New Zealand Jews Slam Sale of Nazi Mementos
Kiwi Outrage: Auction house official displays Nazi memorabilia going on block in New Zealand. Image by new zealand herald
Jewish students in the New Zealand coastal city of Dunedin condemned a sale of Nazi memorabilia, calling it a “slap in the face” to the local and national Jewish community.
“The decision to run this auction shows a lack of taste and sensitivity to those who lived through these atrocities and their families,” Ben Isaacs, president of the Dunedin branch of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, told the Otego Daily Times, a Dunedin newspaper. “This is not something that should have a place in New Zealand. ”
Wednesday’s sale included pre-1945 German military items and memorabilia such as Nazi flags, helmets, belts and pins. Many of the items were brought back by veterans after World War II, Kevin Hayward of Hayward’s Auction House told the newspaper.
“We appreciate we need to be sensitive in how we sell and display it,” Hayward said.
The unnamed vendor reportedly had collected the items over a long period of time.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
