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Toy shop pulls Joseph Goebbels doll from shelves

'How can this possibly be appropriate?'

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A vintage toy shop has withdrawn an action figure of Joseph Goebbels after a customer complained.

An eagled eyed shopper spotted the figurine of the Nazi Minister of Propaganda on sale for £65 in Galactic Attic in Cardiff, Wales.

He complained to staff at the store who at the time seemed unaware of the significance of the Goebbels doll.

When reached by phone, a man at the shop, who did not give his name, said: “After someone pointed it out to me I took it down. I thought it was best I should.”

When asked whether he knew the significance of the doll before he took it down, the man said: “I’m ending this conversation now.”

Goebbels was one of the staunchest advocates of the Holocaust in Hitler’s inner circle. At the end of the Second World War, he and his wife poisoned their children and then killed themselves rather than see a world without the Nazis.

Though many Nazi figurines and dolls are relics from the Nazi era, the doll on sale in the Cardiff shop appeared to be more recent.

The Holocaust Educational Trust’s chief executive Karen Pollock told the JC it “beggars belief that there are dolls portraying him and other Nazi figures available for sale in toy shops in the UK.”

She added: “Joseph Goebbels was responsible for the Nazi propaganda machine and a key figure in the Nazi party.

“How can this possibly be appropriate?”

Similar toys can be found on sale on Amazon, including an Adolf Hitler the Chancellor Action Figure, and a toy doll of Hermann Goering, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe.

Ms Pollock urged Amazon and all other online retailers “to remove these from their site immediately and urge all decent businesses to do the same.”

A Board of Deputies spokesperson said: “'Toys' such as these are in awful taste.

"There is nothing cute or playful about the figures depicted or the awful crimes perpetrated by those that they are modelled on."

The JC contacted Amazon for comment.

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