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Germany's Jews vexed over 'Hitler sex video'
Provocative AIDS awareness campaign uses Nazi leader's image to illustrate danger of unprotected sex. Video 'an insult to the victims of the Nazi era' says head of Germany's Central Council of Jews
Germany's Jewish community was vexed Monday following the launch of a new, provocative AIDS awareness campaign which uses the image of Adolf Hitler to illustrate the dangers of unprotected sex.
The Saarbruecken-based Regenbogen ("Rainbow") AIDS awareness group launched the online campaign last week. The clip, titled "AIDS is a mass murderer," shows a couple having sex and, at the end, reveals the man to be Hitler.
The video was created for World AIDS Day 2009 on December 1 by a Hamburg-based advertising agency and is set to air on German TV and in movie theaters later this month.
Stephan Kramer, secretary-general of Germany's Central Council of Jews said he was shocked by the video: "Hitler sells. Shock therapies are the popular means in the media world to attract attentions. They did indeed succeed. However, the collateral damage – to use a term we hear quite often – is also there.
"It's an insult to the victims of the Nazi era, among them gays and lesbians who were sent to concentration camps in the thousands," he said.
Britain's National AIDS Trust also criticized the clip as stigmatizing of people living with HIV.
"We're trying to tell people, that while interest in AIDS declined over the last few years, the number of people with AIDS in actually going up," the group's deputy head, Heiko Schoessling, said.
The clip, he added, "Seems to speak especially to young people. Older people, who still remember World War II, may not like it as much… You can't satisfy everybody, but we're happy with the overwhelming response to our campaign. That's exactly what we wanted to achieve."
Asked whether the group thought the video may be offensive to those with AIDS or could be seen as belittling Hitler's atrocities during World War II, Schoessling said the group did not intend to offend people living with AIDS or Jews.
"We're not trying to offend them," he said. "If they understand our video that way, it's their problem."
Reuters contributed to this report
