Guardian: 'Nazi' claim as Germans rebel over smoking ban - "The reason for Germans' refusal to take lying down a law that has now become the norm even in European nations that have traditionally taken pride in their subversiveness - such as Italy, Ireland and Scotland - is repeatedly put down to German history.

Campaigners for smokers' rights have been quick to draw on the comparison between the recent clampdown and the little-known nationwide tobacco ban introduced by the Nazis in 1941 as part of their quest for bodily and racial purity.

While few Germans would dare to point it out publicly, for fear of appearing to praise the Nazi era, some of the most advanced research into the links between tobacco consumption and lung cancer was carried out under the Nazis."