German and Israeli diplomats have lashed out at a Hong Kong fashion company for using swastikas and other Nazi party symbols.
The firm, http://www.izzue.com., designed a range of clothes with Nazi symbols and launched new decorations this past week in its 14 stores.
"It's totally inappropriate because these symbols of the Nazi regime stand for cruelty and crimes against humanity," a vice consul of the German Consulate General in Hong Kong said on condition of anonymity. "These symbols brought a lot of pain not only over Europe, but over the whole world ... It's definitely not the way to promote clothes."
The diplomat urged the public to boycott the shops.
The company's marketing manager, Deborah Cheng, said the Nazi-themed decorations and clothes were not intended to cause an outcry and may be withdrawn. She said the company had received a few complaints from customers.
"We're seriously considering removing the displays. But before we take them off, we have to find a replacement," she said.
Cheng added that the designer wanted the clothes to have a military theme and did not realize that the Nazi symbols would be considered offensive.
Israeli Consul-General Eli Avidar said the consulate has received dozens of complaints about the displays in the past two days, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported on its front-page yesterday.
"People were furious, hurt and shocked that such a thing could happen," Avidar was quoted as saying. "It is unbearable to think that anyone can design a marketing campaign that desecrates the deaths of millions of people."
Phone calls to the Israeli Consulate General in Hong Kong went unanswered yesterday.
In April, soft drink giant Coca-Cola pulled a promotional robot figurine adorned with what appeared to be Nazi swastikas following criticism from a Jewish leader in Hong Kong.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS