‘Angel of Death': Holmes a Court denies tweet was Nazi reference

The millionaire backer of teal independents has denied a reference he made to John Howard being the “angel of death” was a reference to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.

Simon Holmes a Court, the financial muscle behind the Climate 200 movement and its associated independent candidates, has denied a reference he made to John Howard being the “angel of death” was a reference to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.

Instead, he says he was making reference to a quote from an unnamed Liberal in an article in the Saturday Paper who called Mr Howard the “angel of death” in reference to the former PM’s being sent to shore up votes in seats where Coalition support was softening.

Mr Holmes a Court was slammed earlier on Wednesday for calling John Howard the “angel of death” as the former prime minister prepared to visit Josh Frydenberg’s electorate of Kooyong.

In a tweet posted Tuesday, Mr Holmes a Court said the Liberal party’s “angel of death – John Howard – is expected at (Kooyong) prepoll any moment.”

The term “Angel of Death” is a common reference to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who performed gruesome and inhumane experiments on inmates of the Auschwitz death camp.

Mr Frydenberg is Jewish, and a number of his relatives perished in the Holocaust.

Treasurer Josh Frydbenberg in his seat of Kooyong with former PM John Howard. Picture: Aaron Francis

A tweet from Simon Holmes a Court that has been slammed as offensive.

Dave Sharma, who is running against Holmes a Court-backed independent Allegra Spender in the heavily Jewish seat of Wentworth, called on the climate campaigning millionaire to retract his comments.

“This is an offensive slur and Mr Holmes a Court must immediately apologise,” Mr Sharma said.

Simon Holmes a Court. Picture: Lukas Koch

Liberal MP Dave Sharma. Picture: Damian Shaw

“Sadly, this is becoming an increasingly frequent pattern of behaviour from so-called ‘independents’ and their backers”.

Alex Ryvchin, author and co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said that even if unintentional, the reference to the “angel of death” had the potential to cause great harm.

“Only Mr Holmes a Court knows what he meant and whether he had Josef Mengele in mind when speaking of a former prime minister in this way.”

“Mengele epitomises human barbarity and sadism (and) even flippant remarks uttered on social media can serve to degrade history and incite violence.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin.

2GB host Ray Hadley addressed Mr Holmes a Court on air Tuesday morning and said, “You are an absolute disgrace. It’s the only word for it – disgrace” before taking a call from a listener whose grandparents perished at Auschwitz who condemned the comments.

The Daily Telegraph contacted a number of Climate 200-backed independents including Allegra Spender, who is running against Mr Sharma in Wentworth and Kylea Tink who is running in North Sydney, however only Sophie Scamps who is running in Mackellar replied by press time.

“That reference to John Howard came originally from a Liberal Party source and was printed in The Saturday Paper so you may want to contact the Liberal Party source to determine in what context it was meant,” a spokesman for the campaign said.

“In Mackellar we have been running a positive campaign focused on what we can achieve for our community by voting for an independent to genuinely represent Mackellar in parliament.”