SHOCK: Holocaust Books Defaced During Amazon Delivery, Arrive With Antisemitic Slurs

JERUSALEM, Israel – This week, the world remembers the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust and the memory of six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.

Much of what we know about the tragedy comes from those who survived the concentration camps.

Growing up as a Holocaust survivor's daughter has had its challenges for Melanie Sol. When she decided to write her father's story, Melanie was shocked by the antisemitism that showed itself again.

Melanie's father survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where more than a million people died in the gas chambers. Born and raised in Poland, Moishe Sol was 17 when the Nazis invaded.

Growing up in the U.S., Melanie knew her father survived the Holocaust, although he didn't share what happened to prevent burdening his children.

Melanie eventually interviewed him when he was 85 and Moishe told her what he remembered. She wrote a book entitled Daughter of the Holocaust.

In it, she writes, "My dad often asks throughout his life, 'Why did I survive, and the rest of my family didn't?' He has a deep sense of guilt that he lived, and his family members died horrible deaths. Many survivors of the Holocaust have this same sense of guilt.”

Melanie Sol told CBN News, "And this book shares his story, but it also shares his coming to faith in Yeshua (Jesus) at the end of the book."

In 2024, Melanie self-published her work through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. She ordered ten copies to be delivered to her son in Manhattan so she could pick them up on a visit to the U.S.

Opening the box led to a disturbing surprise.

"I was shocked to see vandalism – anti-Semitic vandalism. I flipped through the books because I ordered them to bring back to Israel, to give to friends of mine."

What she found was appalling.

Scrawled across the copies of the books were written sayings like, "Liberate Palestine from the river to the sea."

Melanie observed, "Every single book has something written in (it) 'free Palestine,' – every one of the ten books. So, they're not useful to me at all."

After Melanie initially contacted Amazon, she was refused assistance, reportedly because the time limit set for making complaints and receiving customer service had expired.

Then CBN News notified Amazon about the issue and a spokeswoman sent us this statement: "We have zero tolerance for book defacement and have contacted the author to apologize. We immediately launched an investigation and will take appropriate action based on our findings."

Melanie received an apology from Kindle Direct Publishing's customer relations which said in part, "First, I want to sincerely apologize, both for your incredibly troubling experience and the difficulties you've had thus far in reporting the issue to Amazon. We have escalated this issue to the highest levels of our organization, as we have zero tolerance for this kind of book defacement."

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She then reached out to the American Center for Law and Justice for help.

ACLJ attorney Jeff Ballabon told us, "As soon as we saw the situation, (we) immediately assigned lawyers who are experts in this area – did research to find out the relevant law, because there's federal law, there's state law – and put together a memo internally and then put a demand out to Amazon, (sending) a legal letter to Amazon, to the general counsel. And he responded the very same day."

Ballabon said Amazon expressed concern and is looking into the incident.

"We asked that they replace the books, and they're going to replace the books. Indeed, I believe they said they're replacing multiple copies of the books. So we'll wait and see that that happens."

The ACLJ also demanded an investigation.

Ballabon noted, "Whoever did this presumably knows her family's address because that's where the books were sent. And this could be a very dangerous person. It's certainly an unhinged person who hates Jews. And so, it's very important that they investigate, and discover who it is and give us satisfaction, so that the client knows that she and her family are not threatened by this individual."

ACLJ attorneys believe there should be legal repercussions.

"Amazon has already said they have zero tolerance for what they called book defacement," Ballabon said. "This goes well beyond book defacement. I mean, this is clearly an act of hate, an act of anti-Semitism. So yes, that person should be removed from their job."

So far, Melanie has received her money back as well as a promise to send more books.

She contends her father would have been shocked and saddened by the defacement of the books.

"Someone once pointed out to me that we're going through Holocaust 2.0, where there's anti-Semitic acts all over the world as anti-Semitic acts here.  And, it would (have) just brought back the horrors that he went through the first time," Melanie said.

"The most famous resolution or mantra or statement or idea to come out of the Holocaust was 'Never Again.' But we're living in a time where we are seeing that never again is now," Ballabon said.

He says the desecration of Melanie's book is a small but powerful example of what is happening to the Jewish people in the U.S. and around the world.

He explained, "The same hostile evil energy seems to be alive in the world again. And the truth is, we know this anti-Semitism, Jew-hatred, it never goes away and it can't be stopped. The problem is when it's all of a sudden, it's become open season. And the worst part of this is that what made it open season was the horrors of October 7th and the horrors (and) the atrocities. And all of a sudden it's like this evil woke up in the world, (and) said, 'Oh, we can do this again. Let's go out and kill the Jews.'"