The Dark Face of Nazism: SS.com
A few years ago, I bought a “KKK” domain that was being sold at DNForum.com and gave it to an anti-hatred organization. The cost didn’t matter; at stake was a URL with the potential of being misappropriated.
A decade ago, the NAACP managed to get hold of the domain name Nigger.com to prevent it from falling into the hands of hate groups that promote racism and harassment against African-Americans. This was a preemptive move that is to be applauded.
Although two-letter domains are an extreme rarity, one would feel that the double-consonant “SS.com” would be a carefully-guarded commodity, never to be placed in the hands of a buyer with Nazi or supremacist affiliations. And yet, it appears that the unfortunate happened. As seen at this press release by Australia-based J.C. Geaney, the domain SS.com has been apparently bought for the price of $1.25 million dollars.
Now, the greenback has been weak for the past year, but the price still is exorbitant. The press release by Mr. Geaney, a self-described “energetic, vibrant and charismatic Internet entrepreneur“, bears the colors and the insignia of the most fearsome special elite force of the nazi Germany before and during World War II: the SS or Schutzstaffel.
Thousands of people died in the hands of the oppressor forces, as did millions of others by the German invaders, in the course of war and at concentration camps. Today, Germany is extremely sensitive towards its past and has in place a number of measures that protect the legacy and the loss of the millions of people affected by Nazi Germany. In particular, it is a crime in Germany to promote nazism, nazi insignia are not allowed to be traded and denial of the Holocaust is a crime punishable by jail time.
We are witnessing a crime against humanity and the domain industry, as it’s evident by the imagery displayed at Geaney.com that the buyer condones Nazi symbols and apparently its ideology. It’s truly a disgraceful moment for the domain industry; the seller should have been aware of the special meaning of the two letters and should have done due diligence about the domain’s buyer.
Having lost my two grandfathers in World War II in Greece – one in combat and the other as an executed civilian – I believe that my anger is more than justified. The crimes against humanity that were committed by the SS and nazi Germany should be remembered as such and should never be allowed the chance of glorification by well-off individuals who buy the present, wanting to distort the past and attempting to destroy the future.
