Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Swiss Coffee With a Dash of Hitler’s Face

A Miss Hitler contest in Russia. A swastika ring for sale at Sears. Nazi chic blouses at Mango. And now, Hitler’s face on a package of coffee creamer.

Swissinfo.ch reports that coffee lovers in Switzerland complained after waking up to a certain mustachioed dictator’s face along with their morning cup of Joe. The problematic creamers have popped up in a number of restaurants and cafes.

The packaging was part of a special collection 30 creamer lids featuring cigar band designs, created by Karo-Versand. The merchandise is still for sale on the company website, but Peter Rothenbühler, a Karo-Versand worker, confirmed that the no more Hitler lids would be manufactured.

“We weren’t observant enough to notice the picture of Hitler,” he said. But in retrospect, we should have paid more attention.”

Swiss retailer Migros announced (link in German) that it would no longer do business with Karo-Versand. Other festive lids in the collection feature images of Benito Mussolini, various flowers and animals, and John Tyler, the tenth president of the United States.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.