In February 2011, in an episode that was captured on video, Dior’s enfant terrible designer John Galliano verbally attacked a couple at a Parisian café, calling the woman a “whore” and “ugly.” Then he really went off, telling her that she had a “dirty Jewish face” and proclaiming, “I love Hitler.” Though Galliano attempted to apologize, he was quickly fired from the fashion house and immediately entered rehab. He will stand trial for Anti-Semitic hate speech on June 22.
Fashion designer John Galliano and his lawyer Stephane Zerbib, lef, arrive for a hearing at a police station in Paris on Feb. 28, 2011. (Photo: Gonzalo Fuentes, Reuters / Landov)
Sandra Bullock's cheating husband Jesse James got himself into more trouble on Wednesday when Us Weekly published a photo of James heiling Hitler. The 2004 photo, taken a year before James married Bullock, features the now-estranged spouse wearing a German soldier's hat and miming the iconic Nazi leader's mustache. "He did it for shock value," a source told the magazine. The image emerged shortly after reports that his first alleged mistress, Michelle "Bombshell" McGee, was a Neo-Nazi and white supremacist. TMZ posted these images of the tattoo model wearing a Swastika armband and similar cap to James'. But some friends say the image, in regards to Bullock's fallen spouse, is harmless. "Gearheads are fascinated by war machines, including those of the Third Reich," another source told Us Weekly. "But he's far from a Neo-Nazi."
After Michael Jackson's death in June 2009, Us Weekly questioned the King of Pop's "Nazi obsession" amid reports that Jackson was fascinated by Nazi "master race" experiments and collected Nazi memorabilia. And Jackson's onetime spiritual adviser, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, added fuel to the fire with his book The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation, in which the singer was quoted as saying: "Hitler was a genius orator. To make that many people turn and change and hate, he had to be a showman and he was." Jackson added that he believed he could have helped heal Hitler if they had met for an hour. Rabbi Shmuley then had to defend the singer against charges of anti-Semitism: "Michael hated Hitler and knew he was evil," Rabbi Shmuley said. "But it was his mistaken belief that there was still something human in him that Michael could uniquely touch."
Aaron Lambert-Pool / Getty Images
Prince Harry cemented his rebellious royal image in 2005 when the then 20-year-old prince decided to dress up as a Nazi soldier for a "Native and Colonial" themed birthday party. Complete with khakis top to bottom and a red armband with a swastika (complete with drink and cigarette in hand), the startling image of the prince wound up on the cover of The Sun with the accompanying headline: "Harry the Nazi." After some serious backlash, the third in line for England's throne issued a public apology, saying, "I am very sorry if I caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologize."
Days before the release of Mel Gibson's 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, his father gave a radio interview in which he denied the atrocities of the Holocaust. "It's all—maybe not all fiction—but most of it is," Hutton Gibson said. "Do you know what it takes to get rid of a dead body? To cremate it? It takes a liter of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million of them? [The Germans] did not have the gas to do it. That's why they lost the war." When the actor was later asked about the comments in an interview with Diane Sawyer, he replied, "He's my father. Gotta leave it alone, Diane. Gotta leave it alone." Two years later, Gibson was caught in another scandal following his arrest for drunk driving. According to the police report, Gibson made anti-Semitic comments to the arresting officer, who was Jewish, saying, "Fucking Jews... Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?" Despite multiple apologies, in which Gibson admitted he "said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable," he has had difficulty shedding his anti-Semitic image.
Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
Arnold Schwarzenegger's past came back to haunt him in 2003 when he was running for California governor when records from his home country of Austria revealed his late father, Gustav Schwarzenegger, was a volunteer member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the notorious Nazi storm troopers also known as the Brown Shirts, who played a brutally pivotal role in the bloody Kristallnacht riots. Unlike Mel Gibson, however, Schwarzenegger sought to separate himself form his father. "His record regarding stamping out intolerance is absolutely rock-solid and he will continue to work... to ensure that the attitudes and actions that occurred in the Nazi era never happen again," Schwarzenegger's campaign spokesman told USA Today at the time. Before launching his political career, Schwarzenegger won undisclosed libel damages after suing two media sources that suggested he held Nazi and anti-Semitic opinions. Later, in 2004, when rumors began swirling about a book describing young Arnold as a Hitler admirer, Schwarzenegger spoke up himself. "I hated the regime—hate the regime, the Third Reich, the whole Nazi philosophy—have always fought against it," he said definitively. "I despise everything that the Nazis stood for, or Hitler stood for."
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
Charles Lindbergh may have been one of the great American heroes of the early 20th century, but feelings shifted when he was suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer in the late 1930s. Lindbergh frequently made trips to Nazi Germany during World War II and was also vocal about his belief in eugenics, leading many to believe he was pro-Hitler. In 1936, Hermann Göring presented Lindbergh with a medal on behalf of Hitler, the Commander Cross of the Order of the German Eagle. The famed aviator was also known to talk about race-related issues with anti-Semitic automobile pioneer and friend Henry Ford, who had himself received the Commander Cross. The American car maker famously told Detroit's FBI agent in July 1940, "When Charles comes out here, we only talk about the Jews."
AP Photo
While appearing on The Sean Hannity Show in October 2009, former Danity Kane frontwoman Aubrey O'Day admitted she had met Fidel Castro (in college while on Semester at Sea), whom she deemed "a brilliant man." But one dictator was not enough for O'Day, who went on to say, "Listen, I don't condone Hitler one ounce, but yes, he was a brilliant man... He ran a country and convinced everyone of horrible things." After her comments caused a controversy, the singer issued a statement to TMZ: "What Hitler succeeded in doing, was deplorable... And I hope we never see such an abusive use of power again."
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
With the selection of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, it was revealed that as a boy, young Joseph Ratzinger had once been a member of the Hitler Youth. Though his father was a vehement anti-Nazi, Ratzinger, also known as "God's Rottweiler," joined up with the Hitler Youth when he was 14, after membership became compulsory in 1941. The current pope asserts he never engaged in combat or fired a single a shot while taking part in the Nazi agenda. According to his biographer, John Allen, "Ratzinger was only briefly a member of the Hitler Youth and not an enthusiastic one." The pope's brother, Georg, backed him up to The Times, saying, "Resistance was truly impossible."
STF / AFP / Getty Images
Former presidential candidate and political pundit Pat Buchanan has quite a history of anti-Semitism claims, dating back more than a quarter century. As White House communications director under Ronald Reagan, Buchanan supported the former president's plan to visit a German military cemetery at Bitburg, where both Wehrmacht soldiers and Waffen SS members were buried, despite opposition from vocal Jewish organizations. From that point on, the head-butting between Jews and Buchanan continued. Then again, Buchanan may never escape his reputation as a Nazi sympathizer, after he wrote in 1977 that Hitler was "an individual of great courage."
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Who didn't Margot Schott offend? The late CEO of the Cincinnati Reds had hurled epithets at blacks—referring to her own players as "million dollar n******"—mocked Asians, and derided gays. But it was her apparent crush on Hitler that landed her in the hottest of waters. Schott admitted to be in possession of a swastika armband in 1992, which she claimed was her late husband's. A few years later, Schott also stated on more than one occasion that Hitler was initially good for Germany, but later amended her statement. In 1996, she told ESPN, "Everything you read, when he came in [to power] he was good... They built tremendous highways and got all the factories going... Everybody knows he was good at the beginning but he just went too far."
Newscom
Swashbuckling Hollywood star Errol Flynn was well known for his anti-Semitic views. Two biographies published 30 years after his death alleged that Flynn had worked undercover to gather information for the Germans on socialists fighting against the Franco regime during the Spanish Civil War, and had met Adolf Hitler. Charles Higham, who closely examined declassified CIA files from the era, told the Daily Mail, "There is no doubt whatsoever that Flynn had Nazi sympathies and worked as a Nazi operative, if not an actual agent." He added, "There is little doubt his work for the Nazis resulted in people being killed." Other historians have publicly disputed the claim and deemed it ridiculous. But according to one of the files from 1933, Flynn once wrote to a friend, "A slimy Jew is trying to cheat me... I do wish we could bring Hitler over here to teach these Isaacs a thing or two."
John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images
The legendary chess champion's list of enemies was short and consistent: " Jews, secret Jews, or CIA rats who work for the Jews," according to The Last Days. Fischer, who was born Jewish, was a huge Holocaust denier, according to his biographer, David DeLucia, and was fond of white supremacist classics such as Mein Kampf and Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. As a self-described victim persecuted by the Jews of the world, he thought he had the Semites all figured out, calling them a " filthy, lying bastard people," determined to take over the world. According to Fischer, Jews would accomplish global domination by mass-murdering Christian children and using their blood for " black-magic ceremonies."
John McConnico / AP Photo
When Katy Perry threw a paint party in Los Angeles to celebrate her 25th birthday in October 2009, the festivities caused a controversy for America's country-singing sweetheart Taylor Swift. The then-19-year-old clean teen was a target of backlash when she was photographed smiling and posing with a fan, A.J. English, who had decorated his once pristine white T-shirt with a giant red swastika. Swift-stikagate 2009 raged on for a few days and rumors began to swirl that the orange "JH" splattered across the now Grammy-winning artist's cocktail dress stood for "Jew Hater." In actuality though the acronym stood for Swift's friend and unofficial date for Perry's birthday, former Dancing With the Stars regular Julianne Hough. "Taylor took pictures with about 100 people that night," her representative told TMZ in the singer's defense. "She doesn't know who this guy is and she didn't realize what was on his shirt."
