Anti-Semitic stereotypes or shock marketing? In Euro 2012 host city Lviv, debate is raging about two restaurants -- one dedicated to the local Jewish community and the other controversial nationalist insurgents.

"At The Golden Rose" lies in the historic Jewish quarter of Lviv, next to the ruins of a former synagogue that was built in 1595 but destroyed in 1942 by the Nazis, who also killed virtually all of the sizeable local Jewish population.

No memorial lies on the site but the restaurant nearby welcomes guests with the traditional klezmer music of Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe and boasts a menu explaining the community's history in the city and the Holocaust.

The menu has no prices because, as manageress Yuliana Kozak explained, "Jews like bargaining".

The restaurant also offers clients who are so inclined the chance to wear hats and payot (long side curls) in the style of some ultra-orthodox Jewish communities for souvenir photographs.

The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a non-governmental human rights organisation that fights anti-Semitism around the world, recently said that haggling was "a notorious anti-Semitic stereotype still prevalent in Eastern Europe".

"It's not very nice for us but they do that for their business and we're in a democracy," added Sarah Bolt, whose husband is the rabbi at the only synagogue that survived the Nazi occupation in the city.

"It's not really our problem," she added.

The bar-restaurant "Kryivka" ("Hiding Place" in Ukrainian), meanwhile, is dedicated to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose members are considered heroes in this nationalist stronghold, although accusations of collaboration linger.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Lviv was under Polish rule and Ukrainian nationalism was suppressed. In 1939, the Soviets replaced the Poles and in turn cracked down on the local population before they were ousted by the Nazis.

Founded in 1942, the UPA initially welcomed the arrival of German troops and considered them liberators until they turned against them and declared outright war.

Holocaust historian Efraim Zuroff, from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, expressed concerns last month about "Kryivka" as well as "At The Golden Rose".

"By patronising these restaurants, football fans will be unwittingly supporting the most extreme and dangerous elements of Ukrainian society and insulting the memory of tens of thousands of Holocaust victims murdered in Lviv by the Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators, a message diametrically opposed by the goals of Euro 2012," he said in a June 6 statement on the organisation's website.

The two eateries are part of the !FEST group, which owns 15 popular theme restaurants in Lviv. The company denied any anti-Semitism.

On "At The Golden Rose", !FEST co-owner Andriy Khudo said: "We studied the history of Jews in Lviv for three months and worked with the main Jewish organisation in the city, which gave its approval for the project.

"We do maybe use stereotypes but the customers like it. And Ukrainians, too, like haggling. There's nothing offensive in it," he added.

As for "Kryivka", its Haidamaka-style Kosher bacon is another bone of contention.

"That's the name of an anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic group and it's offensive to Jews," said Vasyl Rasevych, a historian and senior researcher at the Krypyakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies in Lviv.

The Haidamaka were formed mostly of local Cossacks and peasants and fought against the Polish nobility, Catholics and Jews in the 18th century.

Khudo for his part says it is simply shock marketing. "It helps with word-of-mouth," he added.

Lviv's deputy mayor, Vasyl Kossiv, does not want to get involved.

"Any simplification of history, like with the UPA, is unhealthy. But if we put pressure on them it would be the best publicity for them," he added.

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