History,
for Indonesians, is a subject best ignored, Antony Sutton writes on the
controversy surrounding the Nazi-themed cafe in Bandung
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| Soldatenkaffe owner Henry Mulyana in front of his establishment. Henry emphasized on Saturday that the cafe was not instructive of his political views. (AFP Photo/Adek Berry) |
It’s hard
not to feel a little sympathy for Henry Mulyana, the embattled owner of
Soldatenkaffe, the Nazi-themed café in Bandung dripping with memorabilia Adolf
Hitler himself would have approved of.
Here we
have a businessman being forced to close down his enterprise in the face of a
hysterical online onslaught once news of his café’s decorations had gone viral.
Henry gets
painted as some kind of ogre. He’s portrayed as a Nazi revisionist when in
fact, he is just an unwitting victim of two forces far greater than him:
Western cultural morals and an Indonesian education system that has for long
not been fit for purpose.
There was
recently a massive outcry when students at Chulalongkorn University, one of
Thailand’s most prestigious higher education institutions, had painted a mural
featuring a number of superheroes including Hitler.
It may have
been tongue in cheek but it was not thought to be so in the west, where Hitler
and the era he spawned are not viewed with any kind of humor. It was Europe,
both east and west, that bore the brunt of Hitler’s excesses and the post-war
generations are determined not to repeat, let alone glorify, them.
We in the
west are brought up with the war and its horrors through movies depicting
cheeky British soldiers up against the robotic Third Reich, and we have the
white tombstones that tell the awful truth of one man’s twisted ambitions. We
can visit Auschwitz and see the realities of Hitler’s agendas, with the camp’s
mocking ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (‘Labor Makes [You] Free’) sign greeting visitors.
 |
Henry
Mulyana, foreground, operates the Soldatenkaffee
in Bandung, which is decorated
with Nazi paraphanelia
and has staff dressed in costumes reminiscent of the SS.
(JG Photo/Yuli Krisna)
|
Hitler, if
he appears at all, will simply be a periphery figure.
Henry
insists his idea was just a theme for a restaurant, nothing more sinister than
that. Perhaps the issue here is not the Nazi memorabilia so much as the
Western-led reaction, which is ironic considering that the west themselves can
also be accused of insensitivity toward the Holocaust.
A famous
English comedy, ‘Fawlty Towers,’ had a skit where the manic hotel manager,
Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, welcomes some German guests before
slipping into a faux German accent to tell his guests not to “mention the war”
before goose-stepping round the hotel reception.
A few years
later, an English football club held a player’s Christmas party at a local
Indian restaurant. The players came in fancy dress, with one coming as Adolf
Hitler. He was later photographed next to the waiters giving the Nazi salute.
Recently, a
photograph of a restaurant in Thailand went viral. It showed the familiar
Colonel Sanders livery but instead of the bearded, southern US gentleman there
was a stern image of Adolf Hitler.
Unlike the
incidents that happened in Europe, the media went into a frenzy over Thailand’s
tribute to the Third Reich. Here was a Bangkok restaurant called Hitler Fried
Chicken, look how the Thais don’t understand the latest gaffe they have made.
The ironic thing is, the comments made by western media parroted a subtle,
patronizing, even racist undertone. The real KFC said they were consulting with
lawyers.
In 2005,
Prince Harry, brother of William, the Duke of Cambridge and heir to the British
throne, went to a costume party dressed in a German military uniform complete
with a swastika armband. The last time I checked Harry is still a prince, but
Henry the businessman no longer has a business.
Yet surely
the Prince had no excuse for his choice of costume, as he was brought up to
understand the war ethos in the finest schools and within a culture that
condemns the glorification of Hitler and his Nazis.
And while
the screamers are still screaming their rage at poor Henry, perhaps they should
redirect their attention to the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division.
The
division is a war re-enacting group. This one in particular has their members
dress up as Nazis and pretend to kill the allied powers during their re-enacted
battles. They are based in the northeast of the United States and are just one
of many.
Despite the
group’s blatant disrespect for the events of the era, however, no one seems to
be a in a rush to condemn them or shut them down.
When there
was outcry in the Islamic world when cartoons of the prophet Muhammad were
printed in newspapers, the west hid behind the ideas of freedom of the press
and freedom of speech.
Unfortunately,
no such claims are being made for Henry this time — there is no one rushing to
defend a small businessman simply looking to find a niche for his business.
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