Before French courts of law took note of protests and intervened, eBay, for example, allowed sales of Swastikas, armbands worn by Jews at Auschwitz, and even comic strips that depicted women tortured by Nazis! Reports stated that a Nazi keyword search on eBay would actually yield over 3,000 items, like comic books, which featured Nazi torture fantasies and attracted bids of over $100 each. Yahoo!'s Auctions page fared no better, putting Nazi, neo-Nazi, and even Ku Klux Klan objects up for auction daily.

Not that this is a new phenomenon. The sites had come in for criticism in the past for permitting bids on firearms, pornography, alcohol, drugs, animals, tobacco and even body parts. They knocked those off, like Amazon, which agreed to stop sales of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' in Germany. And that was that. Did it take care of the problem? Of course not.

There's always someone, somewhere, peddling what's not exactly 'kosher.' BidNazi, for one, auctions off stuff like Hitler youth knives, German officer Luftwaffe daggers, weapons, books, and more of what twisted minds crave. Amobhitman has no Nazi leanings, but doesn't get any brownie points either, thanks to a list comprising movie weapons, military equipment, swords, and miscellaneous items like Mongolian daggers, road warrior combat knives, a 100,00 colts stun gun, and Cobra Bowie commando set. And yes, it's doing well. So well that the guy running it has had to hire a number of assistants to help.

Don Black runs Stormfront, a 'White Nationalist Resource Page' that doubles as a directory of 150 pro-white sites. What he believes in is taking off where eBay and Yahoo! left off, with an auction page for White Pride collectibles like Confederate battle flags, Celtic cross flags, Confederate flag stickers, and Celtic pendants - all of which are currently being sold at his site.

There are debates, obviously, on whether Nazi memorabilia should be sold online, but they don't seem to stop places like WWII Online from dealing in Nazi propaganda, World War II collectibles, and Hitler memorabilia. The catalogue here boasts 'eye catching and emotion stirring depictions' from the mind of Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister. It also points out that war poster reproductions are most popular because the Nazi regime was one of the most notorious in human history.

While a lot of counter-measures are in effect, along with groups like BiasHELP -- dedicated to preventing, monitoring and lessening the effects of bias crimes and hate-related harassment - neither side intends to give up easily.

Some of us can look at this as an uninteresting feature on war collectibles. Few may recognise the horror glorified in these online sales. For this minority, decades may pass, but the Internet will make sure their pain won't go away in a hurry.

To forget is not as easy as it used to be, is it?

More Like This

-- Technology and hate make a deadly cocktail