A swastika placed on top of a South Canterbury workshop has been slammed by the NZ Jewish Council as “grossly insensitive” and brought to the attention of police.

Police received a complaint of a sign displaying a swastika on a building on the corner of Slee and Shearman streets in the small Canterbury town of Waimate on Monday.

The NZ Jewish Council said a swastika placed on top of a South Canterbury panel beaters is grossly insensitive. Photo / George Heard

“This imagery has no place in the community,” a police spokesperson said.

“The Waimate District Council has engaged with the person responsible to have the signs removed.

“Police will not be taking further action at this time.”

When approached by the Herald the owner of the building, Jake Rayner, said he put the swastika up to “draw attention or something”.

“It’s not my ideology. Nothing draws attention like a swastika,” Rayner said.

He said the sign will be taken down by the weekend.

“No good for business probably,” he said.

The Herald understands the building is a panel and paint workshop on Shearman St.

NZ Jewish Council spokesman Ben Kepes said: “While it is not illegal to display swastikas in New Zealand, it is both offensive and upsetting to the Jewish community, especially the handful of survivors still alive from the Holocaust.

“We would also note that a large number of New Zealand soldiers died fighting the Nazis. Every year on Anzac Day huge numbers of New Zealanders come together to remember their sacrifice and the sacrifice of countless others. It is disrespectful to the memory of those brave souls to so flippantly display a symbol such as this.

“At this time and with antisemitism in New Zealand increasing to unprecedented levels, displaying the symbol of the movement that attempted to erase Jews from the entire world is grossly insensitive,” Kepes said.

The Herald has approached the Waimate council for comment.

It comes after a synagogue in Christchurch was vandalised twice in a fortnight last year, which led to representatives of New Zealand’s Jewish community calling on authorities to take anti-Semitic threats more seriously.