JOINT STATEMENT BY SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER & SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR DENOUNCING WIDESPREAD MARKETING OF HITLER’S MEIN KAMPF AS A ‘MANAGEMENT TOOL’ IN INDIA

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish NGO at the United Nations, and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, one of India’s principal spiritual leaders and the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, are condemning the widespread marketing in India of Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf.  An April 20 article in London’s Daily Telegraph, reports sales of Mein Kampf “are soaring in India where business students regard the genocidal dictator (Hitler) as a management guru” and consider the book to be a “management guide”.

“Anyone seeking to teach tomorrow’s business leaders of India should reject Globalization of hate and racism, not facilitating it”, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “using Mein Kampf as a self-improvement and strategy guide for India’s young is an outrage that dishonors six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Adolf Hitler’s murderous Third Reich”. “Honoring and promoting Hitler’s white racist ideology mocks the values of the world’s largest democracy, and flies in the face of India’s noble history of protecting minority peoples, Jews among them” he added.

“India has always been a haven to people of all religious identities and has had a legacy of protecting them. We should be happy to promote lessons from the lives of people who have helped unite mankind. There are many available books that would serve as inspirational management guides for India’s youth, said Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

“We request that publishing companies, bookstores and educators across India immediately cease marketing  Mein Kampf as a management guide.  This book ought only to be studied in the context of the tragedy of the Holocaust,” Cooper and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

The Art of Living Foundation is an international non-profit educational and humanitarian organization that works in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.  Its educational and self-development programs offer powerful tools to eliminate stress and foster a sense of well-being. The Wiesenthal Center and the Art Of Living Foundation have collaborated on a multi-faith anti-terrorism conference in Bali, Indonesia and in the presentation of an exhibition on the Nazi Holocaust, Courage To Remember  at the Gandhi Cultural Centre in New Delhi and in Bangalore.

For more information, please contact the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Public Relations Department, 1-310-553-9036.