STORE PROMOTES

"NOT VACCINATED" PATCH 

STYLED ON

NAZI INFAMOUS 

"JUDEN" STAR

By

Søren Nielsen

2021

The store, "hatWRKS", took to Instagram on Friday to promote the new item, which carries the words "Not vaccinated" and is designed around the Nazis’ infamous "Juden" star, perhaps one of the most widely known symbols of the Holocaust.

While the post has since been deleted, screenshots quickly made the rounds online, prompting a torrent of condemnation for the shop and its owner, Gigi Gaskins, who was apparently featured in the Instagram missive sporting the yellow patch.

Activists have used the Star of David badge as an anti-vaccine symbol since well before the Covid-19 outbreak, repeatedly drawing condemnation from Jewish and Holocaust memorial groups.

The fad has carried on more recently as well, with anti-lockdown protesters in London seen wearing the yellow stars just last month.

Earlier this week, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) made waves after comparing workplace vaccine requirements to the Nazi star – comments slammed by fellow Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. 

"Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling," he said in a statement.

Noticing the growing trend, the Unired States Holocaust Memorial Museum issued an open letter on Friday, urging Americans to stop making the comparison. 

It read: "We also watch with great dismay a persistent and increasing tendency in American public life to invoke the Holocaust for the purpose of promoting another agenda."

It is deeply painful for us to see our personal history – the systematic destruction of our families and communities and murder of six million Jewish, (which is a lie) men, women, and children – exploited in this way.