The German state of Thuringia announced on Friday it would remove a school book with an antisemitic illustration depicting a video game character – alongside the words “Rothschild Bank” – consuming Europe.
A Thuringian Education Ministry representative told the MDR Thüringen news outlet that “like in many other federal states,” Thuringia will remove the book, and called criticism of the book “justified.”
The cartoon shows a video Pacman figure devouring Europe, with the Jewish banking family named next to the cartoon.
Nazi-era propaganda promoted the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories that the Rothschilds were attempting to conquer the world and destroy the German nation. The Nazis produced an antisemitic film, The Rothschilds, in 1940.
The schoolbook has been in circulation since 2012. The Thuringian Education Ministry representative declined to comment on the number of books in use in Thuringia’s educational system published by Klett-Verlag.
The Berlin-based publisher said it was halting all further deliveries of the book, calling the error “serious.”
