On Monday, local councilors in Herxheim am Berg, a small village in southwestern Germany, voted that a Nazi-era bell with Adolf Hitler’s words inscribed on its side, along with a swastika, should continue to hang in the local church, DW reported.
The councilors argued that the continued presence of the bell with the inscription "Everything for the Fatherland — Adolf Hitler" would be "reminder about reconciliation and a monument against violence and injustice."
The controversy was sparked last year when former church organist, Sigrid Peters, complained about the “Hitler” inscription.
“It can't happen that a baby is baptized and a bell with the words 'Everything for the Fatherland' is chiming," she told news agency DPA last summer.
The dispute heated up even further after the town’s then-mayor argued that there were good things about the Nazi era too. The comments caused an uproar; forcing the mayor to resign.
Speaking ahead of Monday’s vote, the town’s new mayor said that the bell's toll was an important way of remembering the victims of Nazism.
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