Swiss retailer apologises after Hitler pictured on dairy creamer

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss retailer Migros apologised on Wednesday after dairy creamers decorated with images of Adolf Hitler and Italian fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini found their way into restaurants in Switzerland. Collecting the tops of single-serving creamers, which often come decorated with cartoons and images such as mountains, cartoon characters, animals, or celebrities, is a popular pasttime in Switzerland akin to stamp-collecting. A spokesman for Migros said Karo Versand, a firm that distributes the capsule covers among collectors, had provided the images of Hitler and Mussolini, and they had gone into filling and packaging unchecked. The head of Karo, Peter Waelchli, was quoted in Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger as saying Hitler's image -- which is pictured on the creamers as part of vintage cigar bands -- was "unproblematic" and that he had not had second thoughts about releasing them. Karo wasn't immediately available for comment. The Swiss retailer apologised for filling another 2,400 creamers with the same images for itself, which were subsequently shipped to restaurants in Switzerland through a middleman. Migros said it has ended its business relationship with Karo. "Our internal controls failed in this case and the images were taken into production without closer inspection," Migros said in a statement. "We will tighten our controls dramatically in order to rule out this kind of error in the future." (Reporting By Katharina Bart; Editing by Larry King)