France probes selling of anti-Semitic T-shirts in Paris store

T-shirt with anti-Jewish slogan.

14 August 2008

BBC News says shirts reading 'Jews forbidden from entering the park' in German, Polish sold for $27 each

French prosecutors have launched an investigation after T-shirts carrying anti-Semitic slogans were seen on sale in a shop in Paris, BBC News reported Wednesday.

According to the report, the shirts carried slogans in German and Polish that translate as "Jews forbidden from entering the park" and were reproduced from Nazi signs from 1940 that targeted the Jewish community in the Polish town of Lodz.

Nearly 200,000 Jewish residents of Lodz died in concentration camps during World War II.

BBC News quoted the sales assistant at the Parisian store, in the Belleville district, as saying that one person had bought five of the grey, sleeveless garments for about 18 euros ($27) each, but added that said she did not understand what the inscription meant.

The neighborhood of Belleville in eastern Paris has witnessed ongoing scuffles between groups of Jewish youths and youngsters of North African origin, the report said.