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Avi Benlolo can’t conceive why the Austrian government would decide against demolishing the building where Adolf Hitler was born on April 20,1889, in Braunau am Inn.

“I would erase that building from existence, just like Hitler should be erased and everything he stood for.”

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Instead, the Ministry of Interiors is hosting an architectural competition to redesign the building located at Salzburger Vorstadt 15.

“That (the government) would even do that is surprising. (The building) is not even worthy of that recognition, not even worthy of talking about,” said Benlolo, the president of Canada’s Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center.

On the other hand, local historian Florian Kotanko — who is from Braunau — doesn’t agree that the building should be demolished.

“(Braunau) was not the place for decisions for murder or war. It was the place where a baby was born. He was not a murderer when his mother gave him birth,” Kotanko said.