Outcry Over Sale of Bell Praising Adolf Hitler

An Austrian bell with an inscription praising Hitler has caused a fierce debate in the village where it lay undiscovered for 80 years.

Harriet Alexander
The Telegraph
July 28, 2013

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The bell, and the ancient castle and belfry in Wolfpassing in which it sits, has been sold by the Austrian government. But villagers are concerned that it will be sold to neo Nazis. Johannes Kammerstaetter, a local historian, has formally asked state prosecutors to examine whether the government’s sale of the bell is a criminal offence because it could be used to “spread Nazi ideology.”

Reinhold Mitterlehner, Austria’s economy minister, said the agency overseeing the sale was not aware of the inscription and the sale was legal.

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