VANCOUVER, Canada (JTA) — A youth hockey coach in suburban Vancouver was fired for posting Nazi propaganda on social media.
Christopher Maximilian Sandau, 33, was dismissed earlier this month by the North Delta Minor Hockey Association after refusing to remove the posts from his Facebook page, CTV News reported. Sandau also denies the Holocaust.
His Facebook page included a photo of Adolf Hitler with the message “Adolf Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told,” as well as a swastika flag with the message, “If this flag offends you, you need a history lesson,” the Vancouver Sun reported.
“The posts contained extreme and objectionably material believed to be incompatible with an important purpose of our minor hockey association — to promote and encourage good citizenship,” NDMH president Anita Cairney said in a statement.
Sandau insists he never mentioned his Nazi sympathies while coaching his players, who were in grades 6 to 9.
“The whole time I was coaching with these kids and interacting with the kids, my focus was only on hockey,” Sandau told the Sun. “I wasn’t trying to impose this knowledge on anybody.”
In an interview with the Sun, Sandau, who said he played professional hockey in Germany, also denied the Holocaust, saying that the Jews seen in newsreels were dying of typhus and that the Germans were “doing their best to save them.”
“My view on the history basically got me canned,” Sandau complained.
Sandau’s Facebook posts also included canards against Jews including that they control the banks, according to CTV News.