A Texas shop owner has gone viral after refusing a couple’s request to “re-Nazify” a Hitler Youth knife.
Jonathan Sibley and his wife Rhian co-own the Blade Bar situated in Ben Wheeler, an unincorporated community in Van Zandt County, Texas.
The veteran bladesmith, who appeared on season five of the History Channel’s Forged in Fire, was propelled to internet stardom after sharing surveillance footage of the encounter “in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
A couple, who remain unidentified, entered the store at about 1 p.m. carrying two sheathed knives.
“What are we wanting to put in,” Sibley can be heard asking the customers in the exchange caught on video.
“I need the emblem out of that,” the woman begins in the muffled audio, pointing to a Nazi symbol from the handle of one knife, adding she wants it placed in the hilt of a second weapon.
“Nope, won’t do it,” Sibley responded sternly.
“Oh, really?,” the woman replied.
Sibley continued: “Nope, you’ve got Nazi bulls**t,” he continued, shaking his head. “If you wanted a modern German forestry seal of something in… I will de-Nazify s**t but I won’t re-Nazify s**t.”
“OK,” the woman said before the couple left the store.
The clip, which is overlaid with “Hitler youth knife repair… We only have a few shop rules…,” has garnered more than 300,000 views across Facebook and TikTok.
Members of the Jewish community were quick to thank Sibley for “standing up to hate.”
“As a person of Jewish ancestry, I want to say thank you. If I am ever in Texas I would like to buy you a beer,” one person commented on Faceboook.
A second added: “Thank you for standing up to the hate by refusing these people’s disgusting beliefs!”
