An auto-parts retailer’s sale of Nazi flag stickers has drawn condemnation from the Israeli Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after a Facebook post lambasting the store went viral on Friday.
They have since been pulled from the shelves at the retailer’s branch in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei Township (竹北).
A netizen posted a photograph taken inside the store, showing Nazi flag stickers under the label “German national flags,” on a Facebook group created for “explosive revelations.”
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
The Nazi flag stickers were hung between those of the US and Canadian flags, with stickers of the Japanese Empire’s war flag to the left of the US flag stickers, with each pack priced at NT$20.
“This is utterly ignorant of the values of the international community. Items like these should not be sold,” the person who posted the photograph wrote.
Israeli Representative Asher Yarden on Saturday issued a statement condemning the store.
“These flags represent the Nazi regime during the Jewish Holocaust — the darkest period in modern times — and have historically been used by evil forces to spread hate and terror, intimidate and incite,” Yarden said.
The re-emergence of such hateful flags is unacceptable anywhere, Yarden said, “but this incident is even more disturbing since it is the second time in less than a year that the Nazi flag is being presented in an abusive way in Hsinchu County.”
In December last year, students at Hsinchu Kuang Fu High School paraded in Nazi-style uniforms and displayed Nazi symbols during a campus event.
The principal of the private school Cheng Hsiao-ming (程曉銘) resigned days after the incident.
Israel calls on the appropriate authorities in Taiwan to “take immediate action” to remove the stickers from sale and initiate a program of public education that would raise Holocaust awareness in Taiwan, Yarden said.
Such a program would bring about better understanding and prevent the reoccurrence of such deplorable happenings, he added.
Ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said the ministry urges the public to confront the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during World War II, including wars of aggression and the massacre of 6 million Jews.
“We should not mislead any of Taiwan’s international partners into thinking that Nazism is supported or condoned by the nation in any way,” Lee said.
The ministry acknowledges the strong condemnation from the Israeli representative office and has conveyed the government’s “grave concern” over the issue, he said.
Ho Tung-tsan (何東燦), who owns the auto-parts retailer, on Saturday told the Central News Agency that his company sells more than 10,000 kinds of merchandise and that any one outlet might have more than 1,000.
Stickers are very popular, both to cover up scratches or just for decoration, he said, adding that sometimes, if the stores are very busy, staff might allow sticker company representatives to restock the racks themselves.
The outlet staff should have monitored the situation, he said.
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