Holocaust descendant confronts neo-Nazi over swastika in Melbourne park
When the grandson of Holocaust survivors came across a man wearing a swastika armband in a suburban Melbourne park, he had to speak his mind.
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The Melbourne grandson of Holocaust survivors has bravely confronted a man wearing a Nazi swastika in a southeastern suburbs park.
David, 53, was walking on a track in Heatherton’s Karkarook Park about 5pm on Friday when he was “gobsmacked” to see a man casually riding past, wearing a swastika armband.
“Having grown up as the grandson of Holocaust survivors, it’s an emotive issue,” he said.
“When you see these sorts of things you get angry.
“It’s not the sort of thing you expect to see in Melbourne ... it’s just horrible.”
The incident has prompted renewed calls from Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission for the State Government to urgently ban public displays of the swastika, and prosecute offenders.
“It’s sickening to think that, in Melbourne, neo-Nazi thugs feel free to openly wear this symbol of genocide and evil, knowing that there is nothing Victoria police can do to stop them. What’s next, Heil Hitler salutes and Nazi flags in the CBD? Our city should not become a safe haven for these ‘Final Solutionists’,” commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said.
Swastikas were also seen plastered over a “For Sale” sign — next to the word “thugs” — outside a home in Heatherdale Rd, Mitcham, on Saturday morning.
David (who did not want to give this last name) told the Sunday Herald Sun he ran to catch up with the man wearing the swastika, and confronted him.
“He said, ‘it’s a flag of the German people’, and I explained it wasn’t,” David said.
The man then started spouting anti-Semitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories, causing David to walk away.
The man wasn’t aggressive, “just trying to just try to push his agenda”, David said.
A bystander had already called police, who arrived as David was leaving the park.
“The police said to me ... he was known to them and they would deal with him,” David said.
Dr Abramovich said the incident was further proof the Nazi swastika had to be outlawed.
“White-supremacists should not be allowed to intimidate anyone, and there should be zero tolerance for this abhorrent behaviour, which is a spit on the memory of our Diggers who died to defeat the Third Reich and the millions of victims,” he said.
“Imagine the pain a Holocaust survivor would have felt if he had encountered this menacing individual.”
The Sunday Herald Sun revealed earlier this month a neo-Nazi group vowing to impose a “white revolution” and “destroy” the government was operating in Melbourne.
The National Socialist Network — whose followers have posed across the city wearing face masks and giving the Hitler salute — has been branded a “clear and present” danger to the community.
It’s understood the far-Right outfit emerged this year.
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