Poland’s internet auction portal, Allegro.pl, has allowed the sale of Nazi memorabilia, ignoring protests from public figures and warnings that the website could be taken to court for propagating Nazism.
For a year and a half, the anti-racism society ‘Nigdy Wiecej’ (translated as Never Again), has been attempting to convince Allegro.pl to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia, organizing a written protest signed by such public figures as Jerzy Owsiak, founder of Poland’s largest annual charity action, painter Wilhel Sasnal, singer Renata Przemyk, writer Pawel Huelle and many more.
Allegro.pl has made no move to stop the sale of such items, arguing that selling Nazi memorabilia is permissible in Poland. A legal statement on the auction portal reads: “In accordance with the provisions of the law, these articles do not incite racial hatred. People incite racial hatred. […] It is our policy not to interfere in the sale of objects on our website if not required to do so by law.”
“We wrote protests to Allegro, they ignored us, so we used the post cards to provoke them,” says Jerzy Maslowski, responsible for organizing an action in which protesters handed out several hundred post cards with the Allegro.pl logo altered, with the LL’s reading SS.
Allegro.pl immediately reacted to the action, asking for the post cards to be destroyed as they violate the company’s right to personal property.
“We are protecting our logo as property belonging to our firm,” says a spokesperson for the website, Patry Tryzubiak. (mmj)
Gazeta Wyborcza