Because people will do anything for money, one Henry Mulyana has opened a Nazi-themed cafe in the Indonesian city of Bandung. An entire wall is decorated with swastikas and Hitler memorabilia, and the staff are asked to wear SS uniforms (Yep, those pictures at the top are the inspiration and the modern cafe, waitstaff out front in the latter). Which means someone thought it was a good idea to open this place, other people actually took jobs in which they dress like Nazis on a daily basis, and enough people frequent such an establishment as to keep it open for two years and counting. And here I was getting all optimistic and idealistic about the human race.
Mulyana claims that he has no political message, but merely wanted to use Nazi memorabilia to attract customers. While it’s disturbing that swastikas and Hitler iconography attract customers at all, Mulyana there are many who feel that using Nazi iconography goes a step too far in the eternal quest to make a buck. Bandung’s mayor, for example, points out that “Those symbols are internationally recognized to represent violence and racism.” In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find symbols that represent those better.
It’s one thing to be interested in history, to study artifacts and try to understand what happened in the past. It is entirely another to hire people to dress up as one some of history’s greatest monsters in the interest of acting out some sort of Third Reich roleplay fantasy. the very existence of the cafe, though, and its apparent success, do raise the question of whether such a cafe have been able to open in the United States. And if it did, could it, too have gone largely unnoticed for two years?
Mulyana has been asked to temporarily close the cafe, and will be questioned about his motives, specifically whether or not he meant to inspire hatred and racism.
(via Salon, image via SoldatenKaffee)
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