Coffee shop apologizes after new logo appears to resemble twin lightning symbol of German elite squads, says it was just advertising reenergizing qualities of the coffee. The owners of a Ukrainian cafe housed in a former synagogue said they worked two lightning rods into the logo to advertise the reenergizing qualities of the coffee there. Instead they waded into a political minefield because they ended up reproducing the symbol of the SS, Nazi Germany’s murderous elite force. On Tuesday, the owners said the whole thing “is a case of a font gone wrong” and apologized to “anyone whose feelings may have been hurt.” It was a trial that was never fully implemented, they said, and will drop the logo.
Cafe Escobar in Chervnitsi, near Lviv, introduced the logo on July 25 in a video that showed a filter holder emblazoned with the letters “Essco,” in which the S’s closely resemble the SS logo also designed to evoke two lightning rods. The SS symbol is offensive to many throughout Europe, but especially in Ukraine. During World War II, local men from the country’s west were drafted into an SS unit, the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division, also known as the 1st Galician
via timesofisrael: Owners of Ukraine cafe in former synagogue say Nazi SS logo a ‘font’ mistake