Revisionism Going Viral

In early 2016, the Kindle version of a book by two New Zealand authors – James and Lance Morcan – was launched which claimed to refute revisionist theories on the Holocaust. Italian revisionist scholar Carlo Mattogno promptly debunked this primitive “refutation” with a scathing book-length critique, which Castle Hill was happy to publish.[1]

By pure chance, on the very same day when Carlo Mattogno’s counter-book was switched free on Amazon (print and Kindle version), the print version of the Morcans’ book was also launched on Amazon. We had designed our book to closely resemble the Morcans’ book by both title and cover design, while making it very clear that this is a refutation of their book. Hence, when searching for either of these two books, Amazon’s search algorithm would automatically pull up the other book right next to it. Potential book buyers would see book and counter-book, thesis and antithesis. It was then up to Amazon’s customers to decide which book to buy, or maybe even to buy both and make up their own mind: Who is right, and who is wrong? Who has the better arguments? It was the ideal of the free marketplace of ideas. Amazon offered it.

For weeks, we followed the sales dynamics of both books. Initially. Amazon’s customers bought both books with roughly the same frequency: The one confirming the orthodox Holocaust narrative, and the other revising it. That dynamic changed, however, when the New Zealand media picked up on that feud, decrying our successful instrumentalization of Amazon’s search algorithm.[2] While sales for the Morcans’ book stayed pretty much flat after this New Zealand media blitz, sales of Mattogno’s counterattack increased considerably, clearly overtaking the botched mainstream “refutation.” This proves once more that, if you are an isolated and censored minority that cannot make their voices heard, there is no such thing as bad news. I realized that I had struck a gold mine. Hence, I devised a plan…

Castle Hill subsequently issued a series of books that we strategically placed in the Amazon market by giving them titles and cover designs which resembled books we were targeting, criticizing and refuting. I have documented this story in detail in my book The Day Amazon Murdered History. (See the book announcement in Issue No. 2 of this volume.)

In each case, sales of our counter-books pulled equal or even overtook our opponents’ books. The message this sent is quite clear: If allowing equal opportunity on a level playing field, Holocaust revisionism would come out on top, and would rather quickly prevail and trigger a historical paradigm shift by sheer popular vote.

The consequence of this success story was that Amazon pulled the plug on us, after a series of false-flag operations were launched that were designed to blame alleged (fake) anti-Semitic act on us.

We’re not the kind of people who give up when facing temporary setbacks. What this event taught us is the clear fact that the other side can keep the upper hand only because of censorship. If freedom reigns, we will win! Hence, we won’t go away. You tyrants out there, listen carefully: you will either have to kill us all, or eventually have to admit defeat!

To highlight this fact that revisionist victory is prevented only by brutal censorship, let me give another example, which actually caused me to write this editorial. In May 2018, Castle Hill Publishers launched the German edition of Auschwitz: A Three‐Quarter Century of Propaganda (see the illustration). This succinct exposure of lies and rumors bandied about for decades – and admitted by the orthodoxy to have been untrue – is a perfect introduction to revisionism. It has the power to sway even the most stubborn and dogmatic mind.

In order to prove my point, let me elaborate. This very German book lived a shadow existence on Amazon ever since we published it. How could this be, you may ask? After all, didn’t Amazon pull the plug on us in March 2017? Well, Amazon could only close our account we had with them. However, we always also had an account with Ingram Spark, the small-press publishing branch of Ingram Content Group. Ingram Content Group has a monopoly in book distribution in the U.S. Any bookstore in the U.S. – online or offline, big or small – which cannot or does not want to buy books directly from publishers, gets it from Ingram. That also applies to Amazon. Except for best-selling titles that are purchased in bulk from major publishers, all the rest of the million books, some 95% of all titles, Amazon gets from Ingram. In fact, Amazon’s database is directly linked to Ingram’s database. What you see on Amazon regarding book information and availability is basically a reflection of Ingram’s book-title information in their database of “books in print.” Amazon has a constant live ftp feed from Ingram into their database, getting daily updates about new or revised books, and old books removed from circulation. That inter-dependency goes even further. Ingram’s print-on-demand branch CreateSpace (now rebranded as Amazon KDP) actually has all its books printed and shipped directly by Ingram (meaning their print-on-demand branch Lightning Source). There is no such thing as Amazon print-on-demand. It’s all Ingram behind the scenes.

This means that, if someone adds a new book to the Ingram database, it will show up on Amazon with the next ftp updated. Hence, if we publish or list a new book with Ingram, it will show up on Amazon that very day or the next day at the latest. There is nothing Amazon can do about it, short of changing their own database to allow certain ISBN numbers to be blocked, and then manually block them, once unwanted books have been discovered. This is exactly what they started doing systematically in March 2017, with our entire collection of books being the first victim.

Usually, it takes Amazon only a few days or weeks to block and ban a new book of ours after its release. For some inscrutable reason, the German edition of Auschwitz: A Three‐Quarter Century of Propaganda, added by us to Ingram’s database in May 2018 and promptly added to Amazon’s websites, had escaped the attention of those at Amazon, or of those who complain to Amazon (the usual suspects; you name them) until January 2019, hence some eight months.

Then, in mid-January 2019, sales of that book suddenly skyrocketed. On the first day of this event, the occasional single daily sale went up to a few copies sold. The next day, a few dozen copies were sold. The day after that, more than 200 copies were sold. Sales were rising exponentially.

The day after that, there were zero sales… Amazon had banned the book. What had lingered unnoticed for eight months, suddenly drew attention due to the enormous spike in sales. That attention was probably triggered by the book conspicuously showing up on Amazon’s best-seller list, thus attracting more attention, thus potentially leading to a run-away chain reaction.

This is why this event was met with the usual tyrannical solution of total elimination.

We do not know what triggered this sudden sales success. All we know is that the book suddenly went viral within the German unofficial media sphere, and that the powers that be quickly pulled the plug on it.

What would have happened if they hadn’t done it?

I’d be a multi-millionaire, and revisionism would be a generally accepted historical school of thought, leading to all kinds of unpredictable political tectonic shifts. That’s why they want to prevent our inexorable success under any circumstances.

Well, I’m still struggling to make ends meet, and revisionism remains a pariah of Western thought.

Only because of censorship.

Censorship works – for now.

But we’ll keep trying, so you better watch out!

[1] Carlo Mattogno, Fail: “Debunking Holocaust Denial Theories”: How James and Lance Morcan Botched Their Attempt to Affirm the Historicity of the Nazi Genocide, Castle Hill Publishers, Uckfield, 2016. The current 2nd edition has “Bungled” instead of “Fail” in its title; see https://t.ly/43xl3.

[2] “Holocaust deniers target new book that debunks denialism,” Scoop, July 21, 2016; www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1607/S00265/holocaust-deniers-target-new-book-that-debunks-denialism.htm.