Walmart ignited a controversy on Monday after the retailer’s books Facebook page published a sponsored post prominently featuring Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”
The sponsored post — which encouraged followers to “start reading with Walmart eBooks today” in exchange for a $10 coupon — featured a painting of Hitler. The since-deleted ad lives on in screenshots taken by social media users.
The retailer responded to the outcry by scrapping the ad and pulli the book in question from its website.
“This item has no place on our web site and it has been removed,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider.
But Business Insider’s analysis of the book’s cached page on Walmart.com uncovered that this bizarre episode was likely not the result of a glitching algorithm. Nor is it limited to Walmart.
The cached page on Walmart.com listed the price of Hitler’s autobiography as $14.88, a numeral that holds special significance to white supremacists. The number 14 reflects a popular white power slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The number 88 is shorthand for “Heil Hitler,” with H being the eighth letter of the alphabet.
The cached page indicated that Metal-Inex Inc. is the book’s publisher. Walmart is among a number of online booksellers that have stocked controversial titles from this obscure and possibly defunct publishing company, which appears to exclusively hawk fascist and proto-fascist texts.
Public documents list Metal-Inex as Chicago company that was founded on October 18, 2012 and involuntarily dissolved on March 10, 2017.
On Walmart.com, the publisher also lists Benito Mussolini’s “The Doctrine of Fascism,” the proto-fascist, Social Darwinist, anti-Semitic 1890 book “Might Is Right,” and “Voice of Our Ancestors,” a book that some believe Heinrich Himmler wrote under a pseudonym. Unlike Metal-Inex’s version of “Mein Kampf,” these books have not yet been removed from Walmart’s website.
Metal-Inex appears to have no current website, but its books are still listed on Amazon.com, BookDepository.com, and BooksAMillion.com.
Metal-Inex’s paperback edition of “Mein Kampf” is also priced at $14.88 on BooksAMillion.com and Barnes & Noble. BooksAMillion.com and Barnes & Noble did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Business Insider’s email to the individual listed as Metal-Inex’s president was not immediately returned.
The controversial sponsored ad may have propelled Walmart into the spotlight today, but it would appear that sketchy listings of “Mein Kampf” are legion among online booksellers.
