Italy: Wine bottles sporting Hitler, other dictators' portraits on sale despite backlash

Wine bottles with portraits of German dictator Adolf Hitler and other authoritarian leaders continue to be sold in Italy's Remini, despite massive flak from "anti-fascist" groups. This comes after Vina Lunardelli sparked controversy with the Historical Series launched in 1995. In 2013, Simon Wiesenthal Center called for a boycott of the series, which displayed all "notorious" dictators from French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte to Hitler.

The local administration of Remini reportedly receives six complaints per year on average, city mayor Andrea Grassi told the Times of Israel in an interview. When asked about the measures the authorities took to solve the problem, Grassi claimed such attempts went in vain in the past. He added the problem is beyond mayoral jurisdiction, saying that the court has reversed the local government's decision to ban "such fascist products."

"As long as a new law is not approved, all attempts and action by the municipality can result in nothing," he told the Times of Israel.

The 1995 Historical Series of Lunardelli accounts for nearly half of their revenue and in turn production, as per the winemaker's website.

In 2012, a feud sparked in an Italian supermarket after a Jewish couple from the US, holidaying in Garda (northern Italy), discovered wine bottles featuring the Nazi leader. The bottles were named ''Mein Kampf", "Ein volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer," and "Fuhrerwein." Bottles also sported Hitler doing his usual salute.

Hailing from Philadelphia, Cindy Hirsch took offence at the wine bottle labels condemning the public sale of such bottles. Speaking to Daily Telegraph, she revealed that the visual was personally disheartening since she was an Auschwitz survivor while her grandparents and aunt were killed in concentration camps. "It is not only an affront to Jews, even my husband and I are Jews. It is an affront to humanity as a whole," she had said.

Investigation launched into wine bottle production

Then Italian Integration Minister Andrea Riccardi slammed the winemakers, assuring the "American friends" that Italy did not support antisemites, Nazi fascism, or racism. “This offends the memory of millions of people and risks compromising the image of Italy abroad,” Riccardi had said

Meanwhile, the winery Lunardelli calls the collection a "cult object among collectors."

(Image: Unsplash/AP)