14 January 2008
Jewish leaders in Germany have protested against the sale of provocative T-shirts sold by a pro-smoking campaign. The shirts depict a yellow star evoking those the Nazis forced Jews to wear. "It is tasteless, mean, a danger to the public, indecent, to exploit the Holocaust for smokers' ends these days," the vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said, adding: "If somebody does this, he is either evil or stupid, probably both."
The T-shirts are on sale on the internet and bear a yellow star carrying the word ‘Raucher’ [smoker] inside a yellow star on the left breast. They cost € 20 (US$ 30) and are promoted with the slogan "Stop the discrimination against nicotine addicts and send a clear signal with this confessional T-shirt." A spokesman for prosecuting authorities in the northern city of Itzehoe said they were investigating whether the company selling the shirts had broken the law. In recent months, several German states have enacted smoking bans in public places including bars and restaurants.
