This Wednesday morning, the auctions are still in progress and the announcement on eBay sends chills down your spine. The text “Yellow star WW2 I will explain the provenance” adjoins the photo of a yellow star on which is inscribed Jude (Jewish in German), sewn on a black fabric. Starting price: 500 euros.
On eBay, still, there are these two other online ads: “Jude star reproduction, 39/45, occupation, Shoah”. The seller announces 10 still available while 23 have already been sold. Pricing? 15 euros. The same offers a reproduction on which “Jew” is written. Ten are for sale, 15 have already found buyers. Also for 15 euros.
Patrick, 78 years old, quickly spotted these announcements. This son of a resistance fighter tirelessly reports the illegal items he finds to the services of eBay or the Leboncoin site. Nazi symbols at the top. “I have been on eBay since 2006, I systematically report everything relating to Nazism, it offends me terribly. It’s not normal for people to make money with these symbols of barbarism,” he explains to us by telephone.
“The law is quite complicated”
“I have already written to sellers to tell them that it is illegal and been insulted in return,” sighs the retiree. The problem is that if I file a complaint, I know it will be dismissed. It is only when it gains media coverage that the prosecutor acts quickly. »
The same type of announcement was found on Leboncoin in 2018. The National Office for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA) had filed a complaint. Patrick had reported the articles to the platform which then did not delete them, replying “that they did not violate the regulations”.
The problem is that the law regarding the sale of Holocaust-related items is unclear. “The law is quite complicated. What is prohibited is advertising the sale,” explains Me David-Olivier Kaminski, lawyer and member of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif).
In 2021, the attorney subpoenaed several auction houses that offered items related to World War II. “We have succeeded in banning several sales of military objects linked to Nazism. In the case of the Jewish star, these are objects which constitute a form of provocation to hatred. These objects in themselves may have historical interest but they represent the selective sorting of Jews,” continues the lawyer.
“An investigation is underway,” according to eBay
Contacted by us this Wednesday, eBay immediately deleted these advertisements. “Our teams are actively working to detect, block and delete any adverts that contravene our regulations in order to prevent the posting of ads offering prohibited or dangerous objects, such as objects promoting or advocating hatred, violence or discrimination,” provide the services of the American site.
To do this, eBay says it relies on “automated filtering measures, artificial intelligence tools associated with manual searches carried out by internal specialists”. Adding: “In 2024, these systems made it possible to block 98.8% of prohibited ads before they were put online.” Concerning Patrick’s report which was unsuccessful, “an investigation is underway with the department concerned”, indicates eBay.
A few days ago, eBay was already singled out by the government for the sale of “category A weapons, such as brass knuckles and machetes”. The Paris prosecutor’s office clarified on Tuesday that an investigation had been opened. This is the fifth for the same reason concerning a platform after AliExpress, Temu, Wish and Shein (Joom, like AliExpress and Shein, will be taken to court by the government).
It was through Shein that the scandal broke at the beginning of November. The Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) had indeed announced that it had reported to the courts the marketing of child pornography sex dolls by the Asian e-commerce giant.