Aftermath News

The Hitler-themed suite at the Mr. President hotel in Belgrade (AP)

Haaretz | Jan 29, 2008

The Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday it will press its effort to persuade a Belgrade, Serbia hotel owner to stop offering guests an Adolf Hitler-themed suite, after an exchange of letters in which the hotelier defended the suite as an appropriate reminder of an evil leader and noted that his father fought against the Nazis in World War II.

The Mr. President hotel features rooms highlighting current or past world leaders.

“Using this tyrannical dictator to promote a hotel is a gross marketing ploy and demonstrates a profound failure to understand the horror of the Holocaust,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor.

“Reports of high demand for the hotel suite are also deeply disturbing.”

Last week, the ADL wrote to hotel owner Dusan Zabunovic, demanding that he remove the portrait of Hitler and change the theme of the suite before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.

After Zabunovic responded with a defense of the concept of the suite, the ADL this week sent a second letter, again urged the removal of Hitler’s portrait from the hotel, saying that regardless of his intentions, the imagery was inappropriate and deeply offensive.

“Hitler orchestrated the mass murder of six million Jews, including tens of thousands of Serbian Jews, and others,” Foxman said.

“Promoting the opportunity to sleep under his portrait denigrates the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, who in Belgrade included Jews, Serbs and Roma.”

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