/ 28 August 2006

Indian eatery drops Hitler from name

A restaurant in India’s financial hub has agreed to change its name from Hitler’s Cross following strong protests by the country’s tiny Jewish community and pressure from Israel.

Hitler’s Cross, which opened a week ago using posters of the Führer and Nazi swastikas for publicity, initially refused to change its name, but relented on Thursday and covered its signboards with white cloth.

The restaurant’s name and its marketing gimmick had infuriated India’s Jewish population, which had said it would fight any attempts at ”rehabilitating Hitler”.

Germany and Israel joined the protests with the Israeli consul-general in Mumbai writing to city authorities urging them to take steps to get the restaurant’s name changed.

”We acknowledge that the name adopted by us for our restaurant was most inappropriate,” Satish Sabhlok, one of the owners of the multi-cuisine restaurant, said in a statement. – Reuters