French city removes park gate resembling one in Auschwitz's

PARIS (AA) - The French city of Ermont has removed the entrance gate at its Simone Veil Park after fierce protests on social media as the gate bore a strong resemblance to the entrance gate of the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp.

After the criticisms, the city of Ermont decided to remove the entrance portal.

In a statement on Tuesday, the city government regretted what it considered "unfounded comments" and said "no analogy or unfortunate 'coincidence' should be sought therein."

The municipality also asserted that it had consulted "the local Jewish community," which is "astonished by this polemic, since it does not itself see any malicious intent in this architectural decision."

Simone Veil, who died in 2017, was imprisoned at Auschwitz for several months, from March to July 1944, while her brother and parents died in the deportation.

Veil was the French health minister in 1974-1979. She was also a member of the European Parliament in 1979-1993 and its president from 1979 to 1982.

One of the most grievous facts of World War II was the massacres committed in concentration and extermination camps, with Auschwitz in Poland among the deadliest.

Regarded as one of the greatest tragedies of humanity, the Nazi camps witnessed horrible human experimentation, executions in gas chambers, and crematoriums.

Many Jews and people from other groups became victims of the Nazis’ eugenicist policies.

About a total of 6 million Jewish civilians were massacred during World War II, an event the UN later recognized as a Holocaust.