'Rent-a-Jew' scheme launched in Germany

Ms Schmerling added: “We want them to see that we’re normal people. We don’t want to be defined purely by history and we don’t want to always be seen through this Holocaust lens.”

The programme was launched by the European Janusz Korczak Academy, a Munich-based organisation named after the famous orphanage director who was sent from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka.

The Rent-a-Jew website says: “For hundreds of years, antisemites have claimed that Jews are less valuable than other people. We are tired of hearing such assignments. And we believe that humour mixed with a bit of chutzpah is the best way to refute old stereotypes and prejudices.”