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Dear Letter to the Editor:
In 2004 a book was published that exposed Louis Vuitton’s (now owned by LVMH) close collaboration with the Vichy Regime, a puppet of Nazi Germany, that facilitated the murder of 73,000 French Jews at Auschwitz: “Louis Vuitton, A French Saga” by Stephanie Bonvicini.
Ms. Bonvicini describes the family’s enthusiastic support for the Vichy Regime led by Marshall Petain and the extensive family business dealings with the Nazis.
Louis Vuitton had a store on the ground floor of the luxurious Hotel du Parc where Petain set up his puppet government. All other stores including Van Cleef and Arpels were shut down
The most damming allegations by Ms. Bonvicini is that the family set up an entire factory dedicated to producing artifacts glorifying Petain including more than 2500 busts.
A spokesperson in 2004 for LVMH said: “This is ancient history… We are a diverse, tolerant and all the things a modern company should be”. (“Louis Vuitton’s Links With the Vichy Regime Exposed,” ‘The Guardian’, Kim Willsher, June 2, 2004)
Possibly that spokesperson believed that in 2004. But no one believes that today now that Louis Vuitton has hired the antisemite Bella Hadid to be the face of of its new collaboration with Japanese artist Yayai Kusama.
Just as Louis Vuitton in the 1940s supported the jew-killing Vichy Regime, today Louis Vuitton is supporting Bella Hadid who very publicly and enthusiastically supports those Islamic terrorists who demand the murder of the eight million Jews of Israel…. and have murdered many thousands of Jews since November 30, 1947 — including 30 murdered at the Park Hotel at a Passover Seder in 2002.
Hadid also wallows in the antisemitic tropes of “Israel apartheid,” when the CEO of Israel’s largest bank is an Arab, “ethnic cleansing” when the Arab population of Israel has increased five times since 1948, and “colonizing” when the Jewish people had been in what would become Israel for over 2500 years when the Muslims first showed up in about 620 AD.
Hadid, the darling of Louis Vuitton, has repeatedly demonstrated the same virulent antisemitism towards the Jewish people of Israel as Joseph Goebbels and Julius Streicher demonstrated towards the Jewish people of Germany… and as Petain demonstrated towards the Jewish people of France.
“Ancient history?” Hardly.
When it comes to Jew hatred, one can draw a direct line from Louis Vuitton and Vichy to Louis Vuitton and Bella Hadid.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
Richard Sherman
Margate, Florida
