World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder called on Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone to resign after being quoted as saying that Adolf Hitler “got things done.”
Lauder said he is no longer fit to serve in his role.
In an interview with The Times in London published on Saturday, Ecclestone, a 78-year-old billionaire, expressed preference for “strong leaders,” while saying democracy had done little for Britain over the years.
“In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done,” Ecclestone said.
“In the end he got lost, so he wasn’t a very good dictator,” he added.
He also said the West had been wrong to depose Iraq’s Sadam Hussein, saying: “He was the only one who could control that country.”
Ronald Lauder called on teams, drivers and host countries of the F1 series to end their cooperation with the man who owns the sport’s commercial rights.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) told The Times that Ecclestone’s views were “quite bizarre,” and The Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard said he was “either an idiot or morally repulsive.”
Labour MP Denis MacShane said that the remarks revealed ignorance of history and “a complete lack of judgment.”
(Source: EJP)
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One Response
It just “Eccles” me what this man said. Seriously, “he got lost??” No, he didn’t. Hitler, yimach shmo, knew exactly what he was doing. He got persuaded to do things that he might not otherwise have done? Gimme a break. This guy’s an anti-semite. I live in Montreal, and I am thankful the F-1 stopped coming here.