A Swiss coffee brand has apologized and said it would change German-language advertisements after using a phrase associated with Nazi Germany and the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Chicco d’Oro acknowledged that its use of the phrase “Jedem das Seine,” which can be translated as “to each his own” or “to each what he deserves,” was a “serious mistake.”
The controversy began after a resident of Bern’s Wittigkofen neighborhood noticed the advertisement and alerted Swiss media, saying she had to look twice to make sure she was seeing it correctly. She described the ad as “completely tasteless and inappropriate,” according to the Swiss news site Blick.
The phrase comes from the ancient Roman legal principle “suum cuique.” But in Nazi Germany, it was placed above the entrance gate to Buchenwald, one of the largest concentration camps in Germany, where tens of thousands of prisoners, including Jews and political opponents, were held. Because of that history, the phrase is widely associated in Germany and other German-speaking countries with Nazi atrocities.
Photos of the advertisement spread quickly on social media, drawing angry reactions. Some users questioned how a European company could fail to recognize the phrase’s historical meaning.
Chicco d’Oro said the campaign had originally been created for the Italian market and then translated directly into German for Switzerland, without the company understanding the phrase’s historical sensitivity in German.
The company said it had not been aware of the phrase’s “historical baggage” and called the incident a serious failure in its review and localization process. It said it would remove and correct the German-language signs.