenophobic and antisemitic context in Poland. Its initiator was the long-time leader of ‘NEVER AGAIN’, Marcin Kornak (born 1968, died 2014).

Between 1 September 2023 and 15 October 2024, the ‘Brown Book’ monitoring was supported by the Henryk Wujec Civic Fund.

In September 2024, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association was awarded the prestigious Ronald Eissens and Suzette Bronkhorst Award for ‘exceptional work in combatting online hate and promoting human rights’.

The incidents described in the new ‘Brown Book’ by ‘NEVER AGAIN’ include:

  • LODZ. On the night of 25/26 March 2023, a group of a dozen or so people, men and women, attacked two Ukrainians. The aggressors shouted at them, ‘We hate you, you are from Ukraine, out back home!’ and four thugs brutally beat them: they punched them, knocked them to the ground and kicked them. The Ukrainians were taken to the hospital, one of them had a broken jaw and rib, the other bruised kidneys and a damaged tooth.
  • WROCLAW. On 30 June 2023, a teacher from the Philippines was attacked by an unknown woman. The attacker insulted her and threatened her with violence and death. She shouted, ‘I f*cking hate you! Because you are all cruel and evil. You transmit various diseases’.
  • RACIBORZ. On 15 August 2023, a dark-skinned teenager who had left a kebab shop was insulted and threatened by a passer-by. The man shouted to him, ‘You fcking Pki, get the fck out of here, I’ll fck you up’.
  • PIEKOSZOW. On 21 October 2023, one of the locals, 36-year-old Szczepan B., brutally beat a twelve-year-old boy from Ukraine. ‘The perpetrator insulted but also beat, punched, kicked the boy’s head and entire body with his legs, causing the child to lose consciousness’.
  • WARSAW. On 11 November 2023, the participants of the so-called March of Independence burned flags of the European Union. They also chanted slogans that were racist and xenophobic, ‘White honour, white pride’, ‘White power is and was’, ‘Poland for Poles’, ‘There will be a stick for the leftie snout’. Moreover, the demonstrators displayed banners with the Celtic cross, a flag in the colours of the Third Reich, and banner with the slogan ‘Stop the Ukrainisation of Poland’.
  • GDANSK. On 2 January 2024, on Owsiana Street, ‘unknown perpetrators’ destroyed a plaque commemorating the ghetto where Jews from Gdansk and other areas occupied by the Third Reich were held during the World War II.
  • WARSAW. On the night of 30 April/1 May 2024, a juvenile perpetrator tried to set fire to the Nozyk Synagogue on Twarda Street. He threw a Molotov cocktail which crashed against the façade near one of the ground floor windows.
  • WARSAW. On the night of 24/25 August 2024, a student from Azerbaijan was beaten because of his skin colour. In one of the shops a group of men and a woman flung racist insults at him. The victim reported, ‘They said «Poland for Poles», and they called me a «fcking ngger». […] I got hit on the head with something hard […]. I fell to the ground, and I think I lost consciousness right away. They started hitting me with their hands and kicking me’.
  • NOWY SACZ. On 8 September 2024, at the Jewish cemetery on Rybacka Street, several attackers assaulted a group of Jewish tourists who intended to visit the necropolis. The perpetrators hurled antisemitic slurs and threats at them.
  • ZYRARDOW. On 21 September 2024, the town witnessed a far-right march, self-described as a ‘civic patrol’. The protesters chanted, ‘This is Poland!’ ‘This is Zyrardow, this is where we’re walking! We are doing what everybody should!’ Moreover, members of the ‘patrol’ brutally assaulted migrants residing at a local worker hostel. Ukrainians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians defended themselves with fire extinguishers. As a result, 70 migrants resigned from their work in Zyrardow.
  • SZCZECIN. On 7 October 2024, a Ukrainian taxi driver was assaulted due to his nationality by his passenger. The man started to insult the driver, punched him in the face and head, and shouted, ‘Ukrainian tw*t!’

‘Brown Book 2023-2024’ (full version of the report – PDF)

More information:
www.NeverAgainAssociation.org
www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity
www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ
www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

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A VICTORY AGAINST ONLINE PEDDLERS OF HATRED

In the space of three months the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, in cooperation with Allegro (the biggest online e-commerce platform in East-Central Europe), has effected the removal of over 1,000 auctions of newly manufactured items with racist, fascist and antisemitic content. The platform has now turned to the representatives of the association with a suggestion that they develop systems for recognising and eliminating all such future offers.

The items offered for sale included, among others, necklaces, signet rings and badges with Nazi swastikas, contemporary imitations of Nazi military decorations, a brass bust of Hitler, watches, lighters and flasks with emblems of the Third Reich, Hitler Youth pocket knives, mugs with images of Hitler, T-shirts with the inscription ‘No apologies for Jedwabne’ (Jedwabne is a town in North-East Poland where in 1941 a group of Poles burned to death hundreds of their Jewish neighbours), CDs with music by the leading neo-fascist bands, and even a contemporary coffee grinder with an SS symbol.

– ‘The Internet has become a space in which hatred is propagated on a large scale and in various ways. Allegro, the largest e-commerce company in Poland, has decided to strive to eradicate this type of offers and we are more than pleased with the results of our cooperation ‘ – said Dr Anna Tatar from the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. – ‘A lot of effort is still needed to make objects or publications with racist and antisemitic content disappear from this site for good.’

– ‘It seems particularly important to remove numerous auctions offering neo-fascist music. Music is a strong carrier of ideologies, including racist extremism. When we searched Allegro we saw how easy it was to find albums of bands whose songs had references to Mein Kampf, the Aryan race, the tearing out of >the Hebrew root<, the white revolution, or national socialism. Today, the availability of such releases has been significantly reduced’ – said Jacek Dziegielewski from the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association.

Thanks to the cooperation with ‘NEVER AGAIN’, hundreds of sale offers have been removed by Allegro. Over 640 of them related to items such as replicas / imitations of Nazi decorations and 230 were auctions of CDs with fascist music. There were over 70 jewellery auctions (signet rings, pendants), over 30 auctions of T-shirts with antisemitic and racist slogans, as well as more than 50 auctions of other Nazi-style gadgets, such as watches or lighters with SS symbols.

The deletion of sales offers or auctions which are contrary to law is permitted by articles 256 and 257 of the Polish Criminal Code together with the provisions in Appendix No. 1 to the Allegro Code of Conduct. Allegro has also developed a programme named ‘The Rights Protection Cooperation’ under which the service aims to eliminate illicit offers. On 21 March 2018, the International Day for Combatting Racial Discrimination, ‘NEVER AGAIN’ became an official partner in this program for a three-month pilot period. Currently both organisations are working together to develop further methods of cooperation.

Established in 1999, Allegro is one of the biggest Internet sales companies in Europe. In 2017, it had over 16 million users and more than 20 million accounts. Between 2008 and 2016 it was owned by the South African corporation Naspers (formerly Nationale Pers, a company linked with the apartheid system). For years, the platform was used for sales of racist and fascist propaganda products.

The campaign of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association against the sales of items with racist material on Allegro commenced as far back as 2009. That year a petition appealing for the removal of such auctions was signed by several thousand people, including well-known figures from the fields of culture and civil society. A court case related to the campaign led to a Supreme Court ruling in 2015, in which the Supreme Court of Poland stated the criticism of the company by activists and artists for allowing the sales of racist materials was legitimate. The continued campaign led Allegro to its later decision to establish cooperation with ‘NEVER AGAIN’.

For over a decade now the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has been taking various actions to stop the promotion of racist and antisemitic hatred on the Internet. Its programme called ‘Racism-Delete’ has had a number of successes. One of them was the decision by the Polish authorities in 2014 to ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime together with the Additional Protocol on combatting racism.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association was founded in Warsaw in 1996 by Marcin Kornak (1968-2014). Throughout the years it has campaigned against racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue and human rights both in Poland and internationally. It has conducted anti-racist educational campaigns in the field of music and sports and it has been personally supported by numerous figures including Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama and the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is also a member of the International Network against Cyber Hate (INACH), which brings together organizations from twenty countries fighting hatred and discrimination on the Internet.

Further information may be found on:

www.nigdywiecej.org
www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity
www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ