Australia’s biggest online auction of Nazi memorabilia was slammed Friday by a local civil rights organization.
Dvir Abramovich, chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, Australia's leading civil rights group, said Friday's auction called “Huge Militaria Sale !! - Get it Before History is Banned & Erased” was about "profits over morality."
"The extermination and dehumanization of millions should not have a tag price and be offered to the highest bidder," Abramovich continued.
"Danielle Elizabeth should retitle this sickening auction to 'A Tribute and Gift to Glorify and Honor Hitler and His Cruel Regime of Mass Murder and Torture.' If Hitler was alive today, he would be thanking this auction house and applauding their ghastly profiteering, delighted that his legacy is being mainstreamed and promoted in Australia.
"The perverse and twisted sale of these blood-stained items, the devil’s tools, tramples on the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and is a spit on the graves of the valiant diggers who sacrificed their lives to defeat this evil tyrant. It is also a kick in the stomach of the survivors who have suffered enough. These satanic articles are the pure embodiment of absolute inhumanity and horror and may end up in the hands of Third Reich worshippers who will proudly display them in their homes and use them to recruit new members to their sickening cause.
"I wonder: do the owners of this business ever pause to think about the 1.5 million children mercilessly killed in the Holocaust, the mothers clutching their infants as they were pushed into the gas chambers?"
Abramovich went on to reference a recent increase in antisemitism in Australia.
"The dramatic surge in antisemitism in our nation, and the Christchurch massacre, committed by a white supremacist who was inspired by the ideology represented by these very objects, should provoke some very serious soul-searching," he said. "This grisly trade that fuels the twisted appetite of Jew-haters and Final Solutionists will soon stop, and I once again applaud the federal government for criminalizing the sale of Nazi memorabilia so as to stamp out this grotesque and sinister practice."
The auction, held by Danielle Elizabeth Antique & Estate Auctioneers, featured more than 150 Nazi items including a cap worn by Jewish inmates at the death camps, Hitler posters, Third Reich and Hitler youth knives, SS commemorative medals, Hitler youth posters and flags, Third Reich military uniforms and helmets, Himmler photos and Nazi propaganda materials.
Australia's ongoing battle with antisemitism, neo-Nazism
In March, the premier of Australia's Victoria state condemned Nazi salutes at a protest in the state capital Melbourne as an attempt "to scapegoat minorities" using "evil ideology". The federal Australian government had begun working on a move to ban the Nazi salute within months, following the incident.
Victoria passed laws in December criminalizing the public display of Nazi symbols in what the center-left Labor state government said was a move to stamp out antisemitism and hate.
In May, the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) called on the Victoria government to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia after another auction of such memorabilia was held online. The auction was held by the Oldies Collectables and included a variety of items including Nazi service medals, postcards and weapons from the Third Reich, stamps from Nazi Germany and a Nazi armband, among other items. Many of the items have already been sold.
Australia introduced bill banning public display of Nazi symbols
Earlier this month, the Australian federal government introduced a bill to ban the public display of Nazi symbols across Australia, according to the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) which also welcomed and applauded the announcement.
The announcement was made days after Victoria Police announced they are investigating two young neo-Nazis, Nathan Bull and Michael ‘Mickle’ Nelson, for performing the Nazi salute during a protest in Melbourne's central business district on Sunday, according to the Herald Sun.
Zvika Klein contributed to this report