A convicted racist's vanity license plates, bearing the name of a gas used to murder Jews in Nazi death camps, have been recalled by state motor vehicle officials.
The plates that read "ZYKLON B" were issued to Ryan Maziarka, 21, of Hampton, who was convicted two years ago of painting racial and religious slurs on a church with a predominantly black congregation.Zyklon B was used at Auschwitz and other concentration camps to kill hundreds of thousands of Jews and other prisoners in World War II. The state decided Monday to take back the plates and will send Maziarka new ones later.
Maziarka said he couldn't give the plates back even if he wanted to because they were stolen off his car Monday when he was at work. He said he knew the significance of Zyklon B to the Holocaust, which he said never occurred, when he requested the plates.
"When I see (displays) of black pride or black power, I don't go running to my senator," he said. "But as soon as I get something that represents my race's dominating spirit, I get put down for it."