new restaurant in India (NAGL related)
The_Hook_Up
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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."This signifies a severe lack of awareness of the agony of millions of Jews caused by one man," said Jonathan Solomon, chairman of the Indian Jewish Federation, the community's umbrella organisation.pg. 2"We are going to stop this deification of Hitler," he said without elaborating.The small restaurant, its interior done out in the Nazi colours of red, white and black, also has a lounge for smoking the exotic Indian water pipe or "hookah".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."This place is not about wars or crimes, but where people come to relax and enjoy a meal," said restaurant manager Fatima Kabani, adding that they were planning to turn the eatery's name into a brand with more branches in Mumbai.The swastika has its roots in ancient Indian Hindu tradition and remains a sacred symbol for Hindus. Nazi theorists appropriated it to bolster their central hypothesis of the Aryan origins of the German people.
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"The name has a very negative impact because Hitler reminds you of a gas chamber. But, then, I thought, let me try what's this all about," a patron, Vaishali Shreedhar said.
but i'm curious, wasnt hitler a vegitarian?
is this place vegan/vegitarian?
b/w wheres mussolini's italian deli?
Except for how it centers around the biggest war criminal ever.
You can easily buy a copy of Hitler??s "Mein Kampf" in nearly every book store. I discussed with many Indian students about that topic and I was always surprised how they think about it (and how little they actually know about the concrete Nazi regime in Germany). The Nazi regime is stil covered in some school books as a successful example for a strong state and unity. Hitler is sometimes presented (and seen) as a strong statesman, who managed to create a great German Empire and did some minor mistakes.
I've often wondered what the current view on Hitler is in Germany. I know its supposed to be a crime in the country to deny the holocaust, but I don't really know anything more than that.
Mein Kampf is available in bookstores throughout America, It's actually an informative read into the mind of a madman. I highly recommend that all Jewish peoples read this and get an idea of how one mans anger can become a tragedy of holocaust proportions.
In Germany, the Nazi period is covered in the dominant part of the history classes in school - roots, development aso. It is also an omnipresent topic in general. Currently there is a discussion going on, why Noble prize winner Guenther Grass did not reveal his SS-membership earlier and that??s a major debate in the news media.
It is indeed a crime to deny the holocaust. Nazi symbols (swastika, SS-Symbol...) and stuff like "Mein Kampf" are not allowed. Obviously, not everybody is interested in this stuff and, thus, it is hard to say what the current view on Hitler is. In general, people know that he was a mad criminal, who managed to use the circumstances for his plans and found a lot of people to assist him.
However, as I wrote above in India people often don??t know much about the Nazis and if they read stuff like "Mein Kampf" or hear selected "positive" stuff about the Nazi regime in school, they don't have a problem to open a restaurant like this and they even think it??s funny.
In Russia, it was in vogue for a minute to have a Lenin or Hitler lookalike acting as a greeter/waiter at your party. Its taboo, so everyone gets excited about it.
I remember finding this book & "white [email]ni@@ers[/email] of america" in a used book store on the same day. I don't know if either book is available new in canada.
Although the grandchild of holocaust survivors, I think this is hysterical. I don't now enough about the circumstances of the joint to have an informed opinion, but this article makes it seem like these guys are just clueless with the result being absurdity. How can you not laugh?
I wonder if the pakora is better than Ruby's?
I also heard that he did indeed only have one testicle after getting the other one bitten off when urinating into a goats mouth as a child. Nice kid.
'Hitler' Restaurant to Change Name [/b]
(08-24) 06:54 PDT BOMBAY, India (AP) --
The owner of a restaurant named after Adolf Hitler said Thursday he will change its name because it angered so many people.
Puneet Sablok said he would remove Hitler's name and the Nazi swastika from billboards and the menu. He had said the restaurant's name ??? "Hitler's Cross" ??? and symbols were only meant to attract attention.
Sablok made the decision after meeting with members of Bombay's small Jewish community.
"Once they told me how upset they were with the name, I decided to change it," he said. "I don't want to do business by hurting people."
Sablok said he had not yet decided on a new name.
Hitler's Cross opened five days ago and serves pizza, salad and pastries in Navi Mumbai, a suburb of Bombay, also known as Mumbai.
On Thursday, Bombay's Jewish community welcomed Sablok's decision to rename his restaurant.
"He realized he made a mistake and listened to reason," said Elijah Jacob, a community leader. "Some people have wrong conceptions of history and he realized it was not appropriate."
Bombay's Jews had called the theme of the restaurant offensive and demanded a name change. There are about 5,500 Jews in India, with about 4,500 of them living in Bombay.
"I never wanted to hurt people's feelings," said Sablok.
Some Indians regard Hitler as just another historical figure and have little knowledge about the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews were systematically killed during World War II.
The swastika symbol, which was appropriated by the Nazis, was originally an ancient Hindu symbol and it is displayed all over India to bring luck.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/08/24/international/i065420D34.DTL
I wonder what he will come up with next.
Pol Pot's Palace
The nazis had whole divisions dedicated to investigating the links between hindu philosophy and aryan superiority. Ideas such like the caste system appealed to them greatly and were intended to be applied to race on a global scale.
The Nazis also believed that the aryan race had had acient ancestral links to the peoples of india, however they had lost their whiteness due to intermixing with the natives.
A guy in my post grad history honors course is doing some serious research into these conections and I am interested to find out what he discovers.