Image from the cover of an issue of Der Landser magazine. Photo: landser.de.

A German publisher said Friday it would cease publication of a pulp magazine notorious for its heroic portrayals of Germans in World War II, The New York Times reported.

Simon Wiesenthal Center dean and founder Rabbi Marvin Hier, whose organization was instrumental in pressuring the Bauer Media Group to make the decision, welcomed the news but expressed skepticism over the publisher’s motives.

“The only reason that Bauer group made this decision is because if they didn’t the authorities would have,” he told The Algemeiner.

According to The Times, the magazine, Der Landser, “had survived numerous challenges since being founded in the 1950s by a veteran of the Luftwaffe, the German air force before and during World War II.”

“The Simon Wiesenthal Center presented overwhelming detailed proof that this publication glorified not only ‘ordinary’ German soldiers but also members of the SS, totenkopf and concentration camp guards,” Hier said, adding,  “It is a scandal that it took the research from the Simon Wiesenthal Center to make the case and finally force the issue.”

The Bauer Media Group, based in Hamburg, had contended that Der Landser was simply offering tales of ordinary soldiers who fought during World War II.

It said in a statement that the magazine did not violate German law, but that the company decided to close the publication anyway because of  its “portfolio strategy.”