Andrew Marks (pictured) who is running as a United Australia Party candidate is the youngest member in the federal election

An election candidate has been slammed after posting memes praising Adolf Hitler and joking about school shootings on Facebook.

Andrew Marks is representing the United Australia Party at this year's federal election, and is the youngest candidate running for a seat.

The 18-year-old has been criticised after he posted a meme referencing Hitler on Facebook in 2016.

Mr Marks, who is studying accounting and communications at university, shared an image of a man giving a Nazi salute.

He also shared a meme of a character using a time machine to applaud Hitler.

An election candidate has been slammed after posting memes praising Adolf Hitler and joking about school shootings on Facebook

Election candidate Andrew Marks has been slammed for sharing memes about Adolf Hitler on Facebook in 2016 (pictured is an image shared by Mr Marks)

His father, Robert Marks, who helped set up the UAP and is also running as a candidate, said his grandfathers fought against the Nazis and the family aren't anti-Semitic.

'We are absolutely anti-Nazi. My son was 15 when he posted those memes. He is now 18,' Mr Marks told The Sunday Telegraph.

'The memes are from a WWII Facebook history page that my son signed up to. It may be substandard to us but this is how the kids communicate these days,' he said.

The co-chair executive officer at the executive council of the Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, said these memes harm and are damaging to the Jewish community.

Mr Marks had also previously shared an image referencing school shootings.

The post which pictured chips, a bag of McDonalds and a rifle, said: 'Everyone wishes that they were your friend when you bring these to school!'

His father Robert Marks (pictured) said they are anti-Nazi and his son was 15 when he shared the posts on Facebook

A number of UAP candidates have also been criticised for inflammatory social media posts.

North Sydney's Peter Vagg shared a post about stopping Muslim extremists and African gangs from immigrating to Australia.

Mr Vagg also shared images calling for a ban on the burqa and a ban on school excursions to mosques.

Also, the candidate for Greenway, Scott Feeney, posted an image of comedian Bill Cosby following his sentencing for sexual assault.

He captioned the photo: 'Holy crap, Morgan Freeman just got sent to prison.'

Mr Feeney said the post referred to a joke officers made while he was in the navy and he is not a racist.