A Veteran’s Day demonstration held outside a store in Times Square has convinced the store’s owner to stop selling T-shirts featuring the image and “accomplishments” of Adolf Hitler.
The shirts were emblazoned with the words “Adolf Hitler European Tour 1939-1945,” a list of countries and the dates they were invaded by Nazi Germany in World War II, and a picture of Hitler sporting a swastika on his military uniform.
The protest was conducted by members of Generation After, a New York-based organization founded by children of Holocaust survivors, with the backing of the World Jewish Congress. After the owner and his attorney conferred with counsel for the WJC, the prominently displayed T-shirt was at last removed from sale and the two-hour demon stration came to an end.
John Ranz, founding president of the Holocaust Survivors Association, expressed satisfaction over the removal of what he termed “an indecent affront to the victims of Nazi tyranny” and “a patent inducement to anti-Semitism.”
The Canadian Jewish Congress recently succeeded in persuading a Toronto retailer to cease selling the same “Hitler” shirt.
Following the New York City protest, the WJC today contacted the shirt’s Florida-based national distributor who agreed to discontinue the item.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
