The managing director of a Queensland auction house which sold Nazi memorabilia – including “gruesome photos” from German concentration camps – claimed federal politicians are among his clients.
Danielle Elizabeth Auctions at the weekend hosted an auction titled, “Huge Militaria Sale !! – Get it Before History is Banned & Erased”, which came 10 days after Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus revealed proposed new laws would ban the display or sale of Nazi hate symbols.
In a reply to a complaint from a member of the public, who argued auctioning Nazi items was “absolutely despicable”, the Danielle Elizabeth Auctions email account wrote back on Wednesday night, claiming: “I had two winning bidders in this Auction who are in federal parliament, and one in Shadow cabinet who only buy under the guarantee of anonymity due to people like you”.
Asked about that email, Danielle Elizabeth Auctions managing director Dustin Sweeny told this masthead he would not disclose names of buyers, but he had a client “who is a buyer for other people”.
“That is the information he told me. No i cannot tell you the lots that buyer bought and what he paid,” he said, via email.
Under the Albanese government’s laws, selling Nazi memorabilia would attract fines of up to $16,500 and apply to the Nazi swastika, known as the Hakenkreuz, and insignia relating to the Schutzstaffel (SS), Adolf Hitler’s paramilitary force.
Read the article by Felicity Caldwell in the Brisbane Times.