Christian Dior’s Jewish chief executive Sidney Toledano has described designer John Galliano’s departure over alleged antisemitism as “an exceptional tragedy”.

The Dior show at Paris Fashion Week went ahead but John Galliano’s collection was shown without the presence of the designer who supervised it.

Fashion designer John Galliano is to be prosecuted over his allegedly racist comments in a Paris café.

A spokesman for the Paris Prosecutor's Office said the designer would face trial later this year, after he was caught on video professing his love for Adolf Hitler and making anti-Jewish slurs at female tourists.

Christian Dior has sacked John Galliano in the wake of his antisemitic rants in a Paris café, effective immediately.

Dior’s Jewish chief executive Sidney Toledano described Mr Galliano’s behaviour as “odious".

The Oscar winning Israeli actress Natalie Portman has disassociated herself from Dior’s chief designer John Galliano following fresh revelations about the designer’s attitude towards Jews.

Despite her position as the face of the Miss Dior Cherie perfume, Ms Portman said she was “deeply shocked” by the allegations about Mr Galliano’s behaviour.

Fashion designer John Galliano is planning to meet the woman who accused him of an antisemitic rant in a Paris café.

The British couturier’s lawyer, Stephane Zerbib said Mr Galliano would attempt to settle the matter with Geraldine Bloch and restore his reputation in a meeting tomorrow.

Fashion house Dior has suspended its chief designer John Galliano after he was arrested for allegedly making anti-Jewish comments.

Dior's chief executive Sidney Toledano, who is Jewish, said Mr Galliano would be relieved of his responsibilities until after the results of an investigation into the incident.

When Zola’s J’Accuse letter was published on the front page of a French newspaper in January 1898 it was a remarkable act of bravery on its author’s part.

Written in protest at the French government’s treatment of Jewish artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason, Zola was one of a group of intellectuals and artists who sought to secure his freedom.

When the Swiss Justice Ministry rejected an extradition request from the United States for Polanski last summer, it was just the latest chapter in a story every bit as dramatic and complex as one of the director’s films.

Born Raimund Liebling in Paris, Polanski survived the Holocaust by escaping from the Krakow ghetto, although his mother was killed in Auschwitz.

After the war he worked his way up in the Polish film world, moving to Hollywood in the 1960s and going on to make Oscar-winning classics including Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, and The Pianist.

Known as the “Butcher of Lyon”, Barbie was the local head of the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France during the Holocaust.

Estimated to be responsible for the murders of 4,000 people, among his many hideous crimes, he tortured members of the French resistance and personally arranged for 44 Jewish children in an orphanage to be sent to Auschwitz.