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KOBLENZ/NASSAU, Germany: A dentist from Nassau has turned to the public with leaflets to communicate his displeasure with his local Kassenzahnärztliche Vereinigung (KZV)—a public body representing the interests of contract dentists in Germany. In his opinion, the association uses a Nazi term in the short form of its name. The association has rejected the allegations and stated that the man has a personal vendetta against it.
As reported by the Rhein-Zeitung, the 58-year-old posted his protest leaflets on the windows of the association’s local office in Koblenz. Additionally, he planned to place more flyers on the sidewalk. This was initially approved by the public order office, which had no grounds for refusing the application, but he was eventually legally prevented from doing so by the association.
The dentist, a devout Jew, asserts that the abbreviation of the association’s name, KZV, contains the letter combination for “concentration camp” (German: “Konzentrationslager”, or KZ) and is reminiscent of the Nazi association KZVD (Kassenzahnärztliche Vereinigung Deutschlands), a similar public body for dentists founded in the 1930s. On the leaflets, the man questions the association’s use of the abbreviation “KZ” in “KZV”, considering that it is prohibited, for example, on car’s number plates in Germany.
According to the association, the dentist has been waging a personal campaign against it for years. The dentist in turn has alleged that the association is trying to ruin him financially by having not disbursed fees due to him for two years. The fees were to be transferred to the bank account of his ex-wife, who lives abroad.
“The background to this is years of litigation about the correct method of disbursement of fees,” Katrin Becker from the KZV press office told the Rhein-Zeitung. The man’s repeated serious offenses likely only detract from his financial concerns, KZV stated.
The 58-year-old believes the association wants to silence critics. He alleges that criticism is suppressed owing to anti-Semitism on behalf of the organisation.
The executive committee of KZV stated that it has not pursued further legal action against such “untenable assertions and insults” because the dentist was granted an insanity defence in 1996.
From http://www.dental-tribune.com
