An Israeli official in India plans to ask Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi, to pressure the owners of Hitler, a clothing store in Ahmedabad, to change the business's name.
Orna Sagiv, the Israeli consul general based in Mumbai said Friday, she would bring up the matter in a scheduled meeting with Mr. Modi next week in Gujarat.
“I am shocked that the owner of an apparel shop would name his shop after Hitler and have the swastika as one of the emblems on the shop banner,†she said, adding that it was “totally unacceptable†and “insulting†to the Jewish community, not just in India but across the world.
The clothing store is one of a handful of businesses in India named after the Nazi dictator. Recent news coverage in India Ink and other publications has brought the store international attention.
On Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League in New York, an organi zation that fights anti-Semitism, called on Mr. Shah to “heed the concerns of the local Jewish community and the voices of others from around the world by immediately changing the store's name from ‘Hitler.' â€
It called Mr. Shah's decision to use the name “an affront to the memory of the millions of Hitler's victims.â€
“It is a perverse abuse of the history of the Holocaust to name a business after one of the world's most notorious mass murderers and anti-Semites,†Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director and a Holocaust survivor, said in a press release.
Hitler holds an unusual fascination for some in India. His manifesto, “Mein Kampf,†remains a strong seller at streetside book stalls, and various businesses named after the German leader have popped up over the years, including a Mumbai cafe called ‘Hitler's Cross.'
Ms. Sagiv said the attitude reflects “deep ignorance and insensitivity in an otherwise tolerant society,†one where the Jewish community had never suffered any discrimination, even when anti-Semitism was at its peak in the rest of the world.
The Anti-Defamation League also expressed concern Thursday about the name of the Nazi leader “seeping into India's popular culture without any appropriate context.â€
In an e-mail interview with The Times of India last year, the spokesman for the Israeli Embassy spoke of the need for greater awareness in India about the atrocities committed against Jews by the Nazi regime under Hitler, which led to the death of six million Jews during the second World War.
His comments were in regards to a pool parlor owner who had named his establishment Hitler's Den.
In the case of the Hitler's Cross cafe, the owners agreed to change the name to Cross Cafe and revamped the decor. The owners of the Ahmedabad clothing store have expressed no willingness to change the name unless they are compensated for it.
