BNP chief accused of sick joke

Matt Withers | Sunday, 30 April 2006 Source: Wales on Sunday

THE British National Party chief was accused last night of making a joke out of the Holocaust by naming two pet pigs Anne and Frank.

The far-right extremists led by Nick Griffin, who lives on a farm in Wales, yesterday denied he had deliberately picked the same name as the young Jewish diarist who died in a Nazi concentration camp.

But a leading member of the Jewish community in Wales and anti-fascist campaigner labelled him a "sick" anti-semitic. Practising Jews are also governed by food rules, one of which is a ban on pork.

A BNP spokesman said the pigs, which had since been slaughtered and eaten by Mr Griffin, had been given "good old-fashioned English names" and only "nutters" would be offended.

Asking "Who the hell is Anne Frank?", he added: "I've got an uncle called Frank. Do you find that offensive as well? Are you mad?"