Gold Coast Nazi relic auction slammed as ‘disgraceful and disgusting’

A Gold Coast auction house has been blasted for its “disgusting” sale of hundreds of items linked to Nazi Germany, including portraits of Adolf Hitler and a hat worn by a concentration camp prisoner.

A Gold Coast auction house has been blasted for its “disgusting” sale of hundreds of items linked to Nazi Germany, including portraits of dictator Adolf Hitler and a hat worn by a concentration camp prisoner.

Just days after the federal government announced it was banning Nazi symbols, Southport’s Danielle Elizabeth Antique & Estate Auctioneers is marketing a collection including items linked to war crimes and worn by the SS as a “Huge militaria sale (Get it before history is banned and erased!)”.

Jewish community leaders have slammed the auction of the items, which they said represented the murder of 11 million people.

However, Danielle Elizabeth director Dustin Sweeny defended the auction, saying it was “not illegal”.

A Gold Coast auction house has been blasted for its “disgusting” sale of hundreds of items linked to Nazi Germany, including portraits of dictator Adolf Hitler and a hat worn by a concentration camp prisoner.

Among the items, which are taken from estate sales, are signed portraits of Holocaust architects Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, a signed Hitler portrait, a desktop bust of the German dictator, numerous Third Reich war medals and military decorations.

Most disturbingly, it includes a “Jewish Concentration Camp Cap 1942” which has received four bids and the SS Death’s Head rings – personal awards which were given by SS leader Himmler.

On one item, a “major SS men’s ring”, the auction house writes “No they are not trying to ban the SS Symbol, so you should be right wearing this one around.”

A “Jewish Concentration Camp Cap 1942” which is being auctioned on the Gold Coast.

Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president Jason Steinberg said the auction was “disgraceful and disgusting to our community and should be to anybody”.

“The reality is the rings they are selling, the items they are selling, represent the murder of 6 million Jewish people and five million others who the Nazi regimen believed were different,” he said.

“We know that right wing extremists in Queensland buy this merchandise and items to glorify Nazi ideology which has no place in Queensland, Australia or the world, where this information should be displayed only in a museum for educational purposes.

“There are two options – destroy them or put them in a museum where people can be education about the evil which lies between everyone one of these items”.

Mr Sweeny defended his company’s auction, saying criticisms of it were “the same thing every time”.

A poster of German Dictator Adolf Hitler which is being auctioned on the Gold Coast.

“As I have said for years, these items are not illegal and the Jewish board and everyone run to the government to change the legislation but we are not doing anything illegal,” he said.

“Right throughout civilisation there have been regimes which kill millions of people.

“Militaria is a huge collectors market, there is huge interest in it but I disagree with the (proposed) ban on artefacts.

“These items should be sold, traded as should all the stories.”

The auction, which ends on Saturday, also includes a number of other items, including Australian Federal Police coin and British Empire war medal.

An SS Death's Head ring which is being auctioned on the Gold Coast.

Depictions of Nazi symbols have been banned in Germany since the regime’s defeat in 1945 and in recent years Australian states have moved to outlaw the practice.

Queensland is yet to do so, but Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced in May 2022 it would introduce legislation to make displaying hate symbols a crime, including those of the Nazis.

The state law, which is yet to come into effect, will cover not just explicit Nazi symbols but also any derivative or similar logos.

Some exceptions would be made for religious or educational purposes.

The federal laws, announced earlier in June by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, will not cover the Nazi salute but will cover flags, T-shirts and insignia.

Signed portraits of Holocaust architects Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich which is being auctioned on the Gold Coast.

It will also ban the display and sale of Nazi memorability and make it an offence to profit from selling such materials.

However, it will not ban private ownership.

“There is no place in Australia for symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust,” he said at the time.

“We will no longer allow people to profit from the display and sale of items which celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology.

“The Albanese government is sending the clearest possible signal to those who seek to spread hatred, violence and antisemitism that we find these actions repugnant and they will not be tolerated.”

It comes just six months after the Red Carpet Gold Coast Antiques and Collectibles Fair at Coomera was criticised for one of its stall holders displaying a table full of Nazi memorabilia.