A hotel in Switzerland is under fire for specifically telling “Jewish guests” to shower before using its swimming pool.
“To our Jewish guests, women, men and children, please take a shower before you go swimming,” read a sign at the Paradies apartment hotel, according to a photo obtained by The Times of Israel. “If you break the rules I’m forced to [close] the swimming pool for you.”
A second note said Jewish guests could only use the facility’s refrigerator during two, one-hour windows, according to the Times of Israel.
“I hope you understand that our team does not like being disturbed all the time,” that sign read.
An online petition against the hotel, which is located in the Alpine village of Arosa, started after a photo of the pool sign was posted online. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, also issued a formal complaint.
Hotovely said in a statement that the sign was “an anti-Semitic act of the worst and ugliest kind.” She and Jacob Keidar, Israel’s ambassador to Switzerland, asked the hotel to take it down.
Paradies manager Ruth Thomann has since apologized for the notes.
She told Swiss newspaper 20Minutes that her “choice of words” were “a mistake,” according to a translation by the Guardian. She said she had received some complaints about Jewish guests not showering before using the pool and that it disturbed her staff for people to have consistent access to the refrigerator.
Swiss tourism spokesman Markus Berger called it an “unfortunate” and “isolated incident,” but added that it “that doesn’t need for greater action to be taken,” according to The Associated Press.
“It’s just this one lady at this one hotel who was not on top of the situation,” Berger said.
