Bauer Media defended the publication, claiming that the stories were about ordinary soldiers of the Second World War, but they have come under withering attack from the Wiesenthal Center, who pointed out the obvious anti-Semitism depicted within.
The magazine was established by a former member of the Luftwaffe, the Air Force under Hitler. The magazine was initially popular with unrepentant Nazis, but has been embraced in recent years by the persistent Neo-Nazi movement in Germany.
A recent issue portrayed the Greek exploits of an SS unit dedicated to Hitler. In the issue, they were afforded a hero’s welcome by locals grateful to be conquered. A study conducted by the Wiesenthal Center demonstrated how the units and officers portrayed therein engaged in the mass murder of Jews and other atrocities, though there is no mention of it anywhere in the series.
Holocaust denial and Nazi propaganda is illegal in Germany, and the Wiesenthal center accused the magazine as being such. Bauer Media, however, claimed that an outside lawyer they hired cleared them of all legality. Regardless, they soon caved to the pressure and shut Der Landser down.
Bauer “had no alternative given the overwhelming evidence,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Wiesenthal Center
Rabbi Hier said he thought Bauer Media had taken the complaint seriously. “They did the right thing,” he said. “They got out in front of the matter.”