Vile T-shirts promoting Hitler’s ‘European tour’ on sale in London just yards from sites devastated by Luftwaffe in the Blitz
Vile shirts also featuring Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein branded a 'total disgrace' as store worker talks up sales
VILE Adolf Hitler t-shirts are being flogged from West End souvenir shops - just yards away from where the Nazi tyrant’s bombs brought death and destruction during the Blitz.
Campaigners called for a ban after a Sun investigation found five stores in Piccadilly Circus, Whitehall and Oxford Street peddling the sick merchandise.
Four offered tops showing the dictator giving a Nazi salute with the words “Adolf Hitler European Tour 1939-1945” for between £9.99 and £11.
A fifth - Little Britannia in Piccadilly Circus - was selling another grim garment with the slogan “The Killers: World Mass Destruction Tour”.
It features Hitler playing drums, with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Islamist terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden and former US president George W. Bush holding guitars.
German bombers rained down 163 high explosive bombs and four parachute mines on the West End between October 1940 and June 1941, according to the Bomb Sight website.
Two of the shops selling Hitler t-shirts - Glorious London and Britannia Souvenirs - are on Coventry Street next to Piccadilly Circus.
The street’s popular Cafe de Paris nightclub was hit by German bombs on 8 March 1941, killing 34 people including swing dance band leader Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson.
Whitehall - where Q & D Accessories now sells the t-shirt - was bombed repeatedly during the Blitz, as was nearby Trafalgar Square.
In one attack on 12 October 1940 a 500lbs bomb detonated just above Trafalgar Square Underground station ticket hall.
The station’s steel and concrete casing collapsed, killing seven people who were trapped beneath the rubble.
Oxford Street was razed by 268 Heinkel 111 and Dornier Do 17 bombers during the early hours of 17-18 September 1940.
Stores all along the world-renowned shopping street - where the Keep Calm and Visit H&Z store is hawking clothes with Hitler’s likeness on them - were among those hit.
A V2 rocket fell near Selfridges department store towards the Western end of the street on 6 December 1944, killing eight American servicemen and injuring 32 people.
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Anthony Roath of the Veterans Association UK told The Sun: “It is a total disgrace that these t-shirts are on sale.
“They are an affront to the bravery of the British soldiers that went to fight against Hitler’s tyranny.
“Our country suffered so much at that man’s hand so it is disgusting he should be glorified in this way.
“It’s disgusting and the t-shirts should be banned.”
Marc Gardner of the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity which fights anti-Semitism, said: “It is pathetic that shops display and sell such T-shirts, trying to make a few pounds by promoting one of history’s worst mass murderers.
“Many people will be offended by this, not only Jews.”
Blitz historian Joshua Levine said: “Why would anyone want to buy a T-shirt with Hitler’s picture on it?
“We have always got to remember what that man was responsible for and what the Nazis were responsible for and what they unashamedly stood for.
“If we start turning them into T-shirts and fashion items then we are clearly losing sight of who they really were and we can’t allow that to happen.
“It’s irresponsible for people to sell them and it shows a lack of knowledge in the people that buy them.”
None of the shops selling the T-shirts responded to requests from The Sun for comment.
A spokeswoman for Crest of London, which rents floor space to the concession which was selling the t-shirt on Whitehall, said it had been closed down until all the items had been destroyed.
She added: “They have been warned that this is a breach of their concession agreement and will be subject to spot checks from now on.
“It is a separate business and we were not aware that these items were on sale.
”The t-shirts have now been removed and we are checking stock to make sure all are destroyed.”
A shop worker at Glorious London told The Sun: “That t-shirt sells really well, lots of people buy it.
“If it didn’t sell we wouldn’t offer it.”
Another shop attendant at Little Britannia blamed a warehouse clear out and took the t-shirts off the rack.