Volkswagen ends ties with Mexican dealership over Nazi symbols

<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="1599627268626069.png" alt="6.png" src="/ueditor/php/upload/image/20200909/1599627268626069.png"/></p><p>German automaker&nbsp;Volkswagen&nbsp;announced it was cutting commercial ties with a Mexican distributor which displayed an old photograph of an iconic Beetle car alongside Nazi soldiers and swastikas.<br/><br/>The picture shows &quot;a regime that emphasized hatred and discrimination&quot; and was &quot;completely alien to the corporate image&quot; of the firm, Volkswagen said in a statement released on Monday.<br/><br/>The company, which has a major presence in Mexico, was alerted to the picture over the weekend by a social media user who visited the dealership in the Coyoacan district of the capital.</p><p><br/></p><p>The Beetle was first developed by Ferdinand Porsche with support from&nbsp;Adolf Hitler, who in 1937 formed the state-run&nbsp;Volkswagenwerk, or &quot;The People&#39;s Car Company.&quot;<br/><br/>Volkswagen, which used concentration camp internees and prisoners of war as slave labor in its factories during&nbsp;World War II, is among the Germany companies that have won plaudits for facing their Third Reich history.<br/><br/>The Latin American branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which confronts anti-Semitism, praised Volkswagen on Tuesday &quot;for having reacted quickly in memory of the victims of Nazi barbarism.&quot;</p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p>