Peta ad accused of violating dignity of Holocaust victims

by Staff,, Brand Republic 19-Mar-04, 12:00

BERLIN - A German Jewish group has asked courts to charge Peta with inciting racial hatred over a series of posters called 'Holocaust on a plate', which the animal rights charity is putting on show in 12 European cities.

The display consists of eight 60-foot panels, each showing photos of factory-farm and slaughterhouse scenes side by side with photos from Nazi death camps.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says that it depicts the point made by the author Isaac Bashevis Singer who wrote: "In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis".

The campaign also features a television commercial, which uses the endline "Each age has its own atrocities. End the animal holocaust". It is part of Peta's campaign to encourage people to go vegetarian.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany has said that it will ask prosecutors to charge the charity with inciting racial hatred. Paul Spiegel, president of the council, has told reporters that the exhibition is "a violation of human dignity, especially of the Holocaust victims".

The exhibition is to tour cities including Stuttgart, Stockholm, Vienna, Amsterdam, Prague and Zagreb.

The campaign already caused a storm when it was shown in the US last year. The chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, Fred Zeidman, described it as a "desecration", saying that it equated the murder of 6m men, women and children with animals.

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