Nazi artefacts bearing prohibited symbols are being openly sold in Australia three years after the federal government made it illegal to do so, with vendors saying they are doing so for “educational” reasons.
The government in 2023 outlawed the display and trade of items bearing the Nazi Hakenkreuz (swastika) and double-sig rune that was the logo of the Schutzstaffel (SS), after multiple states passed similar laws that banned the display of Nazi symbols and the performance of the Nazi salute.
The laws included exemptions for religious, academic, educational, artistic, literary or scientific purposes.
Guardian Australia has identified Australian sellers of military antiques listing German military items – including helmets, badges, medals, officer’s caps, flags and more – that appear to be from the Nazi era and which bear the Hakenkreuz or double-sig rune.
The vendors, which include longtime dealers of military collectibles and Nazi objects, claimed to be selling the items for “educational” or “research purposes”.
Kurt Coleman Military Antiques, a business with a registered address in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast region, had 25 pages of Nazi-era German military and related items for sale on its website as of this week.
The listings included military booklets, pins, badges, rings, officer’s tunics, officer’s caps and weaponry with visible swastikas and other Nazi imagery.
One of the highest-priced items was a white porcelain vase with an embossed Nazi eagle for $2,500. A 2-metre x 3.5-metre Nazi warship “battle flag” was listed for $2,000 but was “out of stock”, while a German Hitler Youth knife was listed for sale for $1,820.
While the site’s landing page said he was “ALWAYS BUYING Military Antiques Medals, Militaria, Edged Weapons”, the webpage title – a commonly used field for search engine optimisation – said “Nazi Militaria For Sale, German Militaria, WW2 Militaria, Nazi Medals Australia”.
All the items listed for sale at the time of writing appeared to be Nazi-related.
The website claimed: “All items offered for sale are for educational purposes only. The seller does not endorse or promote any political ideology, and the items are presented solely as historical artifacts. Buyers are expected to use the items responsibly and in accordance with applicable laws.”
The site appeared to have been operating for at least a year. An eBay page by the same name was listed as active since 2019, having sold approximately 44,000 items over that time. Listings on the eBay page at the time of writing included German war-related items, along with unrelated antiques and ephemera.
Coleman has been approached for comment.
Henry’s Military Collectibles, based in Western Australia, also had multiple German Nazi-era military items listed for sale, including multiple war merit crosses, belt buckles, and a Luftschutz (civil air defence) helmet. The items appear in the listing images to have stickers placed over the offending symbols.
The website says Henry’s Military Collectibles “only deals products with historical value for collectors, museums and research purposes. We do not, in any case, associate or have association with National Socialism, the Third Reich period, Political Parties and/or military organisations. If you do have any association with the above, we would like you to leave the website and we ask you not to contact us.”
Prior to the federal laws coming into force, owner Henry Fijolek told Guardian Australia that Nazi items were always “strong sellers” and that they were never sold to “Nazi sympathisers”.
Fijolek said by email this week that he believed he was operating within the bounds of the law, and felt he was qualified in making that interpretation as “I served in the Army as an officer for 37 years with 17 Years posted to the Australian Army History [unit]”.
“As stated in my disclaimer on my website I trade in these items without displaying the banned symbols and my intent is to trade in them within the allowed scope,” Fijolek said.
“I know that there is some in the community that would to totally ban and eradicate the items however this is history and history regardless should never be eradicated as it serves to educate for the future.”
A spokesperson for the Australian federal police said: “The AFP has engaged with a number of auction houses in relation to the sale and public display of items containing prohibited symbols. However, the AFP will not confirm details in relation to ongoing assessments and investigations relating to these matters.
“People need to be aware of their legal obligations in relation to the public display or trading of items containing prohibited symbols.”
Associate professor Romain Fathi, a military historian at the Australian National University, said the collection of military and war-related objects has occurred for a very long time, but that military objects “are not neutral”.
“The same object can have vastly different meanings based on the hand that is holding it, and the motivations of keeping the objects,” Fathi said.
Military objects have often been used and displayed as propaganda for regimes, but can also be displayed as historical records, and “where they are contextualised, analysed and critiqued, they can be a critical vector of historical knowledge”.
“Collecting militaria becomes more problematic when there’s a real attraction for war, for violence,” Fathi said. “Most collectors would have a few objects, but some devote their lives and resources to it.”
Nazi or Third Reich collecting had different implications to collecting items from, for example, the French Revolution, Fathi said. “These objects are not playthings, they are objects of death, by a regime characterised by death. When individuals find power and fascination in them, that becomes very dangerous.”
He continued: “If a Jewish or Holocaust Museum acquires Nazi paraphernalia to contextualise and evidence the genocide, there’s a deep moral, ethical dimension to this. The same act of collecting from a far-right activist – generally male – would be, evidently, deeply problematic and express sympathies that are dangerous to democratic societies.”
