Should this Hitler trend be allowed.Is it politically correct to wear these items.

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

Hitler T-shirts are a Nazi trend for Thai youth

Sick images ... some young Thais enjoy 'Hitler chic'




Published: Today at 11:30


VILE T-shirts featuring cartoons of Nazi monster Adolf Hitler have become the latest fashion must-have in Thailand.






Boutiques in the capital Bangkok have begun selling the garments showing the dictator as a Teletubby, panda or Ronald McDonald.
The tops, costing between £4 and £7.50, have sparked outrage with visitors.
But one vendor tried to justify selling the items — saying they are very popular with the local youth.
The shop owner named only as Hut said: "Some foreigners get upset [when they see the T-shirts on sale] they come to my shop and complain.
"It's not that I like Hitler. But he looks funny and the shirts are very popular with young people."

Vile designs ... Hitler T-shirts on sale in Bangkok
Tibor Krausz / CNNGO



The Israeli ambassador to Thailand is among the T-shirts' critics. Itzhak Shoham said: "You don't want to see memories of the Nazi period trivialized in this manner.
"It hurts the feelings of every Jew and every civilized person."
And the cartoon Hitler is not just limited to clothing. Tacky statues of the tyrant have also appeared in Bangkok's streets.
Hitler's evil Nazi regime is estimated to have exterminated six million Jews in the Holocaust.


Tasteless images ... Hitler is transformed into a cartoon character and panda
Tibor Krausz / CNNGO




Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, which monitors neo-Nazi activities worldwide, agrees that manifestations of Nazi chic in the region largely come down to sheer ignorance.
But he insisted locals should wise up about Hitler and his harmful ideology. He said: "If the Nazis had won the war, Hitler's racist ideology would have eventually targeted all races he deemed inferior, including Asians."

Offensive ... a Thai youth poses next to a statue of Ronald McDonald as Hitler
Tibor Krausz / CNNGO






OK so here goes are these people having fun at Hitlers expence or are they being hurtfull to Hitlers victims.Are we being too politically correct condeming this fashion craze.Whats wrong with teletubby Hitler t shirts.Is the Israeli embasy over reacting.

"It hurts the feelings of every Jew and every civilized person."

It does not hurt my feelings am i uncivilized?No 1 likes Hitler but surely these t shirts are fun and the Israeli embassys being over sensitive and controlling telling people what to wear.
Are we being controlled how to dress how to think how to vote how to shop a bit too much in this world of political correctness..

[irontaino]

OMG that Hitler in the panda suit is ing adorable. I want one in a man's size.

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

OMG that Hitler in the panda suit is ing adorable. I want one in a man's size.

He is cute.

[magpie]

They are kind of funny, I don,t think the late Adolf would like them though

[Arbitrary Crusader]

OMG that Hitler in the panda suit is ing adorable. I want one in a man's size.

Same. Seriously, Imma wear one day.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

I guess it's normal for people who never experienced the actual policies of Hitler...

[Simon Cashmere]

I guess it's normal for people who never experienced the actual policies of Hitler...

Which is nearly everyone. I'm ambivalent about all of this. One thing you wont see is Jews rioting in the streets and making threats because of these t-shirts. The modern world lives in a hyper alert state seeking a reason for the right to be offended. People are way too sensitive, and then force apologies and the like. Its such a huge waste of time and effort.

You might remember the show Hogan's Heroes. People were saying, it can't be done, its offensive to those who suffered under the Nazis. Klerner Wemperer (Colonel Klink) and John Banner (Sgt Schultz) both always argued strongly for the show, and they had the right to. Banner fled Austria as a Jew in 1938 and ended up in the United States. Klerner Wemperer fled from Cologne in 1935 to the US as well. Now both these guys could have done the sorry tour and said how evil Hogans Heroes was and how there was no right for anyone to make that show because they were Jews who fled the Nazis - but they didn't, they gave us some of the best classic television that there is. I'd like to think that their example is the better one to have about all of this.

I watched Louis Theroux in one of his specials meet with some Californian skinheads, and these people were absolute tards, and had a whole heap of SS banners and skulls about.

The stuff they had to say, was just idiotic. At one point becoming threatening because they decided that Louis Theroux was jewish, even though he isn't, although he refused to say one way or another.

But I still believe in free speech. And that includes, this sort of thing. Say you don't like it or whatever, but I wouldn't ban it. The EU would and has.

[Holger Danske]

I guess it's normal for people who never experienced the actual policies of Hitler...

And you have I guess?

[Primo]

And you have I guess?

Of course he has - Thats his birthday: March 28, 1992 (19)
We all know that greece was still suffering under Hitler at that time. And that the germans should still pay for those crimes.

[Claudius Gothicus]

Meh, it's japan isn't it? Japanese culture is strange.

EDIT: Thailand? well, I'm pretty sure they imported the weird nazi-hitler trend from Japan.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

Meh, it's japan isn't it? Japanese culture is strange.

EDIT: Thailand? well, I'm pretty sure they imported the weird nazi-hitler trend from Japan.

No, they didn't.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Meh, it's japan isn't it? Japanese culture is strange.

EDIT: Thailand? well, I'm pretty sure they imported the weird nazi-hitler trend from Japan.

Why do you hate Japan so much?

[Greek Firethrower]

"It hurts the feelings of every Jew and every civilized person."

It hurts the feelings of the most Germans.
It's in Gremany not allowed, too.
I don't understand why some people think that this could be a must-have. It's only terrifying and disgusting.

[AqD]

It hurts the feelings of the most Germans.
It's in Gremany not allowed, too.
I don't understand why some people think that this could be a must-have. It's only terrifying and disgusting.

The only reason some people feel hurt is that they are scared of these things and associated memory from the past. It's stupid, like some blacks hate to be called because they actually believe the term has something to do with discrimination.

*sigh*

[Primo]

It is the same as with the Internet memes of Hitler - they are morally wrong, but many think them to be funny. I am against them. They should be forbidden.

[Bobz]

It is the same as with the Internet memes of Hitler - they are morally wrong, but many think them to be funny. I am against them. They should be forbidden.

We should ban clothes now? Sounds rather Hitlerish to me....

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

In the Thai capital’s latest outbreak of Nazi chic, pandas, Teletubbies and Ronald have metamorphosed into cutesy alter egos of the Führer, who seems to exert a childlike fascination over some young Thais.
With any luck you can spot trendy young souls strutting around in T-shirts bearing cartoonish images of the Nazi dictator.
In a particularly popular design, Hitler is transformed into a cartoonish Ronald McDonald, the fast-food chain’s clown mascot, sporting a bouffant cherry-red hairdo and a stern look.
On another T-shirt the Führer is shown in a lovely panda costume with a Nazi armband. On yet another he appears as a pink Teletubby with doe eyes, jug ears and a pink swastika for an antenna. He pouts petulantly like a spoiled brat while flashing the Nazi salute.
Shirts cost from 200 baht to 370 baht (US$7-12) apiece, and some come in matching outfits for couples. Adolf McDonald’s partner is a transvestite with fuchsia hair, lipstick, long lashes and a timid Mona Lisa smile. Panda Adolf’s manlier doppelganger sports a brown stormtrooper uniform.

Cute or disrespectful? These T-shirts might be popular with the locals, but the Israeli ambassador isn't laughing.


Not amused

“Some foreigners get upset [when they see my T-shirts on sale] -- they come to my shop and complain,” acknowledges the owner of Seven Star, a small clothing shop at Terminal 21, a new designer mall in central Bangkok on Sukhumvit Road which is a popular tourist haunt.
He’s a 30-something fellow who identifies himself by his nickname “Hut”, and is a graduate of a local university’s arts program. Hut does brisk business selling his T-shirts. Seven Star's most popular items, Hut notes, are his McHitler designs, which he sells alongside his caricatures of Michael Jackson, Che Guevara and Kim Jong-Il.
Standing invitingly outside his shop is a large dummy of Hitler as Ronald with its motorized left arm going up and down in the Nazi salute. Thai shoppers love posing gleefully with it.
“It’s not that I like Hitler,” Hut insists. “But he looks funny and the shirts are very popular with young people.”
As Hut well knows, some foreigners are not amused. Israel’s local ambassador is one of them.
“You don’t want to see memories of the Nazi period trivialized in this manner,” stresses Ambassador Itzhak Shoham, whose embassy is right behind Terminal 21. “It hurts the feelings of every Jew and every civilized person.”

Shirts like these have been a popular buy among some young Thais.

Shoham recently remonstrated with Hut. “I said to him, “I don’t mind the doll; just take the face off,’” the ambassador says.

Hut’s McHitler doll's face is now covered by a Lucha Libre wrestler’s mask.

Nazi chic bonanza

Across town at another fashion mall, another small shop hawks its own cutesy caricatures of Hitler plastered on T-shirts. Panda Adolf takes pride of place among impressionistic Smurfs, pop stars and Japanese manga characters.
“Hitler shirts are very popular, especially with teenage boys,” notes the shop’s 30-year-old owner, whose family operates a clothing factory.
Meanwhile, on Bangkok’s backpacker haven, Khao San Road, other T-shirt designs boast Photoshopped prints of the Führer, including one depicting him sunbathing naked on a tropical beach.
Shoppers looking for Nazi flags, reproduction Third Reich propaganda posters, pennants with Iron Crosses and Nazi eagles and faux SS crash helmets can find them at the Chatuchak Weekend Market, where they’re on sale alongside Bob Marley portraits and Rastafarian accoutrements.
Some foreign tourists see such Nazi chic as just a peculiar aspect of Thai youth culture.
“I guess one could say ‘boy, it’s a pretty ignorant world and kids today,’” notes Mark Goldberg, from New Orleans. “I doubt people who are [into these designs] would even know their significance.”

A Teletubby has never looked so sinister.

That’s a safe bet. Most young Thais seemingly know precious little about the Nazis and their crimes beyond their eye-catching pageantry. And so they are drawn to Hitler and his regime’s hallucinogenic visual propaganda.

Last September in the northern city of Chiang Mai, a group of high school students showed up for sport day in homemade Nazi uniforms, complete with swastika armbands and toy guns. Leading them was a teenage girl dressed in a faux SS uniform with a fake Hitler mustache.
Locals cheered the students merrily from sidewalks as foreign tourists reportedly looked on aghast.
In 2007, hundreds of students at a Bangkok school staged a similar Nazi-themed costume parade.
Following international outcries, teachers at both schools apologized, saying they had no idea the students had planned to dress up as Nazis.
In 2009, a waxworks museum in the seaside resort town of Pattaya advertised itself with a giant billboard featuring the Führer with the legend in Thai: “Hitler is not dead!”
Cue another hue and cry. The museum’s managers quickly pulled down the billboard, insisting they meant no offence.
“It’s a lack of exposure to history,” notes Harry Soicher, a Romanian who teaches at a Bangkok high school. “If you don’t live in Thailand, you may find it hard to believe they really mean no harm.”

“You don’t want to see memories of the Nazi period trivialized in this manner,” says Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Shoham.


Nazi chic cavalcade

In Thais’ defense, the Nazi chic phenomenon is hardly limited to their country. The misuse of Nazi symbols for fashion purposes has also been common from India to Japan.
Some years ago 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan sold dolls and key chains with Hitler’s likeness. In Hong Kong a clothing store chain once decorated a shop with Nazi flags and banners. In South Korea and Japan Nazi-style clothing is often a part of cosplay, which sees young people dress up as their favorite Japanese comic book characters.
Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, which monitors neo-Nazi activities worldwide, agrees that manifestations of Nazi chic in the region largely come down to sheer ignorance. Yet locals should wise up about Hitler and his pernicious ideological legacy, he insists.
“If the Nazis had won the war, Hitler’s racist ideology would have eventually targeted all races he deemed inferior, including Asians,” Cooper notes.

I would imagine these t shirts would sell well in the middle east.I could make billions all i have to do is make them and sell them to Arabs and Iranians.Anybody from Thailand want to explain how this trend started and why? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=3ACT522Js7M

[Condottiere 40K]

True Nazis would be outraged at this sacrilege.

The Japanese cutify everything.

[justicar5]

And the world went..Meh. It's not the politics, or the policies, it's just a very bad taste fashion trend.

[(s)AINT]

Obviously it's nothing like an original imagine of hitler, idk, something like this on a T shirt would make me think different:

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