JEWS UPSET

 

 

Prop symbol on
Canadian ferry causes stir

 

 

Swastika-like symbol upsets Jewish ferry riders
The Vancouver Province Sunday, 22 April 2007

By CHRISTINA MONTGOMERY

VICTORIA — The international propeller symbols painted on B.C.
Ferries' new German-built Super-C-class vessel will be replaced
with softer, rounder versions — in hopes no one mistakes them
for Swastikas.

The company says it received about 10 calls from people who
saw media coverage of the launch of the Coastal Renaissance's
hull and thought the symbols were Swastikas, most recently
associated with Second World War Nazis.

"We didn't see it that way. To us, it's an international prop symbol,"
spokesman Mark Stefanson said Friday. "But if people are concerned about it, obviously we are concerned about it, so we will make sure it's changed before she leaves Germany."

Mira Oreck, director of the Canadian Jewish Congress in the Pacific
region, told The Province yesterday that concerned calls received
by the group's office were passed along to the company.

"I think the concern was legitimate," Oreck said, adding that her
office contacted B.C. Ferries, which "called back right away" to
assure the group that the symbol would be repainted to appear
"significantly" different.

Stefanson said he has no idea whether the fact the new ferries are
being built in Germany played a role in the Swastika perception.

The Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard, where the ferries
are being built, constructed U-boats for Adolf Hitler during the
Second World War.