Mumbai's "Hitler" eatery angers Indian Jews

[sabra]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1229762006

Mumbai's "Hitler" eatery angers Indian Jews

MUMBAI (Reuters) - 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.

'Hitler's Cross', which opened last week, serves up a wide range of continental fare and a big helping of controversy, thanks to a name the owners say they chose to stand out among hundreds of Mumbai eateries.

"We wanted to be different. This is one name that will stay in people's minds," owner Punit Shablok told Reuters.

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

But India's remaining Jews -- most migrated to Israel and the West over the years -- say they are outraged by the gimmick.

[William769]

1. Instead of a name that stands out, how about serving food that stands out.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Worst.Marketing.Idea.Ever.

What's next... the Dahmer Barbecue Hut?

[Missy M]

3. Or perhaps the BTK Burger.....

I would think everyone would be offended by that name on the restaurant.

[HereSince1628]

5. Dahmer Handmade Chocolates

He actually worked in Ambrosia chocolate factory and I still can't eat anything that they make.

[architect359]

10. Those guys aren't the only ones...

...that think using associations with nazism is a great marketing gimmick. A few years back, there was that Hong Kong clothing chain that went further by festooning their stores with nazi symbolism:

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/Hong+Kong+IZZUE_43...
http://www.bigwhiteguy.com/archive/2003/08/09/sieg_heil /
http://bigwhiteguy.com/archive/2003/08/10/back_to_the_i... /
http://www.bigwhiteguy.com/archive/2003/08/11/hide_and_... /

It's hard to understand how anyone in this and age can be so stupid, especially using this as a mass marketing move.

[Irreverend IX]

48. How about the Donner Party Delicatessen?

I saw Nazi stuff now and then when I was living in Japan. Nazi gimmicks most often crop up in Asian countries with little connection to the European side of World War II. With very few Jews and veterans who fought the Nazis in their populations, Hitler is just one of many exotic historical figures to them.

[cali]

15. LOL

I think the story- and your comment- are a riot.

[AlienGirl]

32. Idi Amin's All-You-Can-Eat Buffet?

[struggle4progress]

46. How about ... Bhopal Death Gas Factory Food? or ..

.. 1770 Bengal Famine Family Restaurant?

Sati Bar and Grill?

The Nathuram Godse Lounge?

[derby378]

4. I shudder to think what their marketing slogans are...

...but I'll try anyway, just because it's Monday morning and because I just saw the William Shatner roast:

"Hitler's Cross - our food is Hitleriffic!"

"Try the bratwurst at Hitler's Cross - it's a real GAS!"

[bikesein]

6. Awful

But I do have to admit a chuckle at those.

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

[derby378]

7. I'm still scratching my head over that one

Hitler was psychopathic, bloodthirsty, addicted to various prescription drugs, and paranoid in his last years of life. Is the restaurant trying claim it has those same characteristics?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

39. I think it's just a cultural difference.

I think they consider it just another interesting historical time period as opposed to the sancrosanct atrocity we think of it here.

Maybe two hundred years from now there'll be a Stormtroopers of the Wehrmacht ride next to the Pirates of the Caribbean in the Mumbai Disneyland.

[Truthiness Inspector]

47. That sounds like excusing it

so what if millions of people were deliberately exterminated, opening a business in the name of this is just a "cultural difference," and the Holocaust was just an "interesting historical time period." Please.

Any other genocides you think would make catchy, cultural names for restaurants?

[-..__...]

34. Our brick oven delicacies are to die for.

[Maeve]

8. Bet they serve killer food!

Someone had to say it...

[dipsydoodle]

9. Maybe they'll retaliate with an alternative

From The Scotsman link :

But India's remaining Jews -- most migrated to Israel and the West over the years -- say they are outraged by the gimmick.

snip

"We are going to stop this deification of Hitler," he said without elaborating.

Given that the majority of the population of Mumbai are Hindu maybe the Jewish population could open up a Harry Krishna's Salt Beef Bar or Holy Cow Burger Bar has an act of retaliation to get the message over.

I don't think this issue would have come up further down the coast in the west of India where there are a substantial number of Catholics.

[pitohui]

49. there used to be a holy cow in vegas!

heck maybe there still is

[MrPrax]

11. So what's the History's Channel's excuse? n/t

[rman]

21. wtf?

[Charlie Brown]

22. what?

Does the History Channel require an excuse for looking at history?

[MrPrax]

23. It's often sarcastically referred to as the

Hitler channel due to their almost obsessive coverage of that small part of world history. Why? Because there seems to be an unhealthy fascination with Hitler and his regime; Hitler makes money...ergo just like this Indian restraurant.

What is one to do when the marketplace of ideas smacks right into the rights of the marketplace? Hint: guys like Hitler get elected.

[Charlie Brown]

24. Yes, many people have an unhealthy fascination with Hitler and Nazism

I think one reason the HC focuses so much time on Nazi Germany is the amount of footage from the era. The Nazis were fascinated at filming everything to chronicle the rise of their new order.

Ironic that contemporary audiences would be equally fascinated by all of it.

[MrPrax]

25. Tons of footage...

from the civil rights movement, McCarthy hearings and Vietnam too...that's history as well

[Charlie Brown]

26. I've seen the HC air extensive programs on all of those

I don't watch the History Channel much anymore, and I'm not going to go out on a limb to defend them, but they do cover stuff besides Nazi Germany and Hitler.

The Kennedy Assassination and UFOs are topics they've also devoted an inordinate amount of time to, probably because audiences are equally fascinated by unsolved mysteries and cover-ups. They're going to show what audiences will watch, and that probably includes WWII and Nazi documentaries, because people are equally fascinated by that era.

[MrPrax]

28. Not to mention all those

documentaries like Combat, 12 O Clock High, Rat Patrol...I often get my History from that channel.

Yeah I seen them mention the civil rights movement...and some of it was actually correct.

[iverglas]

27. many years ago

someone told me how market research had determined that if anyone wanted to publish a sure-fire bestseller, s/he should entitle it "Golf for Dogs", and put a big swastika on the cover.

[Name removed]

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[darkism]

33. Did you read all of those?

That Gandhi attempted to nonviolently prevent WWII is to be admired, not derided. Just because he addressed Hitler as a "friend" in the letters doesn't mean he agreed with him.

[iverglas]

36. indeed, rather a hamfisted attempt

to ... portray Gandhi? Indians? as ... anti-Semitic?

Headscratching indeed.

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

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[iverglas]

43. so what exactly *is* your point?

You're the one who chose to bring up this arcane bit of history for us. Will you give no idea of what you are presenting it as establishing?

You say:

Gandhi to Hitler: "You are Not the Monster Described by Your Opponents."
"We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents."

in answer to the question of whether you have read the site. Shall we presume you have? Shall we therefore presume that you have a reason for disregarding the rebuttal of the point you seem to be trying to make, contained within the site you are citing?

Gandhi's second letter to Hitler

On 24 December 1940, on the eve of Christmas, which to Christians is a day of peace when the weapons are silenced, Gandhi wrote a lengthy second letter to Hitler. The world situation at that time was as follows: Germany and Italy controlled most of Europe and seemed set to decide the war in their favour, the German-Soviet pact concluded in August 1939 was still in force, and under Winston Churchill, a lonely Great Britain was continuing the war it had declared on Germany immediately after Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939.

On this occasion, Gandhi took the trouble of justifying his addressing Hitler as "my friend" and closing his letter with "your sincere friend", in a brief statement of what exactly he stood for: "That I address you as a friend is no formality. I own no foes. My business in life has been for the past 33 years to enlist the friendship of the whole of humanity by befriending mankind, irrespective of race, colour or creed." This very un-Hitlerian reason to befriend Hitler, what Gandhi goes on to call the "doctrine of universal friendship", contrasts with the Hitler-like hatred of one’s enemy which is commonly thought to be the only correct attitude to Hitler.

Gandhi certainly earns the ire of post-war public opinion by stating: "We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents." To be sure, this was written in a period of fairly limited warfare, well before the total war with the Soviet Union and the USA, and well before the mass killing and deportation of Jews. But the prevailing attitude today is one of judging Hitler and his contemporaries’ dealings with him as if they all had the knowledge that we have acquired in and since 1945. By that standard, anyone doubting the British government’s hostile depiction of Hitler, including Gandhi, was practically an accomplice to Hitler’s crimes.

That -- the boldfaced bit -- was Gandhi. Nobody has to like it -- but nobody gets to portray what he said to Hitler as an expression of Nazi sympathy, either.

And hmm, I gotta wonder. That was in 1940. Where was the great and good USofA in 1940? Being practically an accomplice to Hitler's crimes, I guess.

At least Gandhi wasn't just sitting on his thumbs.

[Kickoutthejams23]

13. So is it a Pizza place?

[Phillycat]

30. *choke*

[heliarc]

51. Pizza's wood fire...

Not gas...

[erik-the-red]

14. Insensitive

I'm surprised that they even thought about doing this.

[Name removed]

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[onehandle]

17. Finally! Right-Wingers have a place to eat in Mumbai.

Look for them to expand stateside soon!

[Jed Dilligan]

18. "Think Different."

That's a billboard we'll never see...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. Didn't they do this once in Japan?

Open a little Hitler themed restauarant where guests get to sit at barbed-wire encircled tables and get abused by storm-trooper waiters?

Probably.

[rman]

20. There probably are a lot of corporatists around who admire Hitler

for his support of plutocratic rule.

[AlienGirl]

29. Drinks there come in small, medium, and Goering.

[varun]

31. There are admirers of Hitler

in India's right wing BJP. Mumbai has quie a few of these hindu right wingers...

[CollegeDUer]

35. ... (is it wrong that I find this funny?)

This is almost the kind of thing you'd see on Saturday Night Live.

[nomo]

38. Their motto: "Over six million..."

Never mind.

[davidinalameda]

40. simply amazing

I can't believe that anyone in this day and age would even think about using Hitler as a marketing tool

disgusting

[muryan]

41. i can

people who dont like joos?

[Rex]

42. That is a stupid idea - like renaming Burger King, Joseph Stalin

Some people are really stupid.

[Endangered Specie]

44. Advertising Jingle: "Mein Chompf"?

[Lisa]

45. reminds me of a scene from Gene Wilder's TV show

He portrayed an ad executive who was horrified by a colleague's suggestion that they do a Hitler-themed ad campaign for a local vegetarian restaurant -- he'd singled out Hitler as a "famous vegetarian". (The guy holds up a photo of Hitler and says, "Does this make you feel hungry?"

Wilder sighed, "How can I explain 'poor taste' to someone who actually has it?"

[heliarc]

52. Springtime for Hitler and India!!! Winter for Poland and France! n/t

[sofa king]

50. Not original, either.

Years ago News of the Weird reported on a (Korean, I think) club with a Nazi theme. One attendee was reported to say she didn't know much about them, but "they dressed really well."

And as soon as you forget him, he comes right back. Seen any Reichstags burn down lately?

[Strawman]

53. This a-hole obviously believes there's no such thing as bad publicity

He's certainly taken that idea to an outrageous extreme. How utterly despicable and insensitive. I'm hoping he will learn his lesson about that the hard way and swiftly be put out of business.

Will Indians actually eat at a place like that or is he trying to attract neo-Nazi tourists or something? Is there some kind of niche tourism industry for that kind of crap or something? I don't get it.