Austrian bakery sells Nazi-cakes, owner faces prison

[Bacon King]

The year before the Austria-Germany Anschluss, around 170,000 Jewish people lived in Vienna: a tenth of the city's population. About half of them were able to escape and emigrate elsewhere (though some, to other nations the Nazis later invaded). The rest were captured within Austria- and over 60,000 of these people were systematically killed in death camps. These events are still within living memory for many, including those who lost loved ones and some- like the group pressing charges here- who were almost killed themselves.

This perspective is important; within Austria those who display the Nazi swastika do so knowing full well that it evokes memories of this genocide. In a former Nazi country someone using the swastika (in a non-educational setting) is, if not openly supporting genocide, still displaying an utter lack of regard and concern for the millions that were massacred.

I am a social libertarian, and I support free speech; however in the perspective of Austria's history the display of the swastika isn't free speech at all- it's hateful obscenity to the worst degree.

Now, this isn't an argument about the specifics of this case because it does seem to be a bit of a gray area. However, my point is that anti-Nazi laws aren't "fascist" like some of you in this thread claim. Earlier in this thread, someone compared the swastika in Europe to the old Confederate flag in the United States; that's not a real comparison at all. Imagine that, hypothetically, the Confederacy had wanted to exterminate the black race and managed to kill about two-thirds of African Americans in the South before the end of the Civil War. Do you really think in that situation it'd just be a matter of free speech for someone to proudly display a Confederate flag in their window?