“It is time for this emblematic scourge to be forever removed from the continent of Europe soaked in the blood of its 60 million victims.”

Paris, 21 August 2013

In a letter to Spanish Prime Minister (President of the Government) Mariano Rajoy, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted that “foreign tourists attending the ‘corrida’ at the Madrid Pinto bullring have shared with us their shock to see the arena decorated with a banner emblazoned with the swastika and the profile of Hitler, proclaiming ‘Adolf Hitler Tenia Razon’ (‘Adolf Hitler was right’).”

Samuels declared that “Spain had lost too many of its citizens fighting for or against the swastika in the Civil War, a prelude to World War Two. Moreover,Spanish hospitality was long abused as a refuge for Nazi criminals in the post-warperiod.”

The letter reported that, “while the municipality lamented that the banner, mounted the morning before the bullfight, was not removed before it began, it is still featured in photos posted on the municipality’s own website.”

Samuels was amazed that “the ‘corrida’ was not suspended, according to the Mayor, 'for reasons of security' and ‘so that the not guilty (5,000 spectators) remain without a bullfight’'', adding “the fact that neo-Nazis succeeded in infiltrating the bullring and mounting the banner should itself be investigated as a dangerous breach of security.”
“Over and above the arrest and punishment of those responsible,” the Centre called on Spain “to join Germany and other EU members in the campaign to ban the swastika as a political symbol.”
“It is time for this emblematic scourge to be forever removed from the continent of Europe soaked in the blood of its 60 million victims,”concluded Samuels.