‘Laundering of evil’: Expert slams neo-Nazi product for sale in Australia
A neo-Nazi product on sale in an Australian online store has been slammed as ‘the normalisation of barbarity’ with a warning that it can feed into the ideology of recent protests.
A depiction of Adolf Hitler and Nazi swastikas was made available for purchase as a sticker on an Australian website, prompting an expert’s chilling warning over its influence.
Victoria-based design and printing agency Retrobot listed the sticker for sale on their website, depicting Hitler with a swastika armband and text branding him as “The Revolutionist”.
All of the stickers on Retrobot’s website lack attribution to their creators, including those that reuse imagery such as car or petrol logos.
A spokesman for Retrobot said the sticker wasn’t designed in-house, and apologised for selling the material.
“The sticker was part of a bulk package of designs we purchased from outside designers, and we didn’t carefully review every single one before it went online,” he said.
“That was our mistake, and I understand now how hurtful and offensive this particular design is.”
The Retrobot spokesman said the sticker had likely been available since 2023, with fewer than ten ever sold.
“To the Jewish community, and to anyone who has been offended, I am deeply sorry. We had no intention of promoting hate or intolerance in any way.”
Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said depicting Hitler in this way was not “edgy” or “ironic,” and should not be “a novelty item you slap on a laptop as if he were no different from a band logo or a sports mascot”.
“This is the laundering of evil,” he said.
“Hitler was not a revolutionary spirit to be romanticised. He was the engineer of the gas chambers, the author of the Holocaust, the man whose name is forever bound to extermination.”
Knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol in public carries a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment, with significant fines for individuals and corporations depending on the state and territory, though this law does not apply to online display.
A spokesman for Retrobot said he “wasn’t fully aware that the public display or trade of a Nazi symbol is a criminal act”.
“Regardless, I would never knowingly want to sell any Nazi-related product, especially something that causes real hurt to people.”
The company’s website was closed to the public on Friday afternoon after inquiries from news.com.au.
“We are taking this very seriously,” the spokesman said.
“Not only has the sticker been permanently removed, but we have also temporarily closed down our shop so we can carefully review all other designs to make sure nothing like this ever appears again.”
Australian Securities and Investments Commission information indicates the Retrobot business is registered in Victoria.
Dr Abramovich, who spearheaded a successful national campaign to criminalise the public displays of the Nazi swastika, salute and the trade of Third Reich memorabilia, said the sticker is “the normalisation of barbarity”.
The swastikas seen in the sticker are atypical of Nazi imagery, as the Nazi swastika (or Hakenkreuz) typically has its ‘spokes’ facing rightward rather than towards the left.
“At a time when neo-Nazis march on our streets and white supremacists are testing how far they can go, this kind of product does not exist in a vacuum,” Dr Abramovich said.
“It feeds the ecosystem. It tells the next angry young man that Hitler is just another cultural reference, a face you can buy and sell, detached from the millions he murdered.”
Dr Abramovich called on the seller to remove the item and apologise, and for the authorities to investigate the case.
“I call on online platforms to remember that once you let Hitler’s face become an accessory, you invite his ideology back into polite society,” he said.
“Hitler is not a meme. Not a brand. Not an accessory. He is the face of monstrosity, and his memory must remain a warning, not a sticker. Australia can, and must, be better than this.”
Outrage at the imagery has come days after neo-Nazis were emboldened to march as part of ‘March for Australia’ rallies across the country.
Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell was on Friday denied bail over an alleged assault at Camp Sovereignty after the March for Australia rally in Victoria.
Originally published as ‘Laundering of evil’: Expert slams neo-Nazi product for sale in Australia
