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Daughter of Holocaust survivors ‘shocked and terrified’ after a Hitler-loving anti-Semite gave a Nazi salute and hurled a disturbing racial slur at her during a grocery shopping in Melbourne.
- The woman wore Star of David jewelry while shopping in Melbourne.
- A tall stranger noticed her jewelry and stopped to give her the Nazi salute.
- She was too scared to tell the police, and she’s still terrified to see him again.
- Do you know more? Email charlotte.karp@mailonline.com
An elderly Jewish woman whose family survived the Holocaust was terrified when a bald neo-Nazi told her ‘Heil Hitler’ while shopping at Coles in Melbourne.
The woman, in her 70s, was at a supermarket in Elsternwick, south-east of the CBD and at the heart of the city’s Jewish community, in December when a stranger noticed her Star of David jewelry.
As the man passed her in the hallway, she gave the Nazi salute and walked away.
She was so shocked and scared that she did not report the incident to the police, but she was eventually encouraged him to tell the Anti-Defamation Commission Jewish lobby group about his experience.
“This is Coles Elsternwick, not Nazi Germany,” he told commission chairman Dr. Dvir Abramovich.
The woman, in her 70s, was at the supermarket in Elsternwick, south-east of the CBD, and in the heart of the city’s Jewish community (file image of Coles in Elsternwick, pictured)
“As the son of Holocaust survivors who fled Europe to give their family a peaceful life, it brought back all the traumas of my past: the guilt of my parents for surviving the Holocaust and their struggles.”
He described the man as tall, middle-aged, bald and wearing a dark jacket.
The woman said that she would not stop wearing the Star of David, but that she was traumatized by the incident.
Dr Abramovich told Daily Mail Australia that the elderly victim felt as though she had been “stabbed through the heart”.
“I’ve never heard of a Jewish woman being confronted like that, and she never thought it would happen in Australia in 2022,” she said.
She is afraid that it will happen again and that she will see that man again.
Dr Abramovich said the incident stems from an increasing number of reported anti-Semitic acts in Victoria.
The woman was wearing the Star of David (pictured) when neo-Nazis approached her in Coles.
“Openly giving the Nazi salute in a supermarket in the heart of the Jewish community shocks the conscience and shows that these Hitler worshipers are less inhibited in expressing their wild and dangerous feelings in public,” he said.
“These violent gestures not only scar and traumatize the victims, but they shake the affected community, leaving many frightened and vulnerable.”
Daily Mail Australia contacted Coles for comment.
In June last year, Victoria became the first Australian state to ban the public display of the Nazi symbol.
Summary Crimes (Nazi Symbol Ban) Amendment Bill 2022 made it a criminal offense for a person to intentionally display the Nazi symbol (the Hakenkreuz, often referred to as the Nazi swastika) in public.
Anyone who intentionally displays the Nazi symbol in public faces penalties of up to $22,000, 12 months in prison, or both.