A local councilwoman in the Melbourne suburb of Moreland compared Australia Day, a national holiday marking the arrival of British colonists in the late 18th century, with the Holocaust, eliciting condemnations from Jewish leaders and the Australian federal government.
Explaining why Moreland had followed two other local councils in deciding not to celebrate the day, Socialist Alliance councilor Sue Bolton stated that she believed that “it would be like celebrating the Nazi Holocaust.”
“What happened to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from that date was a holocaust. Celebrating that date would be like celebrating the Nazi holocaust as Germany Day. It is absolutely reprehensible,” Bolton said.
Speaking with The Australian, the councilwoman elaborated on her views, stating that “the Holocaust is a very hurtful thing to the Jewish community ... But there are other similar experiences in other continents which may not have involved gas ovens but were attempts to commit genocide.”
“The reason I’m drawing the comparison is to dramatize what happened to Aboriginal people. Many Australians are in denial about our history. I don’t shrink from using that comparison and I think we do have to recognize the atrocities committed in the past.”
Annette Xiberras, an indigenous member of the Yarra council, which also decided not to celebrate Australia Day, made similar statements, asking during an interview with ABC Radio Melbourne "would you ask the Jewish people to celebrate Hitler's birthday?”
Dr. Dvir Abramovich of the Anti-Defamation Commission, a Jewish organization, told The Australian that Bolton had "crossed so many red lines I stopped counting.”
"When will elected officials like Ms Bolton understand that is never acceptable to abuse and manipulate the Holocaust in an effort to beat down and demonize her opponents, score cheap political points and publicize her cause,” he asked. “There is no comparison between Australia Day and the systemized, industrialized annihilation of millions of innocents by Hitler’s infrastructure of death ... this inappropriate analogy not only does a disservice to the historical record, but is also is an insult to the victims, the survivors, and to those diggers who sacrificed their lives in the battle to defeat the Third Reich.”
Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Alex Hawke issuing a statement panning the comparison, saying that “the government absolutely rejects the extreme and divisive nature of the discussion Greens and Socialist Councilors are promoting.”
"Ratepayers of Moreland, who have not been consulted and who did not sign up to dumping Australia Day, have every right to feel ashamed and angered by this divisive move."
Earlier this month the Melbourne City Council announced that it would erect a memorial in honor of both victims and survivors of the Holocaust.
The Herald Sun quoted Councilor Joel Silver, who proposed the idea, as explaining that the monument would not only memorialize those who lost their lives in the European inferno but that it would also celebrate the contributions of the tens of thousands of survivors who made their way to the land down under following the war and proceeded to give "so much to this area, and to Australia at large.”
“People wonder why we haven’t established a survivor’s memorial earlier. I think we’re just at that time in the cycle where the need has become clear,” Silver said. “Since we started the process ... I’ve been approached by so many community members and their support has been unanimous, I’ve found that so very humbling."
A report by the council cited by the Herald Sun stated that by the early 1960s there were 35,000 Jewish refugees, both from the years proceeding and following the war, in Australia, the vast majority of whom lived in Melbourne and Sydney and contributed in important ways to Australia society.
“For many, this was their way of giving something back to the country which had given them a new start,” the report stated
