Shopping centre accidently puts a photo of Adolf Hitler on its VE Day ‘wall of fame’
A SHOPPING centre has been forced to apologise after accidentally puting a photo of Adolf Hitler on its VE Day "wall of fame".
The Cosmos mall in Chelyabinsk, Russia, confused the picture for a snap of Russian soldier Sumin Vladimir who died on the Eastern Front in 1945.
Staff were apparently confused by a prankster removing the moustache of the Nazi leader on a poster for the wall.
Bosses have since apologised for the gaffe and explained someone had sent them the picture "in poor taste".
The shopping centre had originally created their 'wall of fame' to showcase Russian war heroes for the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe and were posting images of soldiers online as well as on big screens inside the centre itself.
Locals were asked to send in photos of relatives who had fought in the war along with short stories of what happened to them.
Thw mall chose to pay tribute to Vladimir who died during the Vistula-Oder Offensive, a Red Army operation on the Eastern Front in January 1945.
The mission saw the discovery and liberation of death camps including Auschwitz.
It also saw the liberation of Krakow, Warsaw and Poznan.
Locals were furious over the Hitler prank and the shopping centre has now publicly apologised for the incident.
Cosmos' head of advertising Ildar Yarulin, said: "We launched this project for the nation to get to know its heroes from World War II and called people to send their relatives' photos with a short description of how they helped the army beat the Nazis.
More World news
"Our team was mostly focused on the description of the feat, so our social media marketing specialists somehow did not notice the bad joke and proceeded with the story."
He added that the marketing specialist who allowed the Hitler post to be published had been reprimanded but it is unclear if they were sacked.
The post has been removed from social media and the police are currently looking for the person responsible.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.