Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has sparked outrage by evoking the Holocaust as he attacked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for opening the country's borders to migrants.

"One cannot - even if there are decades between them - kill millions of Jews so you can bring millions of their worst enemies in their place," he told a French television show.

"I know someone in Germany who took a young Syrian and after four days said, 'The greatest thing Germany invented was the Holocaust,'" he added.

Several hundred people lodged official complaints about Lagerfeld's comments, the French media regulator said Monday after he appeared on the "Salut les terriens!" (Hello Earthlings!) talkshow on the C8 channel on Saturday.