Austrian Houseware Chain Renames Tool Shed
Yahoo NewsBy GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria - One of Austria's biggest houseware chains found itself with unwanted publicity Tuesday after protesters complained its summer catalog lists a tool shed as the "Mauthausen" model, the same name as one of the worst Nazi concentration camps.
Karlheinz Essl, the bauMax chain's chief executive officer, expressed "deepest regret" at what he called an oversight and said the shed would be renamed the "Linde" — or Linden tree. He said tens of thousands of catalogs at the company's stores were being recalled and the offending name crossed out.
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One critic, Gerold Gruber, said a young man at the information desk of a bauMax branch in Salzburg grinned and said "that's our gas house," when asked about the item.
Essl said he opposed such sentiments "in such a strong way that I cannot believe someone would say something like that."
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