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Posted by
Olog-hai
on Sat Aug 14 02:46:42 2010
edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d If you thought that the Malmö fiasco was the worst of it, think again.
Daily Mail
Furious Swedish climbers demand mountain peaks called 'Swastika', 'Third Reich' and 'Zyklon' be renamedBy Allan Hall
Last updated at 10:28 PM on 13th August 2010
Furious Swedish climbers have demanded that a series of mountain crags called 'Swastika', 'Himmler' and 'Third Reich' be renamed.
The peaks at Jarfalla were christened with Nazi names by climbers who, under Swedish laws, can call them whatever they want.
Another crag is called 'Crystal Night' — a reference to Nazi Germany's 1938 attack against the Jews which was the precursor to the Holocaust. Another is labeled 'Crematorium', presumably after the chambers in which death camp victims were burned.
Perhaps the worst of all is 'Zyklon', named after the cyanide gas (Zyklon B) that the Nazis used to murder the Jews in their millions.
Climber Cordelia Hess told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter: 'I thought it rather unpleasant to climb through the Crematorium or say that "now I am going to do Krystallnacht". The use of such names on the climbing routes is to trivialize the Holocaust and undermine respect for the Holocaust.'
Christofer Urby, of the Swedish Climbing Association, said he was aware of the mountain's distasteful names but said his body cannot authorize changes. He said: 'Really, it is the first climber who sets out a route and makes it available to others, who has the right to name it. It becomes a kind of footprint, but I personally think it is childish and disrespectful to use this type of name.'
The routes on the range near the Swedish capital Stockholm were named at various times between 1987 and 2001. It is unclear whether the mountaineers who gave them Nazi names were Right-wing or they were meant as a joke.
Mikael Widerberg, a climber, named one crag 'Little Hitler' in 2001. He said: 'The names should be taken with a grain of salt, as an internal thing between climbers. There are other mountains around called worse things. I have not thought about it so much and do not regard the names as disrespectful.'
John Perwer, an official with the Swedish Forum for Living History, said that the names should be changed. 'A crag called "Negro" near Karlstad was changed after a black person said he was offended. 'To use loaded terms like that is simply rude.'
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