Update (January 28, 2008): In a letter to ADL, the hotel's owner defended his Hitler-themed suite as an appropriate reminder of an evil leader and noted that his father fought against the Nazis in World War II.  ADL's letter in response again urged the removal of Hitler's portrait from the hotel, saying that regardless of his intentions, the imagery was inappropriate and deeply offensive.  More

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New York, NY, January 22, 2008 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed outrage about a hotel in Belgrade, Serbia, that features a popular Adolf Hitler-themed suite.  The "Mr. President" hotel offers rooms designed around current or past world leaders.

"Hitler orchestrated the mass murder of six million Jews, including tens of thousands of Serbian Jews, and others," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor.  "Promoting the opportunity to sleep under his portrait denigrates the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, who in Belgrade included Jews, Serbs and Roma.

"Using this tyrannical dictator to promote a hotel is a gross marketing ploy and demonstrates a profound failure to understand the horror of the Holocaust.  Reports of high demand for the hotel suite are also deeply disturbing."

In a letter to the hotel's owner, Dusan Zabunovic, the League demanded he remove the portrait of Hitler and change the theme of the suite before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.