More on KentOnline
MILITARY show organisers have tightened up rules to keep people with extreme views out of their annual event.
The news comes after a controversial BBC documentary called Weekend Nazis focused on last July’s War and Peace Show at the Hop Farm Family Park, near Paddock Wood.
Reporter John Sweeney discovered David Irving, jailed for denying the Holocaust, signing books; a trader selling relics from Belsen, and some Nazi enthusiasts expressing extreme racist views.
Now the organisers have vowed to be extra vigilant at this year’s show which runs from July 16 to 20 and features military re-enactments, a huge market selling military memorabilia and military vehicle displays.
Show press officer Peter Cook said: "They have brought in some extra rules this year. They have imposed a ban on the sale of any memorabilia that could be seen as anti-Semitic.
"A number of re-enactment groups that wear German uniforms have been told not to wear their uniforms outside the show ground because this could upset people in Paddock Wood and neighbouring areas. They have also been in discussion with Jewish organisations to ensure that nothing anti-Semitic is allowed there."
The show, now in its 26th year and billed as the biggest military extravaganza in the world, will also celebrate the 1940s style with big band music, jazz and jive, fashions and dancing.