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ADL Protest Leads to Removal of Video of Hitler from Catalog

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A video of Hitler will be removed from a catalog that described the tape as being part of a collection of “some of the greatest speeches delivered.”

Sound Exchange, a division of Time Warner & Sony, agreed to remove the video after protest from the Anti-Defamation League.

The league challenged the grouping of the Nazi dictator with major figures – including President Abraham Lincoln, President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. – in the Summer 1995 Sound Exchange catalog.

In a letter to the ADL, the director of customer service for Sound Exchange, Susan Hayes, said the Hitler video and any associated items would be pulled from future catalogs.

“It is not our intention to antagonize or offend our customers,” Hayes said.

Calling the collection of speeches “our nations’ leaders” in the catalog also came under fire.

In addition, the ADL questioned advertising copy that used “the term `nostalgia’ as one reason for purchasing videos of speeches given by the man responsible for millions of deaths in World War II.”

The ADL said Time Warner should “reconsider the appropriateness of this promotional approach” in the future.

The company said it would revise its catalog proofing process.

The ADL praised such action.

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