Anti-vaxxers spray infamous Nazi slogan on roadsides, stoking fury from Jewish Australians

Anti-vaxxers in Melbourne have stoked fury by spraying messages that liken Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination to one of humanity’s darkest moments.

Sickening anti-vax graffiti that compares Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout to WWII Nazi death camps have appeared in Melbourne today – stoking fury from the Jewish community.

Two separate messages, sprayed onto roadsides at Punt Rd and Olympic Blvd, read “Vax Macht Frei” in German.

It is play on the infamous motto “Arbeit Macht Frei” that greeted Jewish prisoners as they made their way through the entrance of Auschwitz, Dachau and other Nazi concentration camps.

The graffiti has appeared in Melbourne today.

It has angered the Jewish community.

Translated it means “work sets you free” and it served as a slap in the face to prisoners who were forced into daily labour in the camps and which millions would never leave alive.

The graffiti has stirred up anger in the Jewish community, which has seen an increasing number of Holocaust references being used by anti-vax protesters across the nation.

Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, told news.com.au the messages in Melbourne today are an “affront to the memory of the victims and survivors” of the Holocaust.

“To exploit the slogan used by the Nazis at the entrance of Auschwitz, the site of the largest mass murder in history, where 1.1 million men, women and children were systemically annihilated on an unfathomable scale, is indefensible and cruel,” he said.

The entrance to the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Picture: AFP

“To compare public health measures aimed at saving lives and protecting the public to the state sponsored ‘Final Solution’ plan of the Nazi regime is not only an abhorrent act of moral degeneration but also dilutes the suffering and crimes of the Nazi genocide.”

The graffiti in Melbourne comes just days after an anti-vaxxer took down her social media accounts after posting a disturbing photo of her family online.

Sarah Mills, a mother-of-three from regional NSW with a collective following of more than 100,000 across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, posted the images to her accounts as Greater Sydney came out of lockdown.

In the photos, she can be seen smiling with her children while wearing yellow patches in the shape of the Star of David. Yellow stars were used by the Nazis to identify Jewish people and mark them as an “enemy of the people”.

Where the Nazi patches had the word “Jude” (German for Jew), Ms Mills wrote “no vax” before attaching the stars to her and her children’s T-shirts.

Sarah Mills has 100,000 followers across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

Mr Abramovich said he was concerned that this “gross false equivalence” between the Holocaust and the anti-vax movement will become the new normal.

He said he has witnessed it on both social media and in demonstrations.

“It showcases a malicious lack of empathy for the suffering of six million Jews and millions of others that perished at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators,” he said.

“It is also a slap in the face of the survivors who lost family members and who still carry the trauma and raw pain of their suffering.

“There are ways to have a reasoned and legitimate debate about vaccines, and people are of course free to voice their opinions, but they should do so without going to the Holocaust playbook.”