This Article is From Mar 26, 2011

Jewish rights body demand renaming of 'Hitler's Den' in Nagpur

Washington: An international Jewish human rights organisation has asked the civil society in India to take up a Jewish demand for renaming of a pool parlour in Nagpur that is named 'Hitler's Den'.

The Los Angeles based Simon Wiesenthal Center said it was shocked by the parlour owner's insistence on continuing with the name, terming it "unacceptable".

"We are shocked and dismayed by the continued promotion and use of Nazi symbols, icons and even Hitler's Mein Kampf by businesses and publishers," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center.

"We are equally shocked by the 'Hitler's Den' establishment in Nagpur and dismayed by the owner's insistence that 'this is our identity' and that a second 'Hitler's Den' is opening in Laxmi Nagar," he said.

Noting that historically, anti-Semitism is alien to the people and culture of India, Cooper hoped that leaders of India's religious communities and civil society take the lead in demanding an end to a trend that trivializes and mocks the victims of genocide.

"In 2011, in our global village, such behaviour is unacceptable," Cooper said.

A frequent visitor to India, Cooper brought the Simon Wiesenthal Center's 'Courage To Remember' exhibition on the Nazi Holocaust to the Gandhi Cultural Centre in New Delhi and Bangalore.

In 2009, he led a faith memorial service in Mumbai on the first anniversary of the 26/11 massacre at the Chabad House in Mumbai.
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