Nazi memorabilia was discovered at stores in Australia as white supremacists reportedly planned a rally later this month.
Jewish shoppers last week complained to the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, the umbrella organization of the 40,000-strong Jewish community, that an outlet in Kew and another in Nelson Bay were selling Nazi paraphernalia.
“The swastika is a symbol of the worst racial genocide in history,” Vic Alhadeff, CEO of the Jewish Board of Deputies, told the Australian Associated Press. “Nazism remains the ultimate in racial hatred, and that is obviously of concern to all Australians.”
The sale of Nazi propaganda is not illegal in Australia.
The white supremacists, saying they planned to hijack Australia Day on Jan. 26, planned a rally that day in Hyde Park. They have encouraged their supporters to make posters claiming “Hitler is coming to Sydney.”
Jewish groups and the Returned Serviceman’s League, a veterans’ group, slammed the proposed rally.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, the organizers appear to be from Stormfront, a neo-Nazi Web site. One of the proposed locations for the rally apparently is Bondi because of its large Jewish population.
“Hopefully by the time the rally starts, the media will have everyone thinking Adolf Hitler is coming to Sydney,” one organizer said on the Stormfront site.
