A hotel in the southern German state of Bavaria came under heavy criticism for a message refusing a reservation to an Israeli guest that included a message reminiscent of the Nazi era.

The case came to light when Israel's consul general to southern Germany, Talya Lador, posted the rejection message on X.

"Have we returned to the 1930s?" Lador wrote in German.

A screenshot in her post shows an English-language message from the Hotel zum Hirschen in Bavaria telling the recipient that "there are no Jews allowed in our hotel." 

The hotel's junior director, Andreas Vogl, told the dpa news agency that the message does not reflect the establishment's "world view at all."

Hotel apologizes for 'regrettable error'

The hotel, located in the Bavarian Forest near the Czech border, has since sent an apology to the guest and offered him and his family a free one-week stay "to get to know us personally, and to prove to you that we are not bad people who discriminate against others."

"It was definitely wrong of us to respond in that way in the chat,” the hotel wrote in the email, which dpa reported was also sent to the office of the Bavarian state premier.

According to the email, the hotel has been struggling with fraudulent bookings and phishing attempts for some time, with customer data said to have been stolen.

The request from Israel had also wrongly been assumed to be a fake booking, the hotel said.

"It is extremely important to us that you understand that this remark was not directed at people of the Jewish faith, but was made out of frustration at the numerous fake bookings," the apology letter stated. "Nevertheless, this was unacceptable and must not happen in a professional business."

Call for antisemitism investigation

The Central Council of Jews in Germany has called for an investigation of the incident.

"Even though I have taken note of the apology for this unacceptable remark, it remains shocking that someone would not only have such thoughts but also put them down in writing and send them out," Council President Josef Schuster told dpa.

The tourist also filed a complaint with the Bavarian Justice Ministry's office for combating antisemitism, national broadsheet Die Welt reported. A decision on whether the message would lead to formal proceedings had yet to be reached, according to media reports.

In a statement reported by Die Welt, the hotel's owner called the reply to the reservation a "regrettable mistake" and attributed it to human error.

According to the Sperl-Vogl family, the hotel has since received threats and calls for their murder since the incident became public.

Booking.com has removed the hotel from the platform, Vogl said.

Edited by: Zac Crellin

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