Mumbai's (Bombay, India) 'Hitler' restaurant angers Jewish

[jbg]

This is unbelievable. Someone sent me a "blog" posting on this story. Another poster googled it and found, sadly, that it is true. Comments?

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Published: 08/22/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)

Mumbai's 'Hitler' restaurant angers Jewish community (link)

Reuters

Mumbai: A new restaurant in India's financial hub, named after Adolf Hitler and promoted with posters showing the German leader and Nazi swastikas, has infuriated the country's small Jewish community.

*snip*

"We are not promoting Hitler. But we want to tell people we are different in the way he was different."

*snip*

Posters line the road leading up to it, featuring a red swastika carved in the name of the eatery. One slogan reads: "From Small Bites to Mega Joys". A huge portrait of a stern-looking Fuehrer greets visitors at the door. The cross in the restaurant's name refers to the swastika that symbolised the Nazi regime.

[geoffrey]

While it definitely is just awful to think of, this part of the world doesn't have the depth of WWII education that we have. Over there, Hitler is just another Napoleon or something along those lines. Not many would oppose a Napoleon's Horse or something like that for a pub or restuarant...

So I don't blame the owners and I don't think this is an anti-Jew attack. I think this is a strong case of ignorance and lack of education that exists towards history in this part of the world.

[Riverwind]

So I don't blame the owners and I don't think this is an anti-Jew attack. I think this is a strong case of ignorance and lack of education that exists towards history in this part of the world.

The average North American is pretty ignorant of non-European history so I don't think we are in any position to lecture East Indians about their knowledge of European history.

[August1991]

The swastika is an old Indian symbol and I recall seeing several shops in south India with a swastika on the storefront and the word in the name.

In this particular case, I think it's just a (dumb) attempt at publicity. There's also this place in Korea.

Different countries have different views of different world characters. Many years ago, I recall getting on an empty bus in Bulgaria. The driver had a radio tuned to classical music and this impressed me. Then I looked more closely at the front and noticed that he had a small portrait of Stalin hanging from the mirror.

[Riverwind]

The swastika is an old Indian symbol and I recall seeing several shops in south India with a swastika on the storefront and the word in the name.

If you look at a Japanese map you will see little swastikas marking the locations of the Buddist temples. Microsoft got into hot water once because it released a font for use with Word that has a bunch of Japanese map symbols including this swastika/temple symbol.

[theloniusfleabag]

I have to agree with August1991,

In this particular case, I think it's just a (dumb) attempt at publicity.

As I understand it, Hitler pilfered the ancient sanskrit symbol for good luck, the svastika, and tilted it 45 degrees, while straightening out the last 'arm', into the symbol for the Nazi Party.

[geoffrey]

So I don't blame the owners and I don't think this is an anti-Jew attack. I think this is a strong case of ignorance and lack of education that exists towards history in this part of the world.

The average North American is pretty ignorant of non-European history so I don't think we are in any position to lecture East Indians about their knowledge of European history.

Obviously we are in a position to do so when their citizens don't really seem to be bothered by it.

"I think the name is quite interesting. Tomorrow if someone keeps a name like Saddam Mutton Shop or George Bush Footwear, there's nothing wrong with that, is there?" he shrugged.

Obviously they just don't get it.

I'm sure there would be backlash in Canada if I had a resturant called the "White Man's Burden" with a logo of a British man whipping Ghandi or something that. We know better... in India, they don't.

Their ignorance is the issue, not necessarily the resturant. If people knew more about Hitler, they wouldn't be ok with eating at a place named after him.