WRITTEN BY DR MICHAEL SALLA ON JUNE 14, 2018. POSTED IN EXOARCHEOLOGY, FEATURED, SPACE PROGRAMS
Antarctica’s Hidden History: Corporate Foundations of Secret Space Programs was simultaneously released in the United States and Europe through Amazon.com on March 25, 2018. The cover illustrated a handshake between a U.S. military official, and a civilian wearing a Nazi ring and an Iron Cross cuff link. The respective flags of the United States and Nazi Germany appeared behind them. The book quickly attained No.1 best seller status in several Amazon book categories and has gained positive reviews.
On May 29, I received an email from Amazon stating: “During our review process, we found that your book’s cover image contains content (i.e. Swastika) that is in violation of our content guidelines for Germany and may infringe German law.” This led to the Kindle edition being immediately withdrawn from Amazon’s German website.
A few hours later, I received a similar email from Createspace, an Amazon subsidiary, informing me that it was also withdrawing the paperback edition from the entire European market. This meant, for example, that potential readers in the United Kingdom could not purchase the paperback edition since the cover MAY violate German law.
I received legal assistance from Duke Brickhouse, J.D., an attorney in Virginia Beach, who worked for several years as a media attorney in Berlin, Germany. He pointed out the following in replies to Amazon and its subsidiary:
The German Code prohibits a swastika’s use where it is used for propaganda. The code section (1)(3) delineates an exception to this prohibition if it “serves to further civil enlightenment”, “promotes… research or teaching”, “reporting on… historical events”, or “similar purposes”. The book and the use of the swastika on the book’s cover is in fact created for the purpose of civil and historical enlightenment, and not for the promotion of underlying Nazi propaganda intended to further the aims of the Nazi regime.Amazon stood by its decision despite repeated attempts to have them reconsider on the basis that the book clearly fit the exemptions specified in the German legal code in the use of Nazi era insignia. Put simply, the book is legitimate historical research delineating the respective roles of Nazi and German nationalist groups in setting up a secret colony in Antarctica, and their respective post-World War II activities.
What makes Amazon’s refusal to reconsider its position even more puzzling is that it does include books on its German site which prominently figure Swastikas. Here’s four examples of books which are all currently available on the Amazon Germany website.
All this raises the question of whether Antarctica’s Hidden History was being unfairly targeted; and if so, for what reason?