The PETA campaign, earlier waged in North America, has already been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith and other groups.
The PETA posters are to be part of a traveling display starting next March, but the Central Council of Jews in Germany is considering legal action to halt the campaign. The head of the Council called the PETA initiative the most disgusting abuse of the memory of the Holocaust in recent years. PETA claims to have 20,000 members and supporters in Germany.
Another event in Germany that has led to controversy recently is the WWII-era play "The Wolves" by Nazi playwright Hans Rehberg. The play is being performed, for the first time since 1944, in the small Bavarian city of Erlangen. The Organization of Jewish Communities in Bavaria called the performance of the play - which deals with sacrifice for the fatherland and not anti-Semitism - "intolerable". About 100 protestors turned out for the opening night on Sunday. The director of the Erlangen Theater said that she originally organized the program as an expression of opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Erlangen, noted the city’s mayor, raised funds for a synagogue serving the town’s 300-person Jewish community several years ago. Recently, according to a JTA report, a passerby stopped at an information stand set up by opponents of the play and said, "Stop already and let’s talk about the crimes of the Jews. They should be happy that they live here in peace and that nobody bothers them."
Finally, in a dispute regarding the ownership of property in the former East Germany that belonged to a Jewish family that was wiped out in the Holocaust, the German government has dropped its claims. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, an international umbrella organization of major Jewish groups in negotiations for WWII compensation and restitution, said that it welcomes the German government’s decision. The 20 parcels of prime real estate had once belonged to the prestigious Wertheim family. The Wertheim Department Store group, which was the largest and among the most distinguished Jewish department stores in pre-Hitler Germany, included the famous Wertheim Department Store at Leipziger Platz in Berlin.
The PETA posters are to be part of a traveling display starting next March, but the Central Council of Jews in Germany is considering legal action to halt the campaign. The head of the Council called the PETA initiative the most disgusting abuse of the memory of the Holocaust in recent years. PETA claims to have 20,000 members and supporters in Germany.
Another event in Germany that has led to controversy recently is the WWII-era play "The Wolves" by Nazi playwright Hans Rehberg. The play is being performed, for the first time since 1944, in the small Bavarian city of Erlangen. The Organization of Jewish Communities in Bavaria called the performance of the play - which deals with sacrifice for the fatherland and not anti-Semitism - "intolerable". About 100 protestors turned out for the opening night on Sunday. The director of the Erlangen Theater said that she originally organized the program as an expression of opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Erlangen, noted the city’s mayor, raised funds for a synagogue serving the town’s 300-person Jewish community several years ago. Recently, according to a JTA report, a passerby stopped at an information stand set up by opponents of the play and said, "Stop already and let’s talk about the crimes of the Jews. They should be happy that they live here in peace and that nobody bothers them."
Finally, in a dispute regarding the ownership of property in the former East Germany that belonged to a Jewish family that was wiped out in the Holocaust, the German government has dropped its claims. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, an international umbrella organization of major Jewish groups in negotiations for WWII compensation and restitution, said that it welcomes the German government’s decision. The 20 parcels of prime real estate had once belonged to the prestigious Wertheim family. The Wertheim Department Store group, which was the largest and among the most distinguished Jewish department stores in pre-Hitler Germany, included the famous Wertheim Department Store at Leipziger Platz in Berlin.