A tower bell in Wolfpassing village of Austria is reportedly engraved with a swastika and praise to Adolf Hitler, according to multiple sources.
"Ensconced in the belfry of an ancient castle where it was mounted by fans of the Nazi dictator in 1939, the bell has tolled on for nearly 80 years. It survived the defeat of Hitler's Germany," the Associated Press reports. "A decade of post-war Soviet occupation that saw Red Army soldiers lodge in the castle and more recent efforts by Austria's government to acknowledge the country's complicity in crimes of that era and make amends."
According to the Associated Press, the Wolfpassing bell pays homage to Hitler for his 1938 annexation of Austria. The bell describes Hitler as "the unifier and Fuehrer of all Germans" and says he freed the "Ostmark [Nazi name for Austria] from the yoke of suppression by foreign elements and brought it home into the Great-German Reich."
Local historian Johannes Kammerstaetter told the Associated Press people in Wolfpassing village would know about the bell. However, village mayor Josef Sonnleitner told the media no one was aware of what was on the bell.
"Nobody cared until all this publicity," Sonnleitner said.
It was the government's recent sale of the castle that became an issue for the small town.
"In a country particularly sensitive about suggestions it has not fully faced its Nazi past, officials are scrambling for explanations of why the bell apparently evaded notice for so long," according to the Associated Press. "They also are under pressure to justify a ruling by the government agency in charge of historic monuments that it must remain part of the castle as part of its heritage- despite the refusal of the new owner to say what he plans to do with it."
Some officials reportedly believe what's best is for the bell to disappear from the castle.
