Caught on Camera: Galliano Proclaims ‘I Love Hitler’
So much for that defamation suit.
Fashion designer John Galliano is now in even deeper trouble after being arrested last week in Paris for an anti-Semitic tirade. (Anti-Semitic speech is illegal in France). England’s Sun newspaper posted video of the rant online today, with the clip immediately going viral, and contradicting Galliano’s denials last week about the incident.
Galliano, who initially threatened a defamation suit against his victims, will now have to explain footage that shows him proclaiming, “I love Hitler” and telling his targets, not unhappily, that if history had worked out differently, “People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be f—ing gassed.”
Galliano’s bosses at Christian Dior responded to early reports about the incident last week by suspending Galliano, the company’s head designer.
Elsewhere, however, unnamed apologists are already blaming the episode (ludicrously) on “fashion week stress.” Paris fashion week indeed begins tomorrow, but the Shmooze will approvingly note that other designers have somehow avoided making anti-Semitic statements in public.
One of the stranger, more perplexing elements of the story is Galliano’s own identity as a gay man. He may love Hitler, but Hitler certainly wouldn’t have loved him.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
