This German village has decided to keep the 82-year-old 'Hitler bell'
The parish council of Herxheim voted 10-3 on Monday that the bronze bell from 1934 should remain as "an impetus for reconciliation and a memorial against violence and injustice".
The council rejected an offer by the regional Protestant Church to pay for taking down the 240 kilogramme (530 pound) bell and replacing it.
A memorial pointing to the bell's history will now be fixed on the heritage-listed church, the Jakobskirche.
In pic: Jakobskirche village
People of Jakobskirche village had no idea about the history of the bell until a local newspaper reported of its existence. For 82 years the 1930s-era church bell embossed with a swastika and the text: 'Everything for the Fatherland Adolf Hitler' , cast when Germany was ruled by Adolf Hitler, hung in the 1,000-year-old church tower without attracting much notice.
In pic: Jakobskirche village church
At Monday evening's meeting, village mayor Georg Welker said that "the community needs clarity which way we should go", national news agency DPA reported. He presented an expert's opinion that judged the bell had heritage value and should either stay in place or be taken to a museum.
Disposing of it would represent "an evasion of a reasonable and enlightened culture of remembrance", the expert's opinion found.
The decision by the council to keep the bell was greeted with applause from many community members, DPA reported.
In pic: Mayor Ronald Becker stands next to the church bell
