DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A vendor at a major motorcycle rally in Florida briefly sold hats with Nazi symbols on them, saying she considered the merchandise a tribute to World War II veterans who helped defeat the Germans.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports the vendor was selling the hats embroidered with swastikas and a skull-and-bones logo used by the Nazi SS at a stand during Biketoberfest, an ongoing festival that draws thousands of bikers to the Daytona Beach area this month.
The vendor said she had sold the hats at other biker rallies around the country without complaint. The woman also sells rings, wallet chains and hats without Nazi logos, the Associated Press reports.
“It doesn’t mean what people think,” the vendor said to AP. “A lot of people don’t know the history, so they label me a racist, which is not true at all.”
President of the Jewish Federation of Volusia and Flagler Counties Marvin Miller expressed his "weary resignation about the items' sale," AP explains.
“It’s just a shame in this day and age,” Miller said to News-Journal, according to AP. “It never stops. We just have to deal with it and just remember that we’re still America. Unfortunately, people abuse some of the wonderful rights we have and take it to extremes to spread propaganda.”
The owner of the property where the vendor was set up ordered her to remove the Nazi merchandise and she complied, according to AP.
