Hitler, Stalin Images In Queens Building Lobby Hateful, Councilman Says

SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS – Images of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin are covering the lobby of a Queens apartment building, according to residents.

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer held a rally this week outside the building at 39th Place, near 48th Avenue in Sunnyside, according to his office.

Tenants say their property manager has slapped posters of the infamous dictators along with photos of guns and threatening slogans in their lobby. There's also a swastika and symbols of the Confederacy and Jim Crow. At the same time, two tall statues of Uncle Sam are outside the building 's entrance, Bramer's office said.

Van Bramer denounced the imagery as "anti-Semitic" and "pro-Nazi."

(For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"After seeing this lobby first-hand and spending several days with these tenants, I can say without a doubt that they are rightly terrified of a property manager who posts images of hate and racism, boasts of guns in his apartment while hanging posters celebrating guns and the NRA, and who retaliates against anyone who speaks out," Van Bramer said in a statement.

The property manager, Neal Milano, could not immediately be contacted. But his attorney has told the Daily News the decorations are meant as a "history lesson."

One resident told CBS they actually inspire terror.

"It's real fear. It's not, 'Oh, I'm afraid,'" she said. "It's real fear, real terror."

Residents told the station Milano created a 9/11 memorial several years ago, but recently transformed the lobby into a veritable shrine of hate.

Van Bramer is calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio's office and the city's Commission on Human Rights to investigate.

Lead image courtesy Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer.