New York, NY, August 23, 2017 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed concern over the adornment of a condominium building with swastikas and portraits of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, among others, in Sunnyside, Queens first discovered earlier this week.

The building entrance and ground floor were replete with a range of unusual and hurtful imagery including swastikas, tributes to the United States Confederacy, images of Nazis and guns. A fictitious building directory was also created, which lists prominent Nazis Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess and Josef Mengele.

ADL New York Regional Director Evan R. Bernstein joined community leaders and building residents at a rally this morning – organized by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer – to condemn the divisive, offensive, and hateful imagery.

“New Yorkers must be able to feel safe and welcome in their homes free of hostility and intimidation,” Mr. Bernstein said. “Adorning an apartment building lobby with such imagery sends a disturbing message of intimidation to tenants, potential tenants and the community at large. Our communities, homes and neighborhoods should be inclusive and welcoming – not plastered with instantly recognizable symbols of racism or hate which only threaten to intimidate and isolate.”

The front doors of several apartments were also reportedly covered with President Trump stickers as a retaliatory response to building residents speaking up against the decorations and hostile behavior of the head of the condo board and property manager.

The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.  Today it is the world’s leading organization combating anti-Semitism, exposing hate groups, training law enforcement on hate crimes, developing anti-bias curricula for students, countering cyber-hate and relentlessly pursuing equal rights for all. Follow us on Twitter: @ADL_NY