Swastika Bedecked Panda Reminder of Ongoing Need to Take Strong Stand against Hatred

Toronto, December 31, 2002

For Immediate Release

Toronto, December 31, 2002 — Canadians were rightly shocked upon finding saluting pandas in their Christmas crackers dressed in military garb sporting a swastika on the hat with facial features reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and the word “Germany” stamped on its back. While, B’nai Brith Canada has been assured by the Canadian distributor Walpert Industries that every effort to avoid any repeat of this incident has been made, this should not be quickly dismissed as a simple cultural misunderstanding.

Rochelle Wilner, National President of B’nai Brith Canada, commented: “This toy is in no way innocuous nor are the protestations of innocent use of the swastika on a Hitler-like toy reassuring. Should the horrors and racial hatred of the Hitler era recede into history, as has been suggested by those who in good faith want to rehabilitate the swastika as a religious symbol, we will all be marked by Santayana’s curse that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

Frank Dimant, Executive Vice-President of B’nai Brith Canada, stated: “The Nazis use of the swastika has made it a recognized symbol of racial hatred in Western culture. Indeed, the swastika will forever be remembered in association with the Holocaust and the murder of millions of innocent people. The passage of time and the passing of one more generation, as some experts might suggest, should never mean that the horror of the Holocaust will be forgotten. Given the continued use of the swastika by Neo-Nazi and other hate-mongering groups as a symbol of intolerance, the swastika, no matter what its origins, cannot be rehabilitated, now or in the foreseeable future.”

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For further information call:
Rochelle Wilner at 416 254-1010 or Anita Bromberg 416 919-5096

B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the community’s foremost advocacy and volunteer organization.