Restaurant sparks outrage over ‘Anne Frank burger’ and ‘Adolf fries’
It was in very poor taste.
A fast food restaurant in Argentina has been called “offensive” and “disgusting” by Jewish groups after serving items named after Holocaust victim Anne Frank and former Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
The tone-deaf stunt was unveiled by the owners of Honky Donky, a burger merchant located in the city of Rafaela in the province of Santa Fe, Jam Press reported.
Dishes included “Adolf fries” — fried potatoes doused in bacon and cheddar — and an “Ana Frank burger,” which entailed 3.5 ounces of ground beef with lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayonnaise for around $11.
Frank was a Jewish teenager who famously hid out from the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands in 1942 — a harrowing saga that she chronicled in her now-iconic eponymous diary.
The teen refugee was eventually discovered and brought to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died from exhaustion in 1945 at the age of 15.
It’s unclear why Honky Donky, which also featured menu items named Benito, after Benito Mussolini, and “Gengis,” after Genghis Khan, decided to roll out Holocaust-themed noshes.
However, the antisemitic marketing campaign sparked outrage among Jewish organizations, with the Israelite Cultural and Sports Association deeming it “insulting” and “not funny in any way.”
The menu was also condemned by the Rafaela Jewish Community, who threatened the eatery with a lawsuit.
“Given the public knowledge that a fast food outlet in our city trivially uses the names of Anne Frank and Adolf to name their products, the Rafaela Jewish Community expresses its deepest rejection and indignation, announcing that we will take legal action corresponding to the fact in question,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, Jewish community representative Ariel Rosenthal, who first learned about the menu in March, said that the owners promised to change the menu months ago, but hadn’t taken any action.
“We do not understand the long delay in changing this,” he said.
Honky Donky has since scrapped the “Adolf fries” and renamed the Anne Frank burger after Anne Boleyn — the former queen of England and wife of Henry VIII who was beheaded — before issuing an apology on social media.
The restaurant also pledged to roll out dishes based on more inspiring and heroic historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, among others.
Coincidentally, Argentina provided a safe haven for Nazi war criminals fleeing Europe in the aftermath of World War II.
Following Germany’s defeat in 1945, Argentine President Juan Perón had his intelligence operatives sneak thousands of former SS officers and other Nazi party members off the continent via Spanish and Italian ports.
The South American leader specifically sought Nazis with specific military, scientific and technical knowledge that he felt could aid his nation.
This isn’t the first time someone has sparked a backlash over Holocaust references of late.
Controversial Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters found himself in hot water after sporting a Nazi SS officer costume — and comparing deceased Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to Anne Frank at a May concert in Berlin, Germany.
