Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), strongly condemned statements made by Formula One president Bernie Ecclestone, who in a newspaper interview had praised Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler for getting things done and expressed a preference for totalitarian regimes over democracies. Lauder declared: "Mr. Ecclestone is driving down the wrong way at full speed. His effusive praise for Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein is frightening and dangerous because it questions the basic principles of modern democracy.” The WJC president called on team leaders and drivers of the Formula One racing series to suspend their cooperation with Ecclestone and call for his resignation.
“A person showing such contempt for democracy should not be allowed to run such an important and universally popular sports series,” Lauder said, adding: It is sad to see the Formula One president express sympathies for the brutal Nazi regime which was responsible for murdering six million Jews and for waging the most brutal war in the history of mankind, and it is quite unbelievable that Mr. Ecclestone should implicitly cast doubt on Hitlers responsibility for the Holocaust.This puts him in line with other unrepentant revisionists like Bishop Williamson and David Irving. Such a man is obviously not suited to continue as Formula One boss."
In an interview in 'The Times' of London, Ecclestone, 78, said that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and praised Adolf Hitler: “In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done.
“In the end he got lost, so he wasn’t a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it . . . so either way he wasn’t a dictator.”
Ecclestone also declared that democracy "hasn't done a lot of good for many countries, including this one", referring to the UK.
The Formula One chief instead endorsed the concept of a government based on tyranny. “Politicians are too worried about elections,” he told ‘The Times’. “We did a terrible thing when we supported the idea of getting rid of Saddam Hussein. He was the only one who could control that country. It was the same [with the Taleban]. We move into countries and we have no idea of the culture…”
Following Ronald Lauder’s criticism, Ecclestone on Monday tried to backtrack. He told the German newspaper ‘Bild’ that everything had been a "big misunderstanding" and said: "I wasn't using Hitler as a positive example, but pointing out that before his dreadful crimes he worked successfully against unemployment and economic problems."
Asked if he felt the need to apologize, Ecclestone said: "It was never my intention to hurt the feelings of any community," Bernie replied. "Many people in my closest circle of friends are Jewish. Anyone who knows me knows that I would never attack a minority."
