After a public outcry, Adolf Hitler has been stripped of an honorary citizenship which was given to the Nazi leader 80 years ago by a German town, the Local reported.
When a vote to move away from the dictator failed, a Bavarian town decided to take away Hitler's honorary citizenship after a week of attracting global attention for the failure of distancing the town from Hitler.
The council of Dietramszell, in southern Germany, passed the motion in a special meeting Wednesday, which confirmed Hitler lost his honorary citizenship with his death and recognized that the town had been associated with Hitler, the Local reported.
"It was never our intention to trivialize the crimes of Adolf Hitler," the council said. "We underestimated that our voting behavior could be understood in such a way."
An archivist found that Hitler was made an honorary citizen of Dietramszell in March 1933 sparking the vote led by the mayor, which was expected to be a formality. The motion failed to pass last Tuesday when members of Dietramszell's council tried to distance themselves away from Hitler, the Local reported.
The council was split with eight votes for and eight votes against.
The failure of the motion attracted widespread criticism and international media attention because thousands of German towns, who granted Hitler with citizenship, usually pass the motion to strip Hitler of the honor without any opposition. The outrage of the public managed to make the second vote pass on unanimously, the Local reported.
Reich President, Paul von Hindenburg, who appointed Hitler, was also stripped off his honorary citizenship by the council members. The testimony of a woman who had lost her family in the Holocaust had helped sway those who had originally opposed the move, a town official told the Local.
Over 4,000 cities, towns and communities awarded honorary titles to Hitler during his time in power, many to mark his 44th birthday in 1933. But following the defeat of the Nazis in 1945, many towns and cities immediately rescinded the title, according to the Local.
