Namibia weekly regrets 'Nazi' ad

Simon Wiesenthal survived the Nazi death camps of World War II

A newspaper in Namibia is to publish an apology for an advertisement that attacked Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

The publisher of the German-language weekly Plus told the BBC News website the ad ought not to have been placed.

Mr Wiesenthal, who died last week aged 96, was a Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice.

The ad placed by a group thought to come from Germany, expressed "joy and satisfaction" over his death.

Publisher Hans Feddersen said that he had censored aspects of the advertisement, but admitted that the published version was "still very disgraceful".

"The newspaper distances itself from the content of the advertisement."

"I took the ad because of the money, and it was a lot of money," Mr Feddersen said.

"I realised that under pressure I had not censored it enough. In the first place, I should not have taken it."

The quarter-page advertisement said: "With joy and satisfaction, we take notice of the death of the big monster.

"On 20 September, the earth and its inhabitants were delivered from Simon.

"His biggest crime was to live 96 years," the advertisement read.

Mr Feddersen said he did not know anything about the group, calling itself International Action Against Forgetting, that had placed the advertisement, or where the organisation was based.

"But my feeling is they are in Germany - the money was from there," he said.

'Hate propaganda'

The German ambassador to Namibia, Wolfgang Massing, earlier demanded that Plus apologise for the advertisement.

"Please distance yourself from this shameful advertisement", Mr Massing wrote in the letter published in the German-language daily Allgemeine Zeitung.

Namibia's National Society for Human Rights condemned the publication of what it called a "Nazi hate propaganda advertisement".

"While international leaders are eulogising Wiesenthal, here in Namibia we are publishing ads discrediting this very same indefatigable fighter for justice," the NSHR said in a statement issued on Tuesday.