News.com.au has reported that a celebrity anti-vaxxer with 100,000 plus followers on social media had simulated the yellow Star of David used by the Nazis to identify Jews during the Holocaust on a post.
J-Wire
October 14, 2021
On the Yellow Stars, the word “Jude” had been replaced with “no vax”.
The post showed Sarah Milles and an image of her and her three children wearing T-shirts bearing the Yellow Stars.
She compared the NSW government’s reopening plan to the treatment of Jews under Nazi rule.
“This is NOT our freedom day,” she wrote. “This is history repeating our mistakes, and if you’ve wondered what you would have done in the past, take note because you’re doing it now.”
“I live in regional NSW so we’ve been living freely for a while now, until today. Yesterday I was safe to be in public, today I am a threat.”
Alluding to the Star of David in the image, she went on to say that “history was repeating itself”.
CEO of The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies Darren Bark told J-Wire: “This comparison is as disgraceful as it is reprehensible. While every citizen of Australia is entitled to have, and express, their opinions if they disagree with government policy, to compare the government’s actions in response to COVID-19 to the atrocities of the Nazi regime is outrageous.
A comparison cannot be made between what happened during World War II, and the efforts of our officials to balance our health and economic needs while under threat from a worldwide pandemic.”
The president of the Australian Association of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants George Foster told J-Wire: “The Jewish people were forced to wear distinctive clothing over many centuries.
The most notorious was the Yellow Star forced upon the Jews during the Holocaust.
Certainly this was to exclude them from the rest of the population, however, the Jews of Germany and then other European countries were also stripped of their citizenship and basically all other privileges. This ended in the murder of six million people for no other reason than that they were Jewish.
Whilst I would support Ms Mill’s freedom to express her views, this action indicates a profound misunderstanding of the purpose of the star. Of course, the public display of the Yellow star outside of museum settings, for Holocaust survivors, results in heightened anxiety and memories of extremely distressing experiences during which their very lives were in danger. It would be eye-opening for Ms Mills and her children to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum. I am happy to offer myself as a guide.”
Dr Simon Holloway, Head of Education at the Jewish Holocaust Centre said: “The recent proliferation of Holocaust-related imagery in relation to COVID restrictions is deeply disturbing.
While we appreciate that many people are angry and upset, and while we respect the need for a broader discussion about these ongoing restrictions, this particular analogy creates a false equivalence that impedes a proper appreciation of history.
For survivors of the Holocaust who reside among us, this in no way harkens back to the persecution that they endured, and should certainly not be reminiscent of it to others. We encourage people to learn more about the Holocaust and expect that, in so doing, they will cease to invoke it in so frivolous a manner. –
News.com.au reported that the anti-vaxxer had taken down her social media sites.
