JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed outrage at the announcement of an online beauty pageant for “Miss Hitler 2014” as publicized by a neo-Nazi group on VKontakte, Russia’s largest social networking service. Contestants who are supporters of Nazism and sufficiently antisemitic may submit a Nazi-themed selfie to compete for this dubious prize.

In a statement issued here today by its Israel director and chief Nazi-hunter, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center urged the Russian authorities to force VKontakte to remove this outrageous contest from its website and obligate itself to refrain from sponsoring any campaign that promotes Nazi goals or values.

According to Zuroff:

“One would assume that Russia, a country which suffered such enormous losses at the hands of the Third Reich, would be the last country on earth to allow such a disgraceful contest to be conducted. Unfortunately however, even Russia, which never fails to condemn Holocaust distortion and the glorification of Hitler’s local collaborators in its former republics, has severely failed in this regard in this instance.”

For more information: 972-50-721-4156  www.operationlastchance.org  or www.wiesenthal.com