(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121229-hitler-hmed-1p.photoblog600.jpg)Tomasz Gzell / EPAThe statue of Hitler as a schoolboy kneeling in prayer is visible through this viewing hole as part of an exhibit in Warsaw, Poland. By Isolde Raftery, NBC NewsA statue of Adolph Hitler kneeling in prayer in a courtyard in the former Warsaw Ghetto – where hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced by Nazis to live in inhumane conditions during World War II – has upset those who say the statue's placement is offensive.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (https://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld)The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish Advocacy group, described the decision to place the statue in the former ghetto as “a senseless provocation which insults the memory of the Nazi’s Jewish victims,” according to the Guardian of London. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/28/adolf-hitler-statue-warsaw-ghetto)
Before World War II, Warsaw had the largest Jewish community in Poland and Europe; worldwide it was second only to New York City, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005069). During World War II, about 300,000 Jews in the ghetto died – most of hunger and disease and after being sent to concentration camps where they were killed.
(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121229-hitler-bcol-1p.380;380;7;70;0.jpg)Tomasz Gzell / EPAThrough the hole in a wooden gate, viewers can see a kneeling figure with his back turned. Viewed from the front, that figure is Adolph Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party who sought to exterminate Jews.
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