Liechtenstein's Prince Hans-Adam II has angered German Jews by invoking the Holocaust to defend his country's banking secrecy.

He took aim at Germany, which has been putting pressure on Liechtenstein to reform confidential banking practices that allow German depositors to evade taxes.

Germany's Jewish community - which last year condemned Hans-Adam II's description of modern Germany as a "Fourth Reich" - attacked his latest comments as another insensitive twisting of history.