A leading Australian Jewish advocacy organization is denouncing an upcoming auction of Nazi items.
The auction, including an antisemitic children’s book, a signed portrait of Hitler, sunglasses worn by Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials, and Heinrich Himmler’s childhood letters, will be taking place next week at a Queensland auction house, the Australian Jewish News reported.
The Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies is calling on Queensland’s government to enact legislation to ban the sale of Nazi items in the future.
“We are calling on the government to ban the display of Nazi symbols and here we see this vile memorabilia again in the public domain,” Board of Deputies President Jason Steinberg told the Jewish News. “We know that sometimes these items are purchased to glorify Nazis and used to recruit right-wing extremists.”
The auction is being run by Danielle Elizabeth Auctions, a firm that was previously criticized in January by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for auctioning off a Nazi flag, and also sparked anger for the August sale of Nazi-era items, including a Star of David armband worn by Jewish during the Holocaust.
“We have Holocaust survivors still living on the Gold Coast who recognize these items being auctioned for what they really are – pure hate and evil,” Steinberg said. “Enough is enough. They need to be removed from sale and given to a museum to educate the next generation about the lessons of the Holocaust.”
The antisemitic children’s book, “Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud auf seinem Eid” (“Trust No Fox on his Green Heath and No Jew on his Oath”), is described on the website of the auction house as “one of the most contentious pieces of propaganda in modern history” that “teaches children, according to the Nazi Party in Germany, what a Jew is and what they look like.”
The managing director of the auction house defended the sale, telling the news outlet that the auction was not against the law and “certainly not antisemitic.”
“We sell history and historical artefacts that tell a story that the world should never stop telling so history does not repeat itself,” Dustin Sweeny said.