A “Hitler bell” dedicated to the former Nazi leader will remain up in a Protestant church located in a small town in southwestern Germany.
The controversial church bell, which bears the inscription “Everything for the Fatherland — Adolf Hitler” along with a Nazi swastika, has been a fixture in the Herxheim am Berg church since 1934 but has recently fueled conflicting arguments amongst residents, according to Fox News.
State church authorities have offered to fund the costs incurred in replacing the bell, however, the parish council has argued that removing it would be denying the nation’s dark past, BBC reported.
On Monday, the town council voted 10-3 to preserve the bell.
A study compared removing the bell to “fleeing from an appropriate culture of remembrance,” Fox News noted.
There have been conflicting arguments surrounding the bell since a former church organist, Sigrid Peters, first complained about the inscription last year.
“It can't happen that a baby is baptized and a bell with the words 'Everything for the Fatherland' is chiming,” she said, according to USA Today.
Meanwhile, a retired teacher criticized the church for not displaying the history of the bell, according to the DPA news agency.
The entire ordeal has sparked a wider debate on how Germany should deal with Nazi symbols.
Last year, officials silenced the bell amid all the controversy and a second one was used instead, the Daily Mail reported.
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