The West vs The Rest

History, for Indonesians, is a subject best ignored, Antony Sutton writes on the controversy surrounding the Nazi-themed cafe in Bandung

Jakarta Globe, Antony Sutton, July 22, 2013

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)

Indonesians, on the other hand, and the Thais for that matter, aren’t. History for them is a subject best ignored — a never ending monotony of names to be remembered and dates to be regurgitated on demand. There is no context and no perspective, just a state-centric message to be memorized for tests and forgotten straight after.

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.

Related Article:

Nazi-Themed Cafe in Indonesia to Reopen Sans Swastikas