Gary Fitleberg, February 10, 2005

Imagine. You can yodel at the Hitler Hotel. On the eve of the Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The image is one that brings back the NAZI nightmares of the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people. What is startling is the short-term memory of the whole world. One simply tries to forget what is deeply embarrassing and painful. An ethnic cleansing and genocide like no other in the entire modern history of the world.

An international resurgent anti-Semitism is all the rage. Everything has been forgotten. Nothing remembered. Those that forget the past history are condemned to repeat it.

Apparently, nothing has changed in over half a century. Thousands of years of persecution because of jealousy and stupidity.

But "Thank G-d" for organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center who chooses to remember and never ever forget this terrible tragedy in history known as the Holocaust or Shoah, a Hebrew word meaning Destruction.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a protest yesterday to InterContinental Hotels Group over an article in the British-based hotel chain's magazine, which portrayed Adolf Hitler's former mountain retreat as an idyllic vacation resort.

Hitler built his retreat and southern headquarters near the town of Berchtesgaden in the scenic Bavarian Alps. The complex included a large home for the Nazi leader, a mountaintop conference center and a bunker.

Debate has raged in recent years over the extent to which the area should be reinvented as a destination for vacationers.

InterContinental Hotels intends to open its new Berchtesgaden Resort hotel in March of 2005, according to its website.

The Winter 2005 edition of the hotel chain's magazine Highstyle included an article entitled "Berchtesgaden: It's not just a peak, it's a treat," in which the resort was advertised as, among other things, a "cozy spot for a display of thigh-slapping local dancing" and "a particularly fine spot for yodeling."

"Unfortunately, Berchtesgaden holds a rather more sinister significance," said Wiesenthal Center director for international liaison Dr. Shimon Samuels, in a letter to InterContinental Hotels Group chairman David Webster.

"It was the seat of evil, where Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi leadership took most of the decisions that cost the world 70 million lives."

Based in Los Angeles, the Simon Wiesenthal Center aims to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and fight intolerance through educational outreach and social action.

"A decade ago," continued Samuels, "I visited Berchtesgaden with BBC television and engaged in a debate with the German Institute for Contemporary History in Munich on how best to prevent the banalization committed by your magazine and, thereby, ensure that every visitor includes in his itinerary the Berchtesgaden Documentation Center and the memorial to the victims of Nazism."

Samuels noted the irony of the timing of the article, which coincided with commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the other extermination camps.

Citing a section in the article urging visitors to "descend into the bowels of the earth" in a tour of the nearby Salzbergwerk salt mines, Samuels said the death camps were "a place in which millions, indeed, descended `into the bowels of the earth', never to return."

Samuels took the hotel chain to task for publicizing the hotel as "the ideal spot for a bit of relaxation" while ignoring the site's wartime role.

"This dishonors the memory of all the victims of Nazism, offends the survivors and teaches tomorrow's murderers that scenic beauty can camouflage and efface their atrocities," he wrote.

Hotel Hitler is reminiscent of another idyllic plan to renovate Auschwitz by developers who wanted to build a disco in one of the old barracks. Dancing for death. Adding insult to injury, this timely or untimely event proves some things never ever change.

A real sweet treat. The peak of anti-Semitism and insensitivity. The Hitler Hotel.

Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs.

Copyright © 2005 Gary Fitleberg