CLOSE German newspaper Der Spiegel isn’t pulling any punches with their latest cover. Veuer's Nick Cardona (@nickcardona93) has that story. Buzz60

A detailed view of the front cover of the German weekly news magazine 'Stern' showing an illustration depicting President J. Trump draped in a U.S. flag and doing the Nazi salute in Berlin, Aug. 25., 2015. (Photo11: CLEMENS BILAN, EPA)

A German magazine has been criticized for a cover depicting President Trump giving a Nazi salute while draped in an American flag.

The cover of the latest edition of Stern bears the headline “Sein Kampf,” or “His Struggle” — a play on Adolf Hitler’s 1925 book “Mein Kampf.”

Below is written: "Neo-Nazis, Ku-Klux-Klan, racism: As Donald Trump stirs hatred in America."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based human rights organization that researches the Holocaust and hate, denounced the cover in a statement.

German news magazine @sternde features Trump. Text = "His fight" a play title of Hilter's book 'mein kampf'. V. strong stuff in Europe. pic.twitter.com/swvg4UURou — Andrew Beatty (@AndrewBeatty) August 23, 2017

"President Trump is fair game for serious criticism by the public and media at home and abroad. But the depiction of the president as a latter-day Hitler by a major German publication is untrue and beyond the pale,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper in the center's statement.

More: Drunk American man beaten up, under investigation after giving Nazi salute in Germany

"Germans must surely know that by misappropriating the Swastika, the Sieg Heil, and other Nazi symbols and terms associated with Adolf Hitler, they belittle and becloud the crimes of the past, and add heat but shed no light or perspective on the serious struggles and disagreements that currently beset our democracy,” they added.

The magazine cover was also condemned by people including German historian Michael Wolffsohn, who said, "Unlike Hitler, Trump did not incite a world war with 57 million deaths plus a Holocaust."

Trump was widely criticized for initially blaming "both sides" after Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when a car was driven into counterprotesters at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12.

Nazi salutes are illegal in Germany under laws that prohibit the display of Nazi symbols or slogans.

Stern's cover is the latest in a series of newspaper and magazine covers that have been critical of the U.S. president:

Cover of Der Spiegel: Das wahre Gesichte des Donald Trump https://t.co/k8udVjTItz — oinonio (@oinonio) August 18, 2017

Racists, anti-Semites and white supremacists. Or as @POTUS calls them, "very fine people."



Wednesday's front page: https://t.co/vHdKLBQewwpic.twitter.com/JO1N9GI14V — New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 16, 2017

An early look at next week's cover, "Blowhard," by David Plunkert: https://t.co/VuBXtwJCUQpic.twitter.com/zsDHVOBBQO — The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 17, 2017

Our cover this week pic.twitter.com/lYD3HLXvSC — The Economist (@TheEconomist) August 17, 2017

Umstrittener SPIEGEL-Titel mit #Trump als Henker der Freiheitsstatue ist das #Cover des Monats Februar 2017 https://t.co/7sm5IOAm0dpic.twitter.com/y3orCrWnyT — new business Magazin (@nbZwitscher) March 20, 2017

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wEONxL