'Nazi Cake' Recipe Drawing Fire

Nazi cakes get Austrian pastry shop in trouble

Holocaust awareness group urges charges under law banning Nazi glorification

VIENNA — Owners of an Austrian pastry shop that showcases cakes decorated with Nazi themes should be prosecuted, a Holocaust awareness group urged Tuesday.

An image from the catalogue for a pastry shop in Moedling, Austria showing a cake in Nazi design.

A woman who answered the phone at the shop declined to comment and said the owner, Manfred laschka, was not available.The bakery, in the village of Maria Enzersdorf, near the Austrian capital Vienna, features photos of cakes that are adorned with swastikas and other Nazi era symbols, including an arm raised in a Hitler salute, the Mauthausen Committee said. The pictures, it added, are contained in a binder showcasing previously produced baked goods that clients can flip through.

But in an interview with Austrian television, Klaschka said the cakes were made about eight years ago and he never expected such a commotion.

"If it's requested, it's made," Klaschka said. "I don't want to be pulled into this because I'm a confectioner and there's nothing more to it."

Erich Habitzl, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Wiener Neustadt, confirmed receipt of the group's request to press charges but said it was too early to comment.

Austrian law bans the glorification of the Nazi era and any attempt to diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust.