Anti-vaccination blogger places yellow stars on her children and wears concentration camp uniform for social media
An Australian anti-vaccination blogger has received backlash after uploading photographs to social media in which she placed yellow stars on her children and wore a concentration camp inmate’s uniform.
Sarah Mills, who is popular in anti-vaccination circles, has a following of more than 100,000 followers across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
In one photo, which she accompanied with the words, “history is repeating itself”, the mother of three can be seen with her children posing whilst wearing the yellow star that was forced upon Jews during the Holocaust with the words “No Vax” written on them. The caption to the photo read: “As of today I may no longer enter restaurants, cafes, theatres, cinemas, concerts, museums, sporting events, pools, clothing stores or anything deemed non-essential. I live in regional [New South Wales] so we’ve been living freely for a while now, until today. Yesterday I was safe to be in public, today I am a threat.”
In another image captioned “Prisoner 385968 reporting for duty”, Ms Mills can be seen wearing the blue and white uniforms that prisoners in concentration camps were forced to wear with a number tag. She added: “Does anyone know where we get our full uniform? I’ve found the shirt but wasn’t sure if there’s anywhere you can get them as a set? or are we just provided them upon arrival? Sending love to my future inmates.”
In a previous post in which she referred to her perception of a division between people who chose to have the COVID-19 vaccination and those who did not, the blogger wrote: “I’m starting to learn who would have hidden Anne Frank and who would have turned her over to the Nazis.”
Ms Mills denied comparing unvaccinated people to Holocaust victims, telling Daily Mail Australia: “I am in NO way comparing the deaths of millions of people to not being allowed into Kmart, but people need to look at where that ‘them/us’ situation began.”
The inflammatory and misleading comparison has been used among anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks, which have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.
In August, antisemitic protest signs have prompted hate speech and incitement of violence investigations in France. Earlier this year, organisers of an anti-vaccine demonstration in the city of Avignon were described as “brainless” for using the Nazi yellow star in their protest. Joseph Szwarc, a Holocaust survivor, spoke out against these use of the yellow star, saying: “You can’t imagine how much that upset me. This comparison is hateful. We must all rise up against this ignominy.” With tears in his eyes, Mr Szwarc added: “I wore the star, I know what that is, I still have it in my flesh. It is everyone’s duty to not allow this outrageous, antisemitic, racist wave to pass over us.”
The comparison has been made across the world, including in the United States, Canada, Ukraine and elsewhere.
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Image credit: Facebook
