A POPULAR internet forum yesterday refused to remove a video that depicted Swindon’s council leader as Adolf Hitler.

Coun Rod Bluh, who is Jewish and lost members of his family to the Nazis, is portrayed in the role on the Talk Swindon website.

Geoff Reid, the site’s proprietor, yesterday described reaction to the video as “hysterical”.

The clip, a well-known part from the movie Downfall, relates Hitler’s last days in the bunker and is often used to lampoon public figures.

In this video, Coun Bluh is portrayed decrying Talk Swindon’s role in “uncovering” what it considers to be “anti-democratic” details about Coun Bluh’s wi-fi project.

Calls were made on the Talk Swindon forum by posters ‘poemogram’, ‘AndyH’ and ‘Peter Greenhalgh’ for it to be taken down.

Although Coun Bluh has refused to condemn the video or ask for it to be removed, he said he was “saddened” by the images.

He said: “I used to have some regard for Talk Swindon and Geoff Reid, it was always about good political debate but it has become very personal.

“Now it seems to be trying to pull people down more than anything else.

“Any video that wants to liken me with Hitler is insulting, but more than anything I am quite saddened.

“There is no evidence that there was anything wrong or underhand about the process behind wifi and if anyone at Talk Swindon has proof they should come forward with it.

“I am not going to tell them what to do. If they think it is right to keep it up there then they can do so.”

Mr Reid said that Coun Bluh should be more concerned with how public money is being spent on wi-fi rather than a spoof video.

He said: “The video is a subtitled ‘Satire on arrogant council leadership in the face of opposing public opinion’, and how that leadership views both me and the Talk Swindon forum.

“I have experienced the council’s attitude towards the public concern about its use of public money on vanity projects like wi-fi, the canal, the Radio 1 Big Weekend and the Tabernacle stones at first hand. My questions about them have been met with concealment, contempt and obfuscation.

“Frankly, I think it’s very sad that I can provoke a hysterical reaction by poking the council with a satirical video, but can’t get answers to questions about how £1.5 million of public money was spent.”

When asked if he planned to remove the video he added: “To remove the video would imply that I thought something was wrong with it.

“I don’t expect everyone to laugh at it but it reflects perfectly how I perceive the council leadership to be acting towards me and the Talk Swindon Forum.

“Satire often challenges political correctness but there are many previous examples where Hitler has been portrayed satirically.”

ROD Bluh’s family has a tragic history – one they suffered at the hands of the Nazis.

In March 1939, after Hitler announced the annexation of Austria, Coun Bluh’s father Erich became one of 10,000 Jewish children allowed to come to Britain and stay with foster families.

Left behind were his grandmother Johanna, grandfather Richard, and uncle Otto – who had mental difficulties.

Coun Bluh’s grandfather died in 1939 of natural causes, but Otto, who was receiving treatment at a mental hospital in Vienna, was seized by the Nazis and never seen again.

During an interview given in April 2009, Coun Bluh said: “We believe there were medical experiments going on and we know he died in a gas chamber built in the basement cellar of Linz Castle, in May 1940.”

Meanwhile Johanna Bluh made her final journey in the summer of 1942, deported in a cattle truck with hundreds of Jews on the 1,000-mile journey to Maly Trostinec, near Minsk, in what is now Belarus.

Her fate is unknown. She may have died after being gassed, or may have been stripped, stood in a line along with other Jews, with their backs to freshly dug graves, and then shot.

However, Coun Bluh believes she may have perished along with many others during the four-day train ride. She died, aged 47, on August 21, 1942.