French bank's Hitler parody embarrassing

• Tweet

PARIS, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A French bank employee's remake of a popular Hitler parody showing the bank's triumph over a German bank was embarrassing and infuriating, bank officials said.

The video produced by an executive at the bank, BNP Paribas, parodied a famous scene from a 2004 film, "Downfall," that portrays Adolf Hitler as the head of Deutsche Bank in Germany, France 24 reported Sunday.

France 24 reported the film has been often parodied, especially the scene where Hitler unleashes his anger on his generals when he realizes the war is lost.

The BNP video, which shows Hitler furious as he learns the news that BNP is edging out Deutsche Bank in the foreign exchange market, was uploaded to bank's Intranet site before the management realized it could be embarrassing and removed it.

The video was shown as a motivational film to approximately 100 international managers last year at a seminar in Amsterdam, France 24 reported.

"We could not believe the bank had actually dared to do that -- make an analogy between our competitors and the Nazi regime. It took us a few minutes to take it in," a BNP employee said.

Another employee said, "We were shocked. Nobody knew how to react. Some Jewish employees from the United States did not find it funny at all."

The bank said the executive who made the video was no longer with the company, but did not say whether he had been fired or had resigned.