Roger Waters has come under fire for donning an outfit resembling that of a Nazi SS officer while performing in Berlin, Germany.
On May 17, the Pink Floyd co-founder — who has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli government — wore the uniform while playing at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The ensemble featured a black jacket accented with a red armband and a fake rifle. Behind Waters, 79, floated an inflatable pig that was adorned with Third Reich-style banners with crossed hammers instead of swastikas.
But that wasn’t the only questionable imagery employed by the “Wish You Were Here” singer that evening.
According to local journalists, a screen projected the words, “The show will start in 10 minutes and a court in Frankfurt has ruled that I am not an antisemite,” reports the Times of Israel. ”Just to be clear, I condemn antisemitism unreservedly.”
Screens also flashed the names of victims Waters considers to have been killed by governments, including Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten to death by the country’s “morality police,” George Floyd and anti-Nazi activist Sophie Scholl.
However, it was Holocaust victim Anne Frank’s name being flashed immediately after Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh that caused ire.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized the concert and asked that German authorities prosecute Waters for invoking and distorting Holocaust images.
“Shame on Frankfurt authorities and Mercedes Benz arena in Berlin — a place from where Jews were deported by the Nazis — for providing anti-Semite #RogerWaters this venue for his concert with no concern/care for the Jewish community,” the center tweeted.
The British-born rocker has long supported the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to boycott and divest funds from Israel in an effort to press the Israeli government to change its policies toward the Palestinian population.
In 2014, he criticized the Rolling Stones for performing in Israel.
Waters has also come under fire for his views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview with Germany’s Berliner Zeitung, Waters defended Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. He also compared the state of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust.
Novelist Polly Samson, who is married to Pink Floyd member David Gilmour, slammed the interview at the time.
“Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core,” she tweeted, and called him a “Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac.”
In another interview, Waters claimed to be on a Ukrainian kill list because of his criticism of the war-torn country. Pvnew has reached out to Waters’ rep for comment.
