Government officials tear down sign of Hitler clothing store

A combination picture of two photographs, one a file photo (at left) taken on Aug. 28, 2012, and another at right taken on Oct. 30, 2012, shows Rajesh Shah, one of the two Indian owners of the Hitler clothing store, posing in front of his shop in Ahmedabad. Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images

Rajesh Shah, one of two owners of the Hitler clothing store in Ahmedabad in western India, said Tuesday that Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) officials came and took down the words Hitler from the shop’s signboard. The officials failed to, or decided not to, remove a Nazi swastika inside the dot in the letter “i” however.

Shah, one of Hitler’s two co-owners, came under fire after opening his shop in August from the minority Jewish community in Ahmedabad,which objected to the store’s name, given its seemingly apparent reference to the Second World War German leader responsible for the Holocaust.

Shah countered that he chose the name in memory of his grandfather, a strict disciplinarian whom the family referred to as “Hitler.” But after receiving dozens of phone calls asking that he change the shop’s name, Shah told The Associated Press in September that he would indeed remove the sign and rename the store. That appears not to have happened.

Shah claims he didn’t know about Hitler’s history, but according to AP, people in Ahmedabad insist the name was a marketing gimmick.

Before the action by the AMC, Israel’s consul general in Mumbai had also asked officials in Gujarat state,  where Ahmedabad is located, to intervene.

- With a file from The Associated Press

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