HERALD SUN
ANTHONY GALLOWAY
JEWISH leaders have slammed the Homeless Persons Union Victoria for linking Melbourne City Council’s street camping bans to Nazi Germany.
The group — which was behind protests at the Flinders St homeless camp — posted an altered image of the Auschwitz concentration camp on its Facebook page and labelled council officers “little Hitlers”.
The group took down the post after complaints from the Jewish community and apologised in a statement to the Herald Sun.
“In our effort to draw attention to the fact that the mainstream media, unscrupulous faith-based organisations, and providers of inappropriate and unsafe rooming house accommodation, are profiting from the lies and stereotypes disseminated about those who are experiencing dire challenges that emanate from their homeless experience, the HPU Vic made a serious error in judgment with the Facebook post,” the group said.
“We sought to point out that to criminalise rough sleepers and those experiencing homelessness is a repressive, authoritarian and undemocratic act by the Melbourne City Council and its officers.
The Homeless Persons Union Victoria Facebook post. The Facebook post has now been taken down.
“The HPU Vic has made a serious error in judgment by posting that image, is profoundly sorry, and accepts that the image is deeply offensive to the Jewish community. The post has been taken down and the HPU Vic apologises unreservedly for any pain that it may have caused.”
The post — which went on the group’s Facebook page on Sunday night — used an image of Auschwitz with the words “Lies make Money”.
“The Doyle City council regime proposes to change by-laws making camping in the CBD illegal, effectively criminalising rough sleeping/primary homeless,” the post said.
“And to disrupt the lives of those who already face dire instability, the city council will also empower little Hitlers to confiscate and impound the unattended belongings of rough sleepers.”
Dr Dvir Abramovich, chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said he welcomed the group’s apology for “exploiting the Holocaust and denigrating the victims in their quest to generate headlines”.
“While we understand that the topic of homelessness stirs heated debate, it is profoundly disturbing that anyone would use an image from Europe’s largest death camp, where nearly 1.5 million people died in the gas chambers or from starvation and disease, to attack a policy,” Dr Abramovich said.
“Drawing comparisons between council officers and Hitler, and falsely implying that the homeless in Victoria are being led to their extermination, as the prisoners in Auschwitz were, and that treatment of the homeless is akin to the cruel and inhuman treatment of those who were incarcerated in Auschwitz, is outrageous.
“The altering of the duplicitous and vile phrase “Work will set you free”— that greeted the more than one million prisoners as they were herded into the Auschwitz — with the cynical words “Lies make Money” is particularly chilling, and demonstrates that this was an intentional act.”